Empire

by Afua Hirsch

Look Again is a series of short books, opening up the conversation about British art over the last 500 years, and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today.

A vital exploration of how Britain’s empire has shaped its art, by one of the UK’s most influential voices.

In twenty-first century Britain, the legacy of ‘empire’ is highly contested. Its histories of war, conquest and slavery are difficult and painful to address but its legacy continues to shape our present, and future. In Empire, award-winning author and broadcaster Afua Hirsch explores the ways in which Britain’s imperial history and its national collection of art interact, and how artists from Britain and around the world have responded to the events, tragedies and experiences of the British Empire. Featuring an array of historic and contemporary works, Empire raises questions about ownership and authorship, and asks how the value and meanings of artworks have changed through history and what they still mean to us today.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

47 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Afua Hirsch is a British writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a journalist for The Guardian newspaper, and was the Social Affairs and Education Editor for Sky News from 2014 until 2017. She is the author of the 2018 book Brit(ish): On Race, Identity and Belonging, receiving a Jerwood Award while writing it.

Reviews

[Uma Hørder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terse, short book which is full of poignant ideas about the legacy of empire- or lack thereof- in British and European art. I enjoy Hirsch’s revisitation of the way in which institutions uncomfortably tip toe around contextualising artefacts with a significant colonial history- “the discomfort of the establishment as to how best to wrestle with its legacy, combined with an instinctive defensiveness”

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short, powerfully-argued book, but I would have liked more reference to pictures and the art in the Tate, and individual artists. For example, Orientalist Art is briefly referred to, and one picture shown but not discussed. I realise space is limited, and the book does contain many ideas that one could apply oneself, but a closer focus on the art would be welcome. Having said that, the Keith Piper 'Go West Young Man', with the iconic diagram of the layout of a slave ship, hits you between the eyes.

[John Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very brief look at how art has both influenced and been influenced by Empire. Afua Hirsch is able to offer some thought provoking analysis, mainly on the history of the British Empire; linked to art through the last few centuries. Despite the limited word count, the devastating legacy of colonisation and the omission of its brutal implementation are explored in an interesting and intriguing way.

[Victoria Buck · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an important exploration of imperial artworks (and those thematizing/critiquing) empire as well as their meaning for contemporary Britain, though it is flimsy and could be better explained and better substantiated. It's a good supplement to other works on the subject.

[Mari C.L. Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A concise look at the erasures and absences within the artistic canon, a rewriting which refuses complacency. Like the others, this makes me very much look forward to the rehang.

[Nadia Costa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, concise and accurately sharp.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pithy overview of the way that most British colonial-era art bolsters a highly idealized and self-serving view of Empire, with some discussion of the art that challenges this view (and the British rejection of such art). Because Hirsch covers much of the same ground as Tate’s own Artist and Empire exhibition/book, I’d have loved to see her delve more into those contemporary perspectives on Empire and art.