If the idea of landscape paintings conjures images of bucolic English vistas, a new show at Dulwich Picture Gallery is about to change all that. Soulscapes encourages us to rethink what landscape really means – and to whom,
says Martha Alexander
IN DEPTH
VAST FRONDS CASTING INKY SHADOWS on jewel-hued expanses, families relaxing in sun-bleached rural idyls, repurposed clippings from fashion magazines and childhood photo albums; these are just some of the offerings at Soulscapes, a dazzling new exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery. Including works by over 30 artists from the African diaspora such as Hurvin Anderson, Phoebe Boswell, and Njideka Akunyili Crosby, the show is visually spectacular while promoting themes of belonging and identity.
Covering a variety of mediums – including tapestry and film – it’s the paintings that are likely to make the biggest impact. It is these, after all, which are most directly compared like-for-like with traditional – that is to say, European – landscape paintings. These in Soulscapes feature tropical greens and deep warm mustards; the pastel palettes of English country gardens are few and far between. Turning accepted and familiar concepts of landscape and nature in art history on their heads is exactly what curator Lisa Anderson had in mind for the exhibition. By switching ‘land’ for ‘soul’ in the title, Anderson has concisely summed up its central message.
Anderson, Managing Director of the Black Cultural Archives and founder of Black British Art, hopes Soulscapes will help people think both more deeply and more broadly about what landscape art actually means – and to whom – while still honouring traditional landscape artists, “who have inspired and produced so much great art.”
Anderson explains how landscape art is hugely political. “It speaks to land ownership; when landscape art first became a popular medium, it was also a time of ▸ great colonisation. The values of that are implicit in the European tradition of landscape art and that’s not something most art lovers think about or question.”
One of her main intentions is that Soulscapes serves as a talking point, a means of rethinking our preconceptions about what belongs in a piece of landscape art. “One thing I am hoping through this exhibition is that we can have a more honest and inclusive conversation about what it represents,” she says. “I think that’s
