Exhibition celebrating artist Lubaina Himid showing at the Tate Modern

An exhibition celebrating the work of the influential contemporary artist Lubaina Himid is opening at the Tate Modern later this month.

For more than four decades, Ms Himid’s powerful and poetic work has made her an increasingly influential figure in contemporary art – from her pivotal role in the British Black arts movement of the 1980s to winning the Turner Prize in 2017.

The Tate Modern is presenting Ms Himid’s largest solo exhibition to date, incorporating new paintings and significant highlights from across her career.

Taking inspiration from the artist’s interest in opera and her training in theatre design, the show will unfold across a sequence of scenes which put the visitor centre stage.

Through a series of questions placed throughout the exhibition, Ms Himid asks us to consider how the built environment, history, personal relationships and conflict shape the lives we lead.

Presenting 50 works that bring together painting, everyday objects, poetic texts and sound, the exhibition will offer a rare chance to experience the breadth of Ms Himid’s influential career.

Early installations including the well-known A Fashionable Marriage 1984 will be shown alongside more recent works such as her series of large format paintings Le Rodeur 2016-18.

Paintings created during lockdown will also go on public display for the first time.

Ms Himid said: “I have always thought of my work as starting when people get to see it. For me nothing starts until then.”

An early fascination with pattern, influenced by her mother’s career as a textile designer, has always been central to Himid’s work.

She said: “Patterns occur when I am talking to myself and trying to make visual the music, the sound, the noise and the poetry which underpins all of my work.”

A major highlight of the exhibition will be the presence of sound installations, including Blue Grid Test 2020, created by Ms Himid in collaboration with artist Magda Stawarska-Beavan.

Displayed in the UK for the first time, this 25-metre-long painting features 64 patterns from all over the world, each painted a different shade of blue on top of a variety of objects pinned to the gallery walls.

This is coupled with a sound installation layering instrumental music with Himid’s voice.

The show will culminate in a group of recent paintings and painted objects, which centre on extraordinary moments of everyday life which are rarely portrayed.

The series Men in Drawers 2017-19 features tender portraits of imaginary figures inside vintage wooden furniture, while works like Cover the Surface 2019 depict intimate interactions and moments of indecision between men.

Lubaina Himid is at the Tate Modern until July 3, 2022

Pictured: Lubaina Himid(Between the Two My Heart is Balanced)
Website link: Lubaina Himid – Exhibition at Tate Modern | Tate