Presenting ‘Entangled Past 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change’ by The Royal Academy of Arts

The Royal Academy of Arts presents Entangled Pasts, 1768–now: Art, Colonialism and Change, an ambitious exhibition bringing together over 100 major contemporary and historic artworks as part of
a conversation about art and its role in shaping narratives around empire, enslavement, resistance,
abolition and colonialism. Spanning over 250 years, from the foundation of the Royal Academy in
1768 to the present and informed by the RA’s ongoing research into its links with colonialism, the
exhibition engages over 50 artists connected to the institution to explore the relationship between art and our understanding of the past.

An exceptional variety of art has been brought together including important international and UK
loans as well as works from the RA’s collection and archive, ranging from large-scale painting,
sculpture, immersive installation and film to intimate works on paper and poetry, presenting new
contexts in which these pieces can be interpreted and understood. Artworks by leading contemporary
artists including Frank Bowling RA, Sonia Boyce RA, Lubaina Himid RA, Isaac Julien RA, Hew Locke
RA, Yinka Shonibare RA and Kara Walker Hon RA are shown in dialogue with works by artists from the past, including Joshua Reynolds PRA, Thomas Gainsborough RA, John Singleton Copley RA and
J.M.W. Turner RA – tracing connections across time and place to reflect on how art is entangled with
colonial histories and revealing the international underpinnings of ‘British’ art.

The exhibition was programmed in 2021 in response to the urgent public debates about the
relationship between artistic representation and imperial histories. These debates were prompted by
the Black Lives Matter protests and the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol in 2020.
Additionally, the RA’s Summer Exhibition 2021, coordinated by Yinka Shonibare with the theme
‘Reclaiming Magic’, aimed to “transcend the Western canon which formed the foundations of the
Royal Academy”. Shonibare’s strong curatorial statement inspired the RA to organise an exhibition
that looks outwards, creating links with people and places around the globe, with a strong emphasis
on British artists of the African, Caribbean and Indian diasporas, for whom an exploration of
colonialism and its legacies has been fundamental.

Entangled Pasts is presented across the RA’s Main Galleries, organised into three thematic sections
that intertwine narratives across time. Sites of Power examines absence and presence in Grand
Manner portraiture and history painting, reflecting on the decades surrounding the foundation of the
RA, which saw both the height of Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade and the
emergence of the movement for abolition, as well as new networks of artistic patronage associated
with the East India Company. Beauty and Difference traces the proliferation of aesthetic norms via
drawings, prints, poetry, sculpture and photography in works that embody the moral contradictions
of the Victorian age, during which abolition became a fashionable theme for artists while Britain
continued aggressive colonial expansion. Crossing Waters takes an international perspective on the
widespread legacies of the Middle Passage, including its far-reaching ecological consequences,
through immersive spaces that offer time to reflect on our common history, its ramifications, and
parallel issues today.

Highlights include historic portraits such as Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of a Man, probably Francis
Barber, c.1770 (The Menil Collection, Houston) and Thomas Gainsborough’s Ignatius Sancho, 1768
(The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), which is shown alongside contemporary portraiture
including Kerry James Marshall Hon RA’s Scipio Moorhead, Portrait of Himself, 1776, 2007 (Paul &
De Gray) and Sonia Boyce’s Lay Back, Keep Quiet and Think of What Made Britain So Great, 1986
(Arts Council Collection, London). Genre painting and sculpture including Johan Zoffany RA’s The
Family of Sir William Young, 1767- 69 (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) and Francis Harwood’s Bust
of a Man, 1758 (The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles) convey the construction and upholding of
racial hierarchies, while John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark, 1778 (Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston), an allegory of transatlantic politics, is amongst work that demonstrates that empire was a
crucial subject for artists and viewers. This contemporary history painting caused a sensation when
a version of it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1778 and has not been shown outside
Boston since 1993.

Further highlights include Hew Locke’s major installation Armada, 2017-2019 (Tate, London), on
display in London for the first time, consisting of a giant flotilla of model boats recalling different
periods and places; and Isaac Julien’s film installation Lessons of the Hour, 2019 (courtesy the
artist and Victoria Miro, London), a poetic meditation on the life and times of Frederick Douglass,
an African American writer, orator, abolitionist and a freed slave, including excerpts of his most
arresting speeches.

Past works of Empire in India are in conversation with works by contemporary artists of South Asian
heritage including Shahzia Sikander, Mohini Chandra and the Singh Twins. The ocean as a site of
mourning and collective memory is evoked through significant painting and sculpture including Frank
Bowling’s Middle Passage, 1970 (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa), Ellen Gallagher Hon RA’s
Whale Falls, 2017 (The Ekard Collection) and El Anatsui Hon RA’s Akua’s Surviving Children, 1996
(courtesy the artist and October Gallery, London), as well as John Akomfrah RA’s panoramic, threescreen film installation Vertigo Sea, 2015 (Courtesy Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery).

The exhibition culminates with sculptures on a human scale, including I’d Rather Stand, 2022, a work by recent RA Schools graduate Olu Ogunnaike and Lubaina Himid’s Naming the Money, 2004
(International Slavery Museum, Liverpool), an expansive installation of life-size painted cut-out
figures and an ode to human resilience, community and creativity. A major new sculpture by Tavares
Strachan entitled The First Supper, 2021-23 (courtesy the artist and Glenstone Museum, Potomac,
Maryland) will be on view in the RA’s Annenberg courtyard.

Entangled Pasts explores how deeply the effects of colonialism have permeated the RA and its
history, while also looking forward, inviting viewers to consider how conversations around these
legacies might unfold in the future. The exhibition, together with the catalogue, talks, events and
online content, is a forum for acknowledgment, reflection and debate, taking the next step towards
necessary change.

Dates: Saturday 3 February 2024 – Sunday 28 April 2024
10am – 6pm Tuesday to Sunday
10am – 9pm Friday

Tickets can be booked in advance online (royalacademy.org.uk) or over the phone (0207
300 8090).

Written by Nura Arooj

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