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Between the Two my Hearts (sic) is Balanced

Postcard relating to an exhibition, 2012
Published by: Tate
Year published: 2012
Unpaginated.

image of Between the Two my Hearts (sic) is Balanced

Postcard of Lubaina Himid’s Between the Two my Heart is Balanced, 1991, acrylic on canvas, 121.8 x 152.4 cm. The postcard was one of a 16 postcard pack issued as part of the merchandising of the Tate’s 2012 Migrations exhibition. This work of Himid’s was included in the exhibition. The pack contained cards of work by Benjamin West, Joseph Van Aken, James Tissot, Marcus Gheeraerts II, Jacob Kramer, Oskar Kokoschka, Kurt Schwitters, Sonia Boyce, William Rothenstein, Lubaina Himid, Jan Siberechts, Frank Bowling, Keith Piper, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, and John Singer Sargent. On the reverse of the postcard, the painting’s title was misspelt as Between the Two my Hearts is Balanced

The work was described, by one curator as follows: “Between the Two My Heart is Balanced is a reconception of a work by French painter James Tissot (1836-1902), which depicts two European women in a boat with a soldier. One woman is ignored, while the other holds the attention of the soldier. In Himid’s version, two women of African descent appear without the soldier’s presence. Swathed in African fabric, the women hold each other’s attention as a visible trail materializes in the boat’s wake. Himid’s boldly eloquent , painterly style is skillfully employed in her complex historical revisions. The stunning Revenge series might be viewed as an elegy for those lost during the Middle Passage, whose histories have been ignored, as well as a celebration of those who continue to survive.” Mora J. Beauchamp-Byrd, on Revenge (page 34 of London Bridge: Late Twentieth Century British Art and the Routes of ‘National Culture’, chapter in Transforming the Crown: African, Asian & Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966-1996, Caribbean Cultural Center, New York, 1997, pp. 16 - 45).

The Tissot painting referred to by Beauchamp-Byrd is Portsmouth Dockyard (c. 1877). Both the Tissot painting, and this Himid painting figured in the Tate exhibition of 2012, Migrations.

Related people

»  Lubaina Himid MBE, CBE

Born, 1954 in Zanzibar, Tanzania

Related exhibitions

Related venues

»  Rochdale Art Gallery

Rochdale, United Kingdom

»  Royal Festival Hall

London, United Kingdom

»  Tate Britain

London, United Kingdom