Guildhall Art Gallery

London, United Kingdom
Official website: Guildhall Art Gallery

London’s Guildhall Art Gallery was the venue for No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990, a sizeable exhibition and archive project, the centrepiece of which was a six-month exhibition that took place 10 July 2015 – 24 January 2016. The visual art component of the exhibition featured work by Frank Bowling, Sonia Boyce, Winston Branch, Chila Kumari Burman, Eddie Chambers, Paul Dash, Sokari Douglas Camp, Uzo Egonu, Denzil Forrester, George Fowokan Kelly, Lubaina Himid, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede, Claudette Johnson, Tam Joseph, Kofi Kayiga, Errol Lloyd, John Lyons, Ronald Moody, Keith Piper, and Aubrey Williams. The exhibition was broad in its historical scope (1960 – 1990) and range of artists whose work was represented. The exhibition aligned itself to, and had a pronounced interplay with, not only the struggles immigrant communities in Britain, particularly during the 1960s to 1980, but also some of the manifestations of these struggles, such as the Black bookshop, and Black British publishing initiatives.

No Colour Bar also commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Huntley Archives at the LMA, managed by the Friends of the Huntley Archives at London Metropolitan Archives (FHALMA). The exhibition took its impetus from the life works of activists and publishers Eric and Jessica Huntley and the Bogle L’Ouverture Press, a publishing house as well as a pioneering Black bookshop and cultural hub that they founded in 1969.

Subsequent iterations of the exhibition were seen at Cubitt Art Gallery, 10 March - 12 April 2016; Hackney Museum, 7 October 2016 - 21 January 2017; Black Cultural Archives 13 October 2016 - 24 January 2017. From the section “Beyond the Galery: On Tour”, page 89 of the No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990catalogue: “Following the end of the full-scale exhibition at Guildhall Art Gallery, the show went on a short tour from March 2016 at three partner venues: Cubitt Art Gallery, Hackney Museum and the Black Cultural Archives. Reimagined by curators, Michael McMillan and Gary Stewart, elements from No Colour Bar were repurposed as a pop-up exhibition, a digital Walter Rodney Bookshop installation and an installation of framed Bogle-L’Ouverture Publication book covers.

»  No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960-1990 catalogue

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 2018