British Art News: Newsletter of the British Art Network, August 2021

CONVENOR’S INTRODUCTION As ever, this new issue of the British Art Network newsletter brings together varied reports and commentaries addressing current and emerging issues in British art curating. Each offers a sense of reflection and retrospect, sometimes marked by apprehension or self-questioning, but all also characterised by a sense of optimism about the relevance of British art research and curating …

Alice Correia outlines her important research on South Asian art in the 1950s, highlighting the transformative potential of regional collections in relation to established art historical narratives. Jenny Gaschke, Helen Record and Emma Roodhouse consider the last year of activity in the Landscape group, honestly assessing the multiple practical and emotional challenges of programming and networking, but also providing a renewed sense of importance which might be attached to the genre now. Finally, David Solkin, one of our most eminent art historians, offers reflections on four decades of art historical work and exhibition making, confronting the profound challenges the discipline of British art history faces today yet discovering, as well, reasons to be optimistic about its continuing – perhaps deepening – relevance.

There are reasons for being optimistic about the British Art Network as a whole.

As of last month, the Membership list now runs at over 1,000 names, an increase of 25% since the end of 2020. This surge in interest is surely down to the energy and range of activities generated by the Network’s bursary holders and invited programmers, which over the last year has taken in everything from taxidermy to Brutalism, mapmaking to performance art, always with an open, expansive sense of what the curatorial might be, and what constitutes British art. And as of this month, our new British Art Network website has gone live, here. This gives more prominence to research activities and includes the beginnings of a Membership Directory which in time should become a major resource for everyone interested in British art and curating. Editorial work on the site continues, but we hope that you will find using the site easy and enjoyable, and that you get a sense of what it can do for the network and members. Over the coming months we will be building up the Directory, so all members who wish to be featured can be included. We will also be developing additional resources, and publishing content from recent programme activity, creating what will surely become a major archive for British art curating.

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