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Zoe Whitley, Curator, International Art, Tate ©Tate Photography

THERE IS a genuine pre-emptive excitement surrounding the Soul of a Nation exhibition – which starts at the Tate Modern next week – as it marks the first time such a project has taken place at the London art gallery.

What did it mean to be a black artist in the USA during the Civil Rights Movement and at the birth of Black Power? What was art’s purpose, and who was its audience?

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, is a landmark exhibition exploring how these issues played out among and beyond African American artists from 1963 to 1983.

Talking to Life and Style about bringing this idea to life, curators Zoe Whitley and Mark Godfrey said it was important to help shine a light on the diverse stories of those who told their perspective of that period in time through their art.

“I’ve been working at the Tate for 10 years and one of my responsibilities is growing the American collection,” Mark said.

“Back in the 1970s and 1980s when Tate curators bought American artists’ work, they bought the artists they knew, people like Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd.

“In thinking back on how we could grow that collection, I began thinking about African American artists who are really important, but either their work wasn’t being shown in Europe, or the Tate curators weren’t travelling to the States enough to see it. A series of major acquisitions led to the show that we’re talking about.”

The show begins in 1963, with the formation of the Spiral Group, a New York–based collective. They questioned how black artists should relate to American society, with key figures like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis responding to current events in their photomontages and abstract paintings.

Mark Godfrey, Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Olivia Hemingway

Artists also considered the locations and audiences for their art – from local murals to nationally circulated posters and newspapers – with many turning away from seeking mainstream gallery approval to show art- work in their own communities through black-owned galleries and artist-curated shows.

Zoe said: “There was a real opportunity to flesh out something that often gets flattened, this idea that black art is often only one thing, or that even as black people and black artists that there is only one point of view.

“And so, by showing the richness and frankly the really dynamic disagreements, discussions and debates that took place around what the stakes were to be an artists, that becomes the basis for the show but in a way that reveals a lot of things that are incredibly impor- tant for institutions to be engaging with.

“Looking at issues to do with systemic racism and institutional exclusion, to look at the very stakes of what it means to be a black artist and how much more challenging that could be in any context than just picking up a paint brush and having talent.

“And certainly, layered upon that, the challenge at the time of gender as well. So being a black female artist, how does one work when you are also tasked with being the primary and even the only provider of childcare for your children, and all of these things. So through an artists-led story, we are able to look at some timely questions about what it meant to be an artist. In that way, I think it is something that will resonate with everyone, but for the artists in particular, they really appreciated that the starting point in every case was their approach to art, what it is that mattered to them, how they put it forward and which artists they were working with.”

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, by Betye Saar. 1972

Further themes investigated in the exhibition include the emergence of black feminism through the work of Betye Saar and Kay Brown, showing how the period marked a revolutionary moment of visibility for black women, and debates over the possibility of a black aesthetic in photography featuring work by Roy DeCarava.

It will also showcase Just Above Midtown gallery, the first commercial gallery in New York to display the work of avant- garde black artists, whose legendary programme spanned innovative approaches to sculp- ture and performance using materials as unexpected as human hair and tights.

Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power opens on July 12 and runs until October 22 at the Tate Modern, Level 3, Boiler House. It is supported by Ford Foundation, Terra Foundation for American Art and Henry Luce Foundation, with additional support from Tate Patrons and Tate Members.
The exhibition is open daily from 10am to 6pm and until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Visit tate.org.uk or follow @Tate on Twitter for more information.

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