Tate Modern- Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power

The exhibition includes works starting from 1963, when the civil rights movement started. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X are associated with many of the pieces in the exhibition. The works were challenging and confronting the attitudes towards black people at the time. A broad range of works such as ‘vibrant paintings, powerful murals, collage, photography, revolutionary clothing designs and sculptures made with Black hair, melted records, and tights’ are exhibited. The majority of visitors were black people (70 percent) which are very rare sight.

The exhibition included critiques of Abstract Expressionists works which said that their work did not truly represent what a black Art work should be, due to use of bright colours. However, these were the works that I appreciated the most. They were not as shocking as the more provocative pieces such as Benny Andrews’ work which was directly aimed at White Americans. Additionally, they were in contrast with the majority other works in the exhibition which were dark or monotone. This showed that black work could be just as colourful and free. The large difference in approaches in Black Art shows the disagreements between artists in topics and thought. Also the clashes in the civil rights movement between peaceful protest( Martin Luther King) and violent protest(Malcolm X/ Black Power) was the biggest demarcation lines in the exhibition and the ideology behind the works.