Lubaina Himid
(1954 - ) |
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Art Work
| Name: |
Lubaina Himid |
| Gender: |
Female |
| Place of Birth: |
Zanzibar, Tanzania |
| Nationality: |
Tazmanian |
| Birth: |
1954 |
| Death: |
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| Website: |
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| Past Auctions: |
Click Here |
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Quick Facts
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| Fine Art Profession(s): |
Painting
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Biography
Daughter of a Comoran teacher and a Lancashire textile designer, Lubaina Himid was born in Zanzibar, Tanzania. She trained in Theatre Design at Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal College of Art. Painting in clear, vibrant colors, she weaves together stories of voyages, both actual and interior, and histories, both national and personal.
Himid is concerned with the legacy of colonialism and the politics of mapping. The paintings in her exhibition Beach House (Wrexham Library and Art Centre and tour, 1995) were of buildings on shores. For Himid, writing in the catalogue, 'The beach house is a site of conflict. Invasion and departure, Lost hope, abandoned lives, decimated civilizations', its role in the slave trade glossed over by the tourist industry. In her catalogue essay, artist Maud Suiter linked Himid's work to Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea (London 1966) which reworked Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (London 1847) to tell the story of the first Mrs. Rochester, the 'mad' woman from the colonies. The canvases shown in Venetian Maps (Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, 1997} uncovered the African presence in a city that was one of the international centers of trade and culture. The Tate Collection's Between the two my heart is balanced is a transcription of a painting by the Victorian artist James Tissot, his white sitters replaced by two black women.
Himid was one of the very few women artists to be included in the Hayward Gallery's exhibition The Other Story (1989-90). Part of a long overlooked history of black women artists, she has curated exhibitions redressing the balance. |
Samples of Work
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