Black Ways of Seeing with Alayo Akinkugbe

A conversation with Alayo Akinkugbe, an art historian and curator on why it's important to call attention to and appreciate the diversity of Black figures in the margins and major works of Western of art history. 'Major museums are supposed to be a document of the nation's identity through history. It's seen as a reflection of the nation.

If you're a Black British person and all you see is caricatured images or Black figures in the backgrounds or in the margins, it's going to tell you something about the way the nation sees you.' Alayo is a contributing editor at AnOther Magazine, hosts the podcast A Shared Gaze and runs the Instagram platform A Black History of Art , which celebrates the contributions of Black artists, sitters, curators and thinkers from art history and the present day. Her aim is to continually highlight the work of Black artists from across the globe and all periods of art history, in a bid to challenge the way art history is taught and presented in the West.

I highly recommend Alayo's book, Reframing Blackness , which is out now in paperback. It is a tremendous and necessary contribution to expanding our imagination about Black liveliness, interiority and vitality—not only in art history, but right now and within each of us.

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One-off contributions are also tremendously helpful. Click here for the transcript .

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