‘Like storming the citadel’
Shortly after Margaret Thatcher became prime minister in May 1979, Eddie Chambers made an artwork called Destruction of the National Front. The 19-year-old student in Wolverhampton reconfigured the union jack as a swastika, before tearing it into fragments across four panels. The image stands as a defiant rebuke to a resurgent far right, evoking the anger many Black Britons felt at the time.
The work was emblematic of the Blk Art Group, a radical association of young Black artists founded by Chambers in 1979. The group aimed to combat racism while promoting a distinctly Black British political identity. Although it only lasted five years, the group casts a long shadow over British art through its influence on generations
You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
Start your free 30 days