‘Vanishing Point’ by Barbara Walker at the Cristea Roberts Gallery
So I’ve had many options this month. I’ve been to quite a few exhibitions you see so I was rather spoilt for choice as to which one to add to this month’s exhibition post. But the thing is, out of all of the landmark shows that various museums and galleries have put on with all the pomp and circumstance they deserve, I just can’t seem to get ‘Vanishing Point’ by Barbara Walker out of my damn mind.
Its for good reason too, I was really excited for this. It wasn’t an exhibition that I was going to just because my degree demands that we see as much art as possible, no. I’d see the Instagram’s and I was intrigued. I kept hunting down a date in the diary as to when I had a moment to go. And mercifully it did!
Do I know anything about Barbara Walker? No. Could I guess the context from her works, yes. Was I doubly intrigued by her works due to my interest in Old Masters? Abso-bloody-lutely.
It’s a small space the Cristea Roberts gallery on pall mall, London. But they’ve used it well. Kept the layout and the design simple, yet effective. Walkers works isolate figures in paintings that are usually found in the background. Those that are there for predominantly decorative purposes or ‘curiosities’. And yes, those people are usually, black, or middle eastern peoples. A lot of the paintings show them as slaves or as Orientals dressed in elaborate clothing evoking a sense of the exotic. But what’s important to note in a lot of these paintings is the absence of colour. That’s not to say she doesn’t use it entirely. Small bits here and there, a piece of coral for example stands out amidst the black and white
‘Vanishing Point (Mitjens) 2020
So lets talk about some of these paintings take for example ‘Vanishing Point (Mitjens) 2020. The scenery is lush, the figure stands gracefully, centre stage, for her portrait. Except she isn’t there. She has vanished into the paper. Her outlines are crisp, she has been etched into the paper but the colour of her is gone. She has become a negative space because she, for once, is not the focus of this artwork. But a small boy to her left delicately placing a string of pearls along her wrist. The pearls are gone too. They are an extension of her and the power that she holds. He is richly clothed, his eyes downcast as if he would rather look anywhere but at you. he is small, small enough so that you don’t notice him. So, he blends into the background, but is seen just enough as to decorate her. but she is gone so he has nothing left to fear.
Now, we must mention that mural. Because it is impossible to ignore its so damn brilliant. I, unfortunately went on a day when they were doing maintenance so my view was slightly obscured by a ladder. Not that I minded, it gave me an excuse to stay longer in the hope that the work would be finished soon (it wasn’t, but I’m not fussy). I’m not 100% sure which Old Master this piece hails from, or whether it is from a collection of pieces. Either way, I love it. I mentioned earlier that she doesn’t do colour except in small spaces. But here you see it. the red. The red of a plate, jewellery, and clothing. Does it signify blood? The blood of slaves before them and their own, or is it the weight of servitude? If you look, they’re all carrying something: a plate, a lamp, a bundle of clothing. And most of them, with one exception, are red.
This exhibition and its works all have to do with one major point. The absence of black figures as central characters in museums and galleries around the world. Black people and people of colour are rarely seen in the national museums of art. It is very Eurocentric, as in white, but that’s not to say the people of colour didn’t exist in the Western world. Well, they will do now when Barbara Walker gets her way.