Lubaina Himid talking at Porthmeor Studios. May 23rd 2023
Lubaina Himid is an engaging speaker - a Professor of art and winner of the Turner prize and no stranger to St Ives, where she said trying to paint the sea from observation was what first showed her the allure of paint. She feels like an imposter since she was never taught how to paint but I don’t think students have been taught any painting techniques on fine art courses since 1970?
Here in the daylight lit high ceilinged studio with no sea view she has felt free of the attractions of naturalism and her love of simplified bright shapes is clear.
She says galleries don’t have such daylight and rarely light shows well.
Most of the large works were from a series called ‘street sellers’ and are destined to be shown in New York.
The images of the black sellers of baskets, shells and ribbons, or chickens, relate to the black figures included in eighteenth century British paintings such as by Hogarth, where often black figures were slaves, included without concern for their plight. Lubaina thinks about what it’s like to be a street seller performing , connecting with passers-by in a different way from shop sellers. It made me think of all those black sellers of stuff I have encountered on Greek beaches about whose lives I have found out so little.
Lubaina often paints the backgrounds before the figures and she operates as if she knows these people. She speaks of dialogue between figures and of moments where decisions are made after which one’s life goes in a direction as a result.
She says the chicken seller, who has no chickens and whose baskets are too open to keep a chicken enclosed is ‘kind of broken hearted’.
We learn all sorts of fascinating and amusing details about various other works, about how this artist is always looking to try out new things, thinking and feeling in various directions like her cast of characters.
Afterwards Lubaina Himid answered questions very thoughtfully.
I noticed she did not pause before telling us about the content to ask what we understood from the images with no further information. I am always keen to find out what I have communicated via images because I hope to get some things over clearly and to hear reactions which can show surprising other interpretations from my intentions.
Lubaina is so successful now and maybe doesn’t care to find out what we understand.
As so often happens I don’t think the wealth of ideas and feelings she puts into her work can be received by looking at it.
The delicious soup afterwards and lively conversations made it a really pleasant occasion where artists and others meet to enjoy art in St Ives.
(It was a pity it started half an hour late with no explanation or apology.)
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