Dante Gabriel Rossetti\u2019s 19th century painting, \u201cThe Beloved,\u201d a bejeweled Black child offers a bouquet of roses to the pale, red-headed bride at the picture\u2019s center. The child is tucked away in the bottom left-hand corner, but in the mind of curator and art historian Alayo Akinkugbe, his presence fills the entire frame. His story \u2014 how he caught Rossetti\u2019s eye while traveling with his slave master, and how Rossetti later likened his complexion to that of jet stone\u00a0\u2014 is laid out by Akinkugbe on her Instagram account\u00a0@ablackhistoryofart, where her 65,400 followers eagerly await these rare shards of art history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The roles of these Black figures on the canvases in which they appear might seem minor. They are often pushed to the peripheral, into the background, while some \u2014 such as the enslaved teenager B\u00e9lizaire from\u00a0Jacques Amans\u2019 1837 group portrait\u00a0\u2014 have been erased altogether. But Akinkugbe holds a magnifying glass over these slim fragments, off-cuts of the dominant whitewashed narrative of art history, and forces them to take up space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 24, Akinkugbe has already worked with some of the UK\u2019s most prestigious art institutions, from the Tate to the National Gallery, interviewing artists and further contextualizing Black works in permanent collections on social media. Last year she was spotlighted on the Dazed100 list for art and photography. In February, she joined the Royal Academy of Arts as a researcher for the exhibition \u201cEntangled Pasts,\u201d which explored the far reaching effects of colonialism in art from 1768 to present day. This summer she curated her first solo exhibition,\u00a0\u201cThe Whole World Smiles With You,\u201d\u00a0at Opera Gallery in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, a career as an art historian seemed very far away. \u201cMy parents weren\u2019t that keen,\u201d Akinkugbe told CNN in a video interview. \u201cI think a lot of it was down to the fact that (art history) is viewed as an elite, white field. They couldn\u2019t see me, I guess, succeeding if I were to pursue a career in the arts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Akinkugbe lived in Nigeria until she was 11, and though she doesn\u2019t remember visiting galleries (\u201cthe museums are poorly funded by the government\u2026 I didn\u2019t know anyone who would go to any of the museums we have in Lagos,\u201d) she was surrounded by art. Vendors on the street selling bright imitation modernist paintings or larger-than-life murals, such as the vivid blue and green painted pillars by Polly Alakija under Falomo Bridge, are early memories for Akinkugbe. \u201cArt was everywhere,\u201d she said. \u201cBut not in the formal Western sense.\u201d In her own home, along with the homes of her grandparents and her friend\u2019s parents, sculptures often lined the walls. \u201cI distinctly remember everywhere people would have either bronze sculptures, similar to Benin bronzes,\u201d she said. \u201cOr a lot of mahogany carvings\u2026 Before colonialism, painting wasn\u2019t a thing. Our visual culture has very much been sculptural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her interest in Blackness and visibility \u2014 particularly who gets to make it onto the canvas and why \u2014 began early on, while Akinkugbe was at school. Her Nigerian private school taught a British curriculum (\u201cit was very clearly trying to get people on the path of studying in the UK,\u201d) which felt like a missed opportunity to connect with her heritage. \u201cIt\u2019s a bit sad that happens here,\u201d she said. \u201cThat people are so set on not even learning our own history, or about our own culture\u2026 I look back and I\u2019m like why would children in Nigeria be studying Tudors before learning about our own history?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It prepared her, in a way, for the feelings of displacement that came with a move to the UK \u2014 where she was the only Black history of art student in her year at the University of Cambridge. \u201cI felt hyper visible,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the feeling followed me.\u201d It wasn\u2019t until Akinkugbe was halfway through her undergraduate degree that a Black artist was introduced onto the curriculum. \u201cIt was the first time in my whole study that I learned about a Black artist at Cambridge\u2026 That was life changing. I really felt connected to what was being presented to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worried that her only opportunity to engage critically with Black art was over, Akinkugbe set up her Instagram account as a kind of research diary. It was soon recommended by the New York Times as one of five Instagram accounts to follow immediately. \u201cI didn\u2019t expect so many people to be interested in it,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think that ideas about Black representation could gain such momentum, but the timing was probably the reason why.\u201d A few months after launching @ablackhistoryofart, the death of George Floyd ignited the revival of the Black Lives Matter protest movement. The coincidence at times feels \u201csinister\u201d for Akinkugbe, but she believes there is longevity in the increased interest in and support for Black art and artists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI\u2019ve spoken a lot about how there was a wave,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it feels like it\u2019s peaked. And now there might be a trough\u2026 I don\u2019t think the level of attention that (Black art) was given straight after the (resurgence) of Black Lives Matter will last,\u201d she told CNN. \u201cYou can already see it beginning to dissipate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut I do think that as long as the topic remains relevant, which it will be until things change, then it does have longevity.\u201d It\u2019s clear that whether Akinkugbe is curating art to be mounted on an institution\u2019s wall, or posting a 1080 x 1080 pixel square online, Blackness will remain in frame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dante Gabriel Rossetti\u2019s 19th century painting, \u201cThe Beloved,\u201d a bejeweled Black child offers a bouquet of roses to the pale, red-headed bride at the picture\u2019s center. The child is tucked away in the bottom left-hand corner, but in the mind of curator and art historian Alayo Akinkugbe, his presence fills the entire frame. His story […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223,28,2],"tags":[7,224,30],"class_list":{"0":"post-39825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-art","8":"category-culture","9":"category-featured","10":"tag-apie-project","11":"tag-art","12":"tag-culture"},"yoast_head":"\n