Family histories and interwar black history

As our recent blog post shows, our contact with Nyay Bhushan, the great grandson of Vasu Deva Sharma, has been a fantastic opportunity for us to find out about Sharma’s migratory history and learn more about Sharma’s experiences of life as a Royal College of Art student in interwar London. We’ve created a select list of students and artist’s models all based in London during the period we are researching. If you have any information, no matter how small, about any of these individuals or the artworks they created please feel free to contact us at equianocentre@ucl.ac.uk

Students from Africa and Asia at London-based art schools:

• Egyptian student Aimee Nimr at Slade School of Fine Art School of Fine Art during 1919
• Nigerian student Aina Onabolu at St. John’s Wood Art School during 1922
• Indian student Meher Bomansha Dalal at the Slade School of Fine Art School of Fine Art during 1923
• Egyptian student A. Hafez at Royal College of Art during 1923
• Egyptian student H.Z. Kassem at Royal College of Art during 1923
• Indian student U.S. Choudhry at Royal College of Art during 1923
• Indian student Vasu D. Sharma at Royal College of Art during 1923
• Indian student Mukul Dey at Royal College of Art during 1923
• Indian student Atul Chandra Bose at the Royal Academy during 1924-1926
• Egyptian student A. A. Yousef at Slade School of Fine Art during 1928 then Royal College of Art during 1933
• Indian student S.D. Chavda at Slade School of Fine Art in 1936-1937
• Indian student  V.S. Adurkar at Slade School of Fine Art in 1936-37
• Indian student G.B Bandivdekhar at Slade School of Fine Art during 1937-38
• Indian student J.D Gondhalekar at Slade School of Fine Art during 1937-8
• Indian student Indumati Sathé at Slade School of Fine Art during 1937-39
• Indian student M.S. Satwalekar at Slade School of Fine Art during 1938-39
• Egyptian student Bothina El Nahry, student at Hornsey Art School and then Slade School of Fine Art during 1939

Students who painted, sculpted or drew portraits of African and Asian individuals during their studies:

• Ivy Mackusick – studied at the Slade School of Fine Art during 1919
• William Ian Brinkworth – studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1933 until 1936.
• Leila Ethel Dean Leigh -  studied at the Slade School of Fine Art between 1932 and 1938
• Ann Margaret Tooth – studied at the Slade School of Fine Art during the 1930s
• John Innes – studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1936 to 1939

Artist’s models of African, Caribbean and Asian heritage

• Rebecca and Esther (no current information on second name) –  sisters who were of Black and Jewish mixed heritage who sat for artist Jacob Epstein
• Amina Peerbhoy (Sunita) and Miriam Patel (Anita) -  sisters from India who sat for artist Jacob Epstein
• Ladipo  (no current information on second name) –  West African artist’s model and boyfriend of artist Donald Friend during the 1930s
• Patrick Nelson – Jamaican man living in London during the late 1930s – friend, boyfriend for a short time, and artist’s model for Duncan Grant
• Harry Quashi – actor living in Britain during the 1930s, artist’s model

Exploring Black women’s lives in Britain

The last few months have seen us carry out various events, including workshops on topics relating to interwar art and the Black London presence and a workshop called ‘Exploring black women’s lives in Britain, 1880-1940′. This event was organised in conjunction with Nwakaego Ahaiwe for the We Are Here Black British Feminist Exploration project. At the workshop we discussed and shared historical research on Black women and linked these experiences to our own and others’ experiences and identities as Black women living in Britain today. I talked about the role in art history of Amina Peerbhoy (known as Sunita) and Miriam Patel (known as Anita), two Indian sisters who migrated to Britain in the 1920s, ran a stall at the 1924 Empire exhibition in Wembley and worked as artist models with sculptor Jacob Epstein. Sunita became one of the most celebrated artists’ models of the 1920s and 1930s, but is noticeably absent from much writing on interwar art. As well as drawings, small bronzes, and paintings portraying Sunita and Anita, Epstein modelled his 1927 public sculpture Madonna and Child on Sunita and her son Enver. This sculpture is now housed in the Riverside Church, in New York. Caroline Bressey spoke about her research into black women’s lives in Victorian Britain, highlighting the ways in which visual culture  and archives can be used to uncover previously unknown lives of black people living and working in the imperial metropole. One fascinating story highlighted was that of Victoria Randle and her mother Sarah Davies who were both god-daughters of Queen Victoria with letters and diary entries that form part of the Royal Archives.

 

The discussion after our talks was stimulating and rewarding.  Lauren Craig, a London-based artist and arts researcher, reflected on the issues and stories raised in the workshop by composing a poem. She has kindly allowed us to share the poem here:

 

How They Pose

Lauren Craig

 

In their eyes the hatred rose

In the Rose their connection grows

Emblems of an empire

 

In their posture: is that satire?

I see their souls, do their eyes show fire?

Expressions of divine creativity

How these ancient beings inspire

 

Freedom and flare

Life, death desire blurred despair

Survival of lines pencil drawn are rare

Hidden and written out

How they dare!

 

As we bleed into each other

Colour lines become invisible

We are blinded as we suspend dis-belief

The palette is rich

How vibrant, visual, visceral

 

With the seeds of strength for the future

That’s how they pose

 

New event: QBS1 Queer Black Spaces 1

QBS1 Queer Black Spaces 1

An evening of visual art, poetry and research exploring Black British LGBT histories

UCL Gower Street Campus
Tuesday, February 5, 2013

from 6pm until 9.30pm

£3 entry

For more information and to book a ticket, visit www.blacklgbthistories.eventbrite.com

Join us for an evening showcasing different expressions and histories of Black queer lives, followed by drinks and music. The evening includes poetry, visual art and current research on Black LGBT lives from the early twentieth century to contemporary Britain exploring themes from Black LGBT identities, photography and visual culture, the lives of interwar Black gay artists’ models & Black transgender identities in the early twentieth century.

Participants include:

Ajamu – fine art photographer whose work has been shown in galleries, museums, and alternative spaces worldwide

Caroline Bressey – historical geographer specialising in the black British historical presence and director of The Equiano Centre,  UCL

Alison Oram – Professor of History at Leeds Metropolitan University, specialising in gender and sexuality in twentieth-century Britain

Jay Bernard – award winning poet and first international Resident Writer of The Arts House, Singapore during 2012

Gemma Romain – historian specialising in Black diasporic and Caribbean history, based at The Equiano Centre, UCL

Poulomi Desai, multi-media artist and Artistic Director of Usurp Gallery, London

Nazmia Jamal – teacher, cultural activist and programmer at London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

An event organised by The Equiano Centre, UCL to mark UCL’s 2013 Diversity Month and LGBT History Month.

Searching for Sharma

A couple of months ago we were contacted by Nyay Bhushan, a film maker and photographer in India who had heard of our project from the Royal College of Art archivist Neil Parkinson. I had recently carried out research at the RCA archives exploring documents relating to Indian students who were based at the college in the 1920s and 1930s and Neil suggested that Nyay Bhushan might want to contact us. Nyay’s research project on his great grandfather Vasu Deva Sharma is fascinating and he has kindly produced a blog post for the December entry of The Equiano Centre’s Black Presence blog explaining a bit about his great grandfather’s life and the research he is carrying out. I have cross-posted it here below.

Searching for Sharma: Vasu Deva Sharma, an Indian student at the Royal College of Art, 1923

by Nyay Bhushan

Vasu Deva Sharma in 1920s Berlin. Photograph courtesy of Nyay Bhushan

My great grand-father, Vasu Deva Sharma, studied at the Royal College of Art and graduated in 1923 with a diploma in decorative painting. Based in Lahore (then in undivided India, now in Pakistan), he was a professor of drawing and was offered an RCA scholarship. He was 39 years old when he sailed from Bombay (Mumbai) on the ship Kaisar-I-Hind on the P&O line arriving in London on September 25th 1920 (thanks to Gemma Romain for sourcing this information from The National Archives, UK – Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960).

After his graduation, he travelled across Europe (France, Germany, Scandinavia, Greece and Italy) to study and practise art in various cities before he returned to India.

One of my project aims is to look for any surviving paintings and artworks related to my great-grandfather. The only document I have is his RCA student file which gives details about his progress as a student; the file also mentions his brief study visits to some provincial UK colleges but their names are not given.

From my initial inquiries at the RCA, they don’t seem to have any other records or artworks related to Vasu Deva Sharma except for the graduation photo of the class of 1923, a recent and rare find for my project (special thanks to Neil Parkinson at RCA who also referred me to Drawing Over the Colour Line). Among his fellow graduates were Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth along with Indian students Uday Shankar Choudhary and Mukul Dey.

Royal College of Art 1922-23 Convocation photograph, highlighting Vasu Deva Sharma. Courtesy of the Royal College of Art archive.

 

Our family archives have a rare photo of Vasu Deva Sharma which was taken at a photo studio in Berlin, sometime in the mid to late 1920s. The picture is by a photographer named Karl Alexander Berg with his studio address at Joachimstaler Strasse. Looking at the stamp under the photograph one can see that Berg was appointed to a German court, without any indication which court this might be.

Another very significant point of interest is the connection between then RCA president Sir William Rothenstein (from 1920-35) and Indian art. Rothenstein took a keen interest in Mughal Painting and in 1910 established an India Society to educate the British public about Indian arts.

After Vasu Deva Sharma’s return to India in the late 1920s, he practised art in Lahore and was a professor at Chief’s College. He was also commissioned by some Indian royal families for portraits, such as the royals of Chamba (in North India).

From whatever family history I have researched, I am told that Rothenstein travelled again to India in 1944 and visited my great-grandfather at his mansion in Lahore which also housed his studio and artworks.

Vasu Deva Sharma passed away in 1946, a year before the partition of India and Pakistan following the end of British rule. His surviving family members, including his only son – my grand-father – and my father, were forced to flee Lahore in the wake of the partition riots and could not take his artworks and other belongings which were left behind in the mansion.

One of my main project aims is to look for any surviving artworks which could be in the UK, Europe, Pakistan and India.

——–

Nyay Bhushan is an award-winning fine-art photographer and film-maker based in New Delhi. In addition to researching more about his family legacy, the project also offers transmedia opportunities, from a film documentary to an exhibition. To find out more about his work or to make contact with information about Sharma, please visit http://www.nyaybhushan.com

New exhibition by UCL’s Migration Research Unit – Faith in Suburbia: a shared photographic journey

Some of our colleagues in the Migration Research Unit in UCL’s Department of Geography have also been working on visual culture in relation to the experience of diverse communities in London. A new exhibition opens this week at UCL’s South Cloisters called ‘Faith in Suburbia:  a shared photographic journey’ – which displays images reflecting the lives of different West London-based faith communities. The images were taken by photographer Liz Hingley, Leverhulme-funded Artist in Residence in the Migration Research Unit, working in collaboration with members of the communities and with Dr. Claire Dwyer, co-Director of the Migration Research Unit.

The exhibition will be at UCL until the end of January 2013 and then moves onto Gunnersbury Park Museum in Ealing until the end of June 2013.

Postcards and Bloomsbury black history walking tour leaflets

We’ve recently created the first of a series of postcards and maps highlighting some of the artwork and histories which touch upon the themes of Drawing over the Colour Line. The postcard created is a reproduction of William Roberts’ 1923 The Creole, a portrait of a woman called Hélène Yelin who lived near Bloomsbury and was a friend of the Roberts  family – we’ll be blogging more about her in the next few months. We’ve also used this image as the front of our new walking tour leaflets entitled ‘A Walk Around Bloomsbury’.

The tour explores the black presence in Bloomsbury during 1919-1939 in relation to London’s artworld and focuses on places and spaces connected to individuals and organisations including African-American musician and performer Florence Mills, artists Nina Hamnett and Duncan Grant who created artworks depicting Black Londoners, Harold Moody, Jamaican doctor and President of the League of Coloured Peoples set up in 1931 to combat racism in Britain and promote racial harmony, and the Student Movement House at 32 Russell Square which was set up in 1917 to provide accommodation to support to students from across the world. It also highlights sites of significance such as the British Museum, where writers and artists of African and Asian heritage including Jamaican sculptor Ronald Moody and Indian writer Mulk Raj Anand visited to explore artworks and to research in the reading rooms.

Waterstones Piccadilly branch has kindly created a display of these maps and postcards, which you can see in the images below. If you would like a copy of either, please drop into the branch. Alternatively, please contact us by using the contact form on the blog or by emailing equianocentre@ucl.ac.uk and we will send one out to you in the post.

With thanks to the William Roberts Society for copyright approval for reproducing Roberts’ The Creole and to The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent Museums where the artwork is permanently on display for permission to use their digital image of the portrait.

Note – This post was updated on 25.02.2013

New film: Drawing over the Colour Line’s Lunch Hour Lecture

Caroline Bressey’s 11 October lunch hour lecture on the Drawing over the Colour Line project has now been uploaded onto UCL’s lunch hour lecture page on youtube. Follow this link or watch below