Whoever Heard Of A Black Artist? Britain’s Hidden Art History

Brenda Emmanus follows acclaimed artist Sonia Boyce as she leads a team preparing a new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, highlighting artists of African and Asian descent who have helped to shape the history of British art.

Sonia and her team have spent the past three years scouring public art archives to find out just how many works of art by artists of African and Asian descent the nation really owns. They have found nearly 2,000, but many of these pieces have rarely, if ever, been displayed before. We go into the stores to rediscover these works - and more importantly, meet groundbreaking artists from the Windrush generation, 60s counterculture revolutionaries and the black arts movement of the 80s.

Contributors include Rasheed Araeen, Lubaina Himid, Yinka Shonibare, the BLK Art Group and Althea McNish.

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