The Thin Black Line

Institute for Contemporary Arts, London 1985

In the early 1980s three exhibitions in London curated by Lubaina Himid – Five Black Women at the Africa Centre (1983), Black Women Time Now at Battersea Arts Centre (1983-4) and The Thin Black Line at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (1985) – marked the arrival on the British art scene of a radical generation of young Black and Asian women artists. They challenged their collective invisibility in the art world and engaged with the social, cultural, political and aesthetic issues of the time.

Lh_3_women_detail_ed.29843847_large
Three Women at the Fountain – detail

 

LH_3_women_ed_.29843911_large
Three Women at the Fountain – detail

 

Three Women at the Fountain - detail
Three Women at the Fountain – detail

 

Three Women at the Fountain - detail
Three Women at the Fountain – detail

 

Carrot Piece - ICA 1984
The Carrot Piece – ICA 1984

In the early 1980s three exhibitions in London curated by Lubaina Himid – Five Black Women at the Africa Centre (1983), Black Women Time Now at Battersea Arts Centre (1983-4) and The Thin Black Line at the Institute for Contemporary Arts (1985) – marked the arrival on the British art scene of a radical generation of young Black and Asian women artists. They challenged their collective invisibility in the art world and engaged with the social, cultural, political and aesthetic issues of the time.

 

 

The Thin Black Line