"What I do, it's about questioning my history, my place... People came here for a better life, I'm not sure they found it... There seems to be this constant search for a place to rest: somewhere you're not fighting against society in some way" - Hurvin Anderson.
Untitled (Beach Scene), 2003
Hurvin Anderson is one of my favourite contemporary painters, and it is heartening to see that he has been given a larger retrospective at a major British institution like Tate Britain. I admire Anderson's depictions of significant elements of his British/Caribbean heritage that are so similar to my own, executed in a loose, painterly style. The paintings here depict the duality of being raised in Britain yet having roots in the Caribbean, and that sense of uncertainty about belonging. The Britain of Anderson's childhood and youth in the 1970s and 80s was a dangerous place to be black. Immigrant families were made to feel criminalised and unwelcome. There was an unapologetic racist rhetoric from certain right-wing politicians and organisations like the National Front, as well as an institutionally racist, heavy-handed style of policing involving stop-and-search. Anderson's paintings are not political per se, but it important to know the background in which they have been forged. This background unfortunately is still relevant and topical today. History is repeating itself with a resurgence of this same racial division, hate and rhetoric with the recent death of Henry Nowack in the news headlines and the subsequent race-led protests and riots in parts of the UK targeting immigrant communities and burning them out of their houses. The Black Audio Film Collective’s Handsworth Songs (1986), directed by John Akomfrah as a response to the uprisings in the 1980s featuring archival news footage, photographs, sound and poetic narration into an hour-long film, is included in this retrospective as a companion piece at the artist’s own request. The film acts as a context for viewing the paintings, and gives visitors a better understanding of why Anderson has spent his career travelling back and forth between Britain and the Caribbean. Anderson paints places, spaces and people that are rooted in reality but could equally be both real and imagined. Lush tropical landscapes inhabited by exotic palm trees represent the Caribbean, and grey, urban, municipal buildings in Anderson's native Birmingham are captured on canvas in a series of painterly, gestural strokes. The almost abstract expressionistic looseness of the foliage in the landscapes is curbed by the severity of the hard-edged geometric patterns of fences, security grilles and railings, which makes for a visually appealing contrast especially with the artist's colour choices. Again there is that duality of the sense of belonging, the haves and their luxurious properties versus the have-nots. Many of the paintings are derived from photographs and have an unfinished quality as if they are works in progress. Anderson's output reminds me of many of Peter Blake's paintings in this respect. There is a studied unhurriedness about them, You get the impression that there is as much looking and thinking as actual painting going on by Anderson in the studio. Like Blake, Anderson also works from photographic source material. The black and white painting of the lady posed in a floral dress against a busy background evokes a strong sense of nostalgia and would be recognisable to anybody living in an Afro-Caribbean/black British household of the 1970s. The painting is taken from a photo taken in the home most likely by a self-styled photographer who would have been a friend of the family with no qualifications other than an interest in photography and a professional camera, who would actually charge for this service. This is very much in the tradition of photographers like Malian Malik Sidibé (1935–2016), who would record portraits of African communities creating a huge personal archive in the process. Similar interesting archives of black Afro-Caribbean communities would also be created in this way by unsung local photographers. Also important to Anderson's oeuvre and specific to the black experience is the culture of the black barbershop. An exclusively male space/environment, a sanctum where black men can relax and be themselves free of society's judgements, able to celebrate blackness and black leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X as depicted in several of these paintings. I still truly believe that Anderson was the more deserving of the artists nominated for the Turner Prize in 2017, but maybe I'm biased. Despite not winning on that occasion Anderson's work has continued to develop and become increasingly recognised and respected in the art world achieving secondary art market sales in the millions of pounds. The above picture Untitled (Beach Scene), 2003, by Anderson I came across at the recent Sotheby's Modern & Contemporary auction and it carried a pre-sale estimate of £1,800,000 to £2, 500,000! On the strength of this retrospective you can see why.
Hurvin Anderson
until 23rd August
Tate Britain
Millbank
London
SW1P
