South Asian Artists in British Collections
Dr Alice Correia shares how Tate and others acquired South Asian art in the 1950s鈥�60s, and how institutional bias shaped interpretation. Her research challenges how these artists are represented in UK public collections.
On Friday 20 June, (Lecturer of modern and contemporary British Art) will present her research exploring the presence and absence of South Asian diaspora artists in UK public collections.
Titled, "South Asian Artists and British Collections", her paper will introduce research into the acquisition and interpretation of artworks by FN Souza and Avinash Chandra by UK public collections, including Tate. She will introduce the ways in which Souza and Chandra were considered 鈥渆xotic鈥� by British critics and curators during the 1950s and 60s, and how such perceptions informed institutional framings of their work.
Archival research has revealed ambivalences on the part of collections to regard modernist painters of South Asian heritage active in London during the post-war period as part of the story of British art. Correia will present how those ambivalences have informed subsequent understandings and misunderstandings with reference to Souza鈥檚 painting Crucifixion (1961) in the Tate Collection.
She argues that significant biases and blind-spots about Souza鈥檚 work found in Tate鈥檚 acquisition documents continue to ripple through the gallery鈥檚 online texts and display captions.
You can view the artwork on the Tate website.
Alice Correia鈥檚 talk is organised by the , University of Leicester, and will be held on Friday, 20 June 2025, 1.00pm to 2.30pm.