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Slade, London, Asia

Issue 20

Animating the Archive

Slade, London, Asia
Animating the Archive (Part 1)

Ming Tiampo Liz Bruchet
Slade class photo, spring 1955 (dithered detail). Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).

Introduction

From its inception in 1871, the Slade School of Fine Art in London attracted artists from around the world. Slade, London, Asia: Contrapuntal Histories between Imperialism and Decolonization takes the Slade as a starting point for a global microhistory and a reimagined and refigured archive. This feature surfaces how the Slade functioned during the post-war period as a site of encounter, decolonization, and expression for overseas artists; it also presents archival records which illuminate how the Slade occupies a complex place in the global history of art education, art practice, empire, and decolonization.

This feature consists of two interwoven parts. The first is a narrative history in the form of an academic essay that conceptualizes and interrogates the Slade’s role as a transversal line, which at its points of intersection with other lines—such as those tracing histories of colonialism, decolonization and nation building, of concurrent institution building, or of modernist aesthetics—creates contrapuntal nodes, or complex sites of multiple entangled and resonating histories.1 The second part of the feature is this offering of an “animated” archive that brings together materials from multiple institutional and personal archives in Asia and the UK, presented in a manner that invites readers to consider them in a non-linear fashion. Throughout this feature, we build upon Edward Said’s use of the musical metaphor of contrapuntalism to address both the presence of empire in the metropolis and the construction of a transnational counterpoint with multiple voices and melodic lines in order to tune in to histories at the intersection of imperialism and decolonization.2

In this approach, the Slade is configured as a transversal line that links multiple histories from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia, Singapore, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda, Britain, and beyond. While we began with the focus on tracing connections between the Slade and artists and sites in Asia, the research evolved iteratively, and came to defy the parameters of the "London, Asia" project. Indeed, the documents showcased here have illuminated important alignments and transversals that extend beyond Asia, taking us to parts of Africa as well as parts of Britain beyond London. In this sense, these archival fragments also help us to position the Slade as one of many transversals and sites of relational comparison through which to analyse multiple colonial and postcolonial histories of art education.3

The constellations of records presented here also shine light on some of the many interconnected and difficult histories, visual languages, and pedagogical frameworks that emerged out of the Slade’s particular transnational context at the intersection of imperial, decolonial, and migration histories. Working through archival material with this framing, and reading them against and along their grain, has allowed us to understand and represent the Slade as an institution that contributed to, but did not fully determine, the formation of the artists who attended it. Many of the artists featured in this research were mid-career when they arrived at the Slade, and were often supported by scholarships or schemes designed to develop capacity for newly independent nations and construct Britain as a post-imperial power. The artists brought with them their own vocabularies, ideas, ambitions, and conundrums, contributing to the contrapuntal environment at the Slade. The records featured here convey artists as institutional subjects in which the Slade functions as an authoritative intermediary, as well as (auto)biographical figures, postcolonial interlocutors, actors, and visionaries.

The project has evolved from two long-term collaborative research projects: “Transnational Slade” and “London, Asia”. The collaboration activates an alchemy of archival studies and art history, opening up the field of research to new intersections, and enabling us to refigure the archives we draw on and co-constitute.4 Setting an aim to “animate the archive” foregrounds (an) archive(s) as the subject of activation and illumination. It suggests we are bringing to life what has passed. Yet archives, considered through archival studies, are not inert, nor solely concerned with the past; they carry agency and hold different affordances in the present. In this sense, through this research, we seek not to animate but rather to refigure the archive and assume that archives, in their plurality, are important subjects of study in their own right.5

Although our research has resulted in this initial publication with its own particular framing and moment of archival activation and authorship in a form akin to an exhibition, the collaborative ethos of the project has encouraged the sharing of archival knowledge in order to seed new research beyond the scope of this project. The journey has led us to an array of personal, family, institutional, and organizational archives (both formal and informal), as well as oral histories and research workshops. The open access, digital format of British Art Studies lends itself to embedding different types of records in a variety of formats, which provides opportunities to make visible the qualities and patterns of these records as they are distilled from different recordkeeping contexts and activities.

This is Part 1 of a two-part feature, which addresses the period from about 1945 to 1965; Part 2 will encompass the period from the 1960s to the 1990s, and incorporate material gleaned from upcoming workshops. The contrapuntal histories of art education presented here offer a global microhistory situated within the complex entanglements between imperialism and decolonization. They have also prompted reconsideration of ways to engage with, co-constitute, and curate a research archive in pursuit of this endeavour. We take the Slade as a starting point for exploration, but render it as a single melodic line in a polyphonic counterpoint. As such, these transversally linked and co-constituted histories provide new methodologies for writing the histories of contrapuntal modernisms, while also understanding art in Britain itself as the product of empire.

2 Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage, 1993), 51.
3 Shu-mei Shih, “Comparison as Relation”, in Comparison: Theories, Approaches, Uses, ed. Rita Felski and Susan Stanford Friedman (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 79–98.
4 Carolyn Hamilton, Verne Harris, and Graeme Reid, Introduction to Refiguring the Archive, ed. Carolyn Hamilton et al. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2002), DOI:10.1007/978-94-010-0570-8_1.
5 Anne J. Gilliland, Sue McKemmish, and Andrew J. Lau, eds., Research in the Archival Multiverse (Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing, 2016), http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/31429.

I. Institutional Pathways and Documentary Trails

This section showcases a selection of records from the Slade archive: panoramic class photos providing compelling but incomplete representations of a given year group; student files containing a variety of records reflecting operations bureaucratic and beyond, such as correspondence between officials, funders, tutors’ reports, reference letters, press clippings, and exhibition catalogues; and an autographed cricket bat, an idiosyncratic artefact self-consciously transformed into an art-historical document, which speaks to a complex moment of artistic sociality. Embracing archival studies, which posits archives as subjects of study in their own right, we invite consideration of the form, content, and context of such institutional records. When read along and against its grain, this art-school archive helps to illuminate the particular transcultural positions and conditions the artists and institutions featured were working in and through. Records in this section relate to artists such as Khalid Iqbal, Hussein Shariffe, Gazbia Sirry, Wendy Yeo, and Tseng Yu, and institutions as diverse as the State Corporation for Cinema in Khartoum, the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, the UK Home Office, the British Council, and the National College of Arts, Lahore. Through this arrangement, we foreground the intertextual nature of evidence and the complexities of the source material that underpin our propositions in the accompanying long-form essay.

Black and white photograph. Around 125 men and women stand or sit with arms crossed, by their sides, or in their laps in four long lines in this panoramic class photograph. Most have pale skin, but there are a few men with darker skin. The men mostly wear suits and ties, the women dresses.
Figure 1 Slade class photo, spring 1955, including Ibrahim El-Salahi, Abdulla Mohi-El-Din El Guneid, Menhat Helmy, Khalid Iqbal, Sam Ntiro, Tseng Yu, and Jamila Zafar. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Black and white photograph. Around 125 men in and women, most with pale skin, stand or sit in three long lines in this wide class photograph. The men wear suits or collared shirts, the women dresses, some sleeveless. At the centre of the back row, two men turn to smile at an older man biting down on a pipe.
Figure 2 Slade class photo, spring 1957, including Kulwant Aurora, D.J. Banerjee, Abdulla Mohi-El-Din El Guneid, Ibrahim El-Salahi, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Phan van My, Wendy Yeo, and Jamila Zafar. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Black and white photograph. Around 125 men in and women stand or sit in three long lines in this class photograph. Many have pale skin but some men and women, the women wearing saris, have darker skin. Some smile, some look serious, and most mug for the camera. One man in a wheelchair holds a rope attached to another man, who pretends to flee to our right.
Figure 3 Partial digital reconstruction, Slade class photo, spring 1960, including Amir Nour, Archana Lahiri, Shama Zaidi, Kim Lim (Chengkim Lim), Damyanti Chowla, Gnanasundari Sawminathan, A. Rahim, Anwar Jalal Shemza, and Maisie Tschang. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten form. A passport-sized, black and white photograph of Ibrahim El-Salahi wearing a suit and tie is stapled to a school form. Slightly smiling, he has dark skin, short black hair, a high forehead, and a pointed chin.
Typewritten form. A passport-sized, black and white photograph of a man is stapled to a school form. He has medium dark skin, thick, black hair, and a thin moustache.
Typewritten form. A passport-sized, black and white photograph of a woman is stapled to a school form. Her short black hair is cut short and sweeps forwards onto her face. She looks at us from the corners of her dark eyes.
Figure 4 Slade student record relating to Ibrahim El-Salahi. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 5 Slade student record relating to Anwar Jalal Shemza. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 6 Slade student record relating to Kim Lim. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Form. A tutor's report includes a place to write a Student's Name, as well as a chart with columns for Subjects and Remarks. Notes are written into the Remarks in the entries for “Drawing” and “Painting.”
Brochure. Black text is above and below a square, black and white picture of a person in what might be a studio. Above the image, all lowercase text reads, “you are invited to an exhibition of new paintings” with the date and location provided below.
Letter. In blue handwritten ink, a letter begins, “Dear Ian, I've written back a few weeks ago…” and ends, “So please write and tell me. Lots of love, Hussein”. The letterhead reads “State Corp. For Cinema” to our left of a logo and Arabic writing is to the right.
Figure 7 Hussein Shariffe’s tutor’s report, 5 March 1958. Hussein Shariffe’s student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 8 Brochure from Hussein Shariffe’s solo exhibition at Gallery One, opening 25 April 1963. Hussein Shariffe’s student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 9 Letter from Hussein Shariffe to Ian Tregarthen Jenkin on his options for undertaking studies in film, 22 September 1971. Hussein Shariffe’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten report. A narrative begins, “Miss Sirry has talent and a good deal of technical skill and assurance within the limits she appears to have imposed on her work”.
Typewritten report. Second page of a letter concludes, “She requires only occasional contact with artists who can give advice, together with facilities for lithography”.
Figure 10 Report by William Townsend on the British Council Scholar, Gazbia Sirry, 9 March 1955, page 1 of 2. Gazbia Sirry’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 11 Report by William Townsend on the British Council Scholar, Gazbia Sirry, 9 March 1955, page 2 of 2. Gazbia Sirry’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter. A letter begins, “Dear Sir, Authorization of Visa (T/30657) A Chinese student, Mr. Tseng Yu, who was born in Shanghai on the 28th February 1929 and who now lives at 71 Hill Road, Hong Kong, applied to us at your entrance competition in January this year for admission to this School”.
Typewritten letter. Body of a letter concludes, “we believe that Mr. Tseng Yu would probably benefit more by being admitted as a student here than he would by studying at one of his local institutions. I very much hope that you may be able to help him by authorizing his visa. Yours truly, T.E. Tregarthen Jenkin, Secretary”.
Figure 12 Letter from Ian Tregarthen Jenkin to the Aliens Department of the UK Home Office requesting visa authorisation for Tseng Yu, 12 August 1952, page 1 of 2. Tseng Yu’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 13 Letter from Ian Tregarthen Jenkin to the Aliens Department of the UK Home Office requesting visa authorisation for Tseng Yu, 12 August 1952, page 2 of 2. Tseng Yu’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Cricket bat. On a metal storage shelf, a cricket bat is enclosed in a wood and glass case. The manufacturer’s information is near the black handle, reading “Sugg and “Watson Autograph”. A column of about a dozen handwritten signatures along the length of the bat can barely be discerned.
Cricket bat. A label printed with a red border and text is affixed to the bat. It begins, “Slade School of Fine Art University College London”. Below, red text, black typewritten letters, and a handwritten signature and date fill the rest of the label.
Cricket bat. Detail view of eight signatures in blue or black ink down the length of the bat.
Figure 14 Autographed cricket bat, signed by players of a friendly game between staff and students of the Slade and Camberwell College of Art, summer 1954. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital image courtesy of Liz Bruchet (all rights reserved).
Figure 15 Autographed cricket bat, signed by players of a friendly game between staff and students of the Slade and Camberwell College of Art, summer 1954. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital image courtesy of Liz Bruchet (all rights reserved).
Figure 16 Autographed cricket bat, signed by players of a friendly game between staff and students of the Slade and Camberwell College of Art, summer 1954. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital image courtesy of Liz Bruchet (all rights reserved).
Black and white photograph. Shown from the shoulders up, a man looks at us. He has dark hair and brows, a wide nose, and a moustache over full lips. Light skips across the textured surface of the photo paper.
Cover of a file. Title text appears at the top with three fields below. “File No.” is blank, though “H-35” is written in pen high above the line. The next field, “Period,” is filled in with handwritten text.
Figure 17 Photograph of Khalid Iqbal, circa 1952. Khalid Iqbal’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 18 Cover of Khalid Iqbal’s personnel file at the National College of Arts, Lahore, 1962–1982. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter. After the salutation, the letter begins, “I was tutor to Mr. Khalid Iqbal all the time he was studying at the Slade and had the opportunity to become well acquainted with him see most of his work.” The letter is signed “John Aldridge (A.R.R. Assistant at the Slade School”. The left two-thirds of this page is discoloured, as if liquid had poured onto the sheet.
Typed document. On blue-tinted paper, a curriculum vitae begins with “Education Qualifications”. The next section, “Teaching Experience”, takes up the rest of the sheet.
Figure 19 Letter of recommendation for Khalid Iqbal from John Aldridge, 4 September 1962. Khalid Iqbal’s personnel file, page 3. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 20 Khalid Iqbal’s Curriculum Vitae, from Khalid Iqbal’s personnel file, page 57. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 21 Letter from Anna Molka Ahmed to Ian Tregarthen Jenkin, about Khalid Iqbal, 19 May 1952, page 1 of 2. Khalid Iqbal’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 22 Extract from an oral history interview conducted with Stephen Chaplin, in which he recalls befriending Khalid Iqbal on their first day in the Slade Antiques Room in 1952, 10 July 2013, interviewed by Liz Bruchet. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Audio courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (all rights reserved).

II. Imagining Postcolonial States

The documents featured in this section begin to elucidate the complex contrapuntal positionalities and objectives of artists who were simultaneously occupied in roles as bureaucrats, arts administrators, and key members of government, many of whom were funded by national governments to study at the Slade. Approaching the Slade as a contrapuntal site in a global context in which art education played an important role in postcolonial nation building and in the ongoing assertion of British influence, the records speak to case studies that can illuminate multivalent postcolonial modernisms. The records configured here touch on the stories of Zainul Abedin and the Government Institute of Fine Arts, Dhaka; Jamila Zaidi and the National College of Arts, Lahore; K.G. Subramanyan and art education in India; as well as relationships between the Slade and the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, and Makerere College, Kampala. Our movement through Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nigeria, and Uganda illustrates how diverse responses to colonial education can be set productively in dialogue with each other along transversals, as they are negotiated across multiple sites and through varying cultural and artistic imaginaries.

Figure 23 Article on Zainul Abedin and his visit to the Slade in 1951, Commonwealth Today 10. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital facsimile courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL / the estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter. Signed “(Handt.): Soekarno” and addressed to “My dear Panditji” to ask for support for Mr. Affrandi.
Printed page. An article illustrates two works of art and one black and white photograph. The journal title is handwritten in pen at the top.
Handwritten notes. This unlined paper is filled with notes in black pen, beginning with “1. Introduction 2. Different Artefacts related to the fine arts”.
Figure 24 Letter of recommendation for Affandi from President Sukarno to Vice-President Nehru, 19 March 1947. Collection of the National Archives of the Netherlands. Digital image courtesy of National Archives of the Netherlands (all rights reserved).
Figure 25 Article on Zainul Abedin and Affandi, Diplomatist, circa 1952–1953 (London: Diplomatist Associates Ltd). Collection of the Indonesian Visual Art Archive. Digital image courtesy of Indonesian Visual Art Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 26 Zainul Abedin’s notes on cultural policy, circa 1969. Collection of the estate of Zainul Abedin. Digital image courtesy of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter. A description of the terms for writing a textbook about art with nine conditions listed on the page.
Typewritten letter. Four conditions are outlined for a textbook, including the pay.
Figure 27 Letter from Taj Muhammad Khayal to Jamila Zafar, requesting that she prepare a textbook for art and laying out terms, 1961, page 1 of 2. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 28 Letter from Taj Muhammad Khayal to Jamila Zafar, requesting that she prepare a textbook for art and laying out terms, 1961, page 2 of 2. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Handwritten document. On yellowed paper, handwriting in blue ink begins, “Will the Principal, National College of Art please refer to his U.O. No. 683 of 7.3.61, regarding permission to prepare the textbook”.
Handwritten document. On yellowed paper, a letter concludes, “need not obtain formal permission before undertaking the job in question”.
Typewritten letter. Dated and addressed letter requests a “‘certification of no objection’ to visit India”.
Figure 29 Letter from Jamila Zafar to Mark Ritter Sponenburgh, seeking permission to prepare the textbook in the national interest, 1961, page 1 of 2. Jamila Zafar’s personnel file. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 30 Letter from Jamila Zafar to Mark Ritter Sponenburgh, seeking permission to prepare the textbook in the national interest, 1961, page 2 of 2. Jamila Zafar’s personnel file. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 31 Letter from Mark Ritter Sponenburgh to Syed Abdul Hassan, requesting permission for Jamila Zafar to travel to India on a study tour, 16 March 1961. Jamila Zafar’s personnel file. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 32 K.G. Subramanyan, An Unfinished Agenda (Some thoughts on Art Education), 9 December 1997. Collection of Asia Art Archive. Digital facsimile courtesy of Asia Art Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 33 Report of the Commission on Higher Education in the Colonies, (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1945). Collection of The National Archives, Kew. Digital facsimile courtesy of The National Archives, Kew (Open Government Licence v3.0).
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Figure 34 Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies: Report, (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1946–1947). Collection of The National Archives, Kew. Digital facsimile courtesy of The National Archives, Kew (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Figure 35 Inter-University Council for Higher Education in the Colonies: Second Report, (London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1947–1949). Collection of The National Archives, Kew. Digital facsimile courtesy of The National Archives, Kew (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Typewritten letter. The salutation and signature are in blue pen, and the rest is typed. On letterhead titled “Commissioner for Nigeria in the United Kingdom”, the letter reads, in part, “I am to make recommendations to my Government on Nigerian Art and Culture generally wand want to explore…how much Western system of Art Education may be helpful in achieving the cultural and artistic rebirth which we are working for”.
Black and white photograph. A model with dark skin, wearing white shorts, stands with one hand on his head in front of a class. Seven students, all with dark skin, are visible in this image. One is a woman and six appear to be men. A lighter-skinned woman leans over the shoulder of a student across the room from us.
Figure 36 Letter from Ben Enwonwu to William Coldstream, 24 September 1958. Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology file, William Coldstream papers UCLCA/4/1/2/4/17. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 37 Life Class in Session at the Makerere Art School with Margaret Trowell, 1947. Collection of Makerere University. Digital image courtesy of Makerere University (all rights reserved).
Figure 38 Letter from Margaret Trowell to William Coldstream, on the development of the course at Makerere School of Art, with her planning notes for the fine art diploma, 16 April 1951, Makerere Art School college file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 39 Letter from Margaret Trowell to William Coldstream, regarding degrees and standards, 29 June 1955, Makerere Art School college file. Letter in reply from Coldstream to Trowell, 13 July 1955, Makerere Art School college file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Handwritten letter requesting funding to travel to Italy and France with two weeks in Venice, one week in Rome, three days in Naples, three in Florence, and four days in Paris.
Typewritten letter justifying funds for a student's trip to Venice. The final paragraph begins, “I have no doubt that you are aware that Sam Nitro is a student of outstanding quality and that he has made quite exceptionally intelligent use of all his opportunities in this country, and has worked very hard indeed”.
Typewritten letter. It denies William Coldstream's request for financial support for Sam Ntiro's trip to Venice. The final line reads “I am very sorry about this.” The writer's name is signed by hand in blue ink.
Figure 40 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream, regarding funding for a trip to Italy, 25 May 1955. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 41 Letter from William Coldstream to Colonel Crook at the Colonial Office on behalf of Sam Ntiro, 27 May 1955. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 42 Letter from Colonel Crook at the Colonial Office to William Coldstream, regarding Sam Ntiro’s request for funding, 31 May 1955. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter includes a request to “let us have your confidential assessment of Mr. Nitro”.
Typewritten letter. A reference for Sam Nitro includes the text, “He was liked and respected by his fellow students and by the staff, and I myself have a very high regard for him”.
Figure 43 Letter from I.C.M Maxwell of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas to William Coldstream, requesting a reference for Sam Ntiro, 30 January 1956. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 44 Letter from William Coldstream to I.C.M Maxwell of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas, providing a reference for Sam Ntiro, 2 February 1956. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Handwritten letter begins, “I must write and tell you how happy I am to hear you are coming to Makerere College on April 3rd next year to act as an external examiner to recognize our Diploma in Fine Art”.
Handwritten letter and mailing envelope. Half of this sheet of paper is the second page of a Sam Nitro's report on his visit to Makerere College. The other half of the sheet is the mailing information, acting as an air mail envelope.
Figure 45 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream, 11 December 1956, page 1 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 46 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream, 11 December 1956, page 2 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter. A letter includes a message written to, “congratulate you very much on your engagement to be married, and would like to wish you every happiness”.
Handwritten letter. Addressing William Coldstream as “My Dear Bill”, Sam Nitro writes with a newspaper clipping of his engagement. Nitro relates, “Sarah took a history degree at Oxford and she was there all of the time I was at Slade”. The letter is signed, “Yrs. Sam”.
Figure 47 Letter from William Coldstream to Sam Ntiro, 14 December 1956. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 48 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream, sharing news of his engagement to Sarah Nyendwoha (Ntiro), 22 August 1958. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Handwritten letter. On letterhead from “Makerere College The University College of East Africa”, a letter explains some of the difficulties staff in the Art School have faced, as well as the “Capricorn Africa Society”.
Handwritten letter. Half of this sheet of paper concludes an explanation of Ugandan and other African political systems. The other half of the sheet is the mailing information, acting as an air mail envelope.
Figure 49 Letter from Sam Ntiro to Ian Tregarthen Jenkin, 16 October 1958, page 1 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 50 Letter from Sam Ntiro to Ian Tregarthen Jenkin, 16 October 1958, page 2 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved)
Newspaper clippings. One clipping is titled “Tanganyika High Commissioner” and is illustrated with an inset photograph of Sam Nitro. The other clipping is hand-dated and announces Nitro’s engagement to Evangeline Sarah, though the rest of her full name is not legible.
Newspaper clipping. Below a black and white photograph of Sam Nitro painting at an easel, text begins, “A group of 12 painters from the Community of East African Artists are in Dar es Salaam for a two-week ‘art workshop’”.
Figure 51 Article on Sam Ntiro’s appointment to High Commissioner in London, 20 August 1958, unknown publication. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 52 Article on Dar es Salaam workshop, The Standard, date unknown. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Typewritten letter reads, “I was delighted to read the news of your appointment as High Commissioner. All of us at the Slade are so pleased about this and would like to send you and your wife our warmest congratulations and very best wishes”.
Handwritten letter with text that reads, “Dear Bill, Makerere College has employed me to teach Art at a Teacher Training College which Makerere has just taken over”. The letter continues, “Already I find the teaching greatly rewarding”.
Figure 53 Letter from the Slade School of Fine Art to Sam Ntiro, congratulating him on his appointment as High Commissioner in London, 4 April 1963. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 54 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream (“Bill”), 8 April 1965, page 1 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Handwritten letter. Half of this sheet concludes a note that reports, “Although the teaching ends at 3:30 pm yet they come back in their own time after tea to paint and to do modelling”. The other half of the sheet is the mailing information, acting as an air mail envelope.
Typewritten letter includes a response about a teaching position and financial difficulties at the Slade Society, quipping, “The only time the Society ever seemed solvent was when you were managing!”
Figure 55 Letter from Sam Ntiro to William Coldstream (“Bill”), 8 April 1965, page 2 of 2. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 56 Letter from William Coldstream to Sam Ntiro, 10 May 1965. Sam Ntiro’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital image courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).

III. Contrapuntal World-Making

This section focuses on the work of art in the context of the contrapuntal worlds made and remade by overseas artists at the Slade, reflecting their negotiation of novel configurations of artistic methods, vocabularies, and schemas. The five artists featured—Zainul Abedin (1951–1952), Tseng Yu (1952–1956), Wendy Yeo (1953; 1955–1959), Anwar Jalal Shemza (1956–1960), and Kim Lim (1957–1960; 1969–1970)—each came to the Slade via different circuits of mobility and access, and each responded in turn to the opportunities and challenges of the Slade as a contact zone, producing distinct contrapuntal aesthetics. When examined together with the Slade as a transversal line, the relationships between these works become more evident, bringing out their harmonic interdependencies despite their independent melodic lines.

Figure 57 Pages from Zainul Abedin’s London sketchbook, 1951. Collection of The Estate of Zainul Abedin. Digital facsimile courtesy of The Estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Drawing. Several sketches of still life objects are in blue pen on cream-white paper. Two wine bottles are drawn from two different angles and numbered 1 and 2. A note from the artist referring to the two views of the bottle reads “1+2=”. More still life objects are sketched below.
Watercolour. The abstracted form of a woman is shown from about the chest up with opaque lines and flat areas of colour. Her head, neck, and shoulders create a faceted column over her hands, which are in the bottom right corner of the composition. The left half of the background is charcoal grey. A smudged band to our right of the person transitions the background to silvery grey.
Figure 58 Zainul Abedin’s analysis of “cubist construction”, 1951. Collection of The Estate of Zainul Abedin. Digital facsimile courtesy of The Estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Figure 59 Zainul Abedin, Woman with a Pitcher, 1951, watercolour on paper, 54 x 41 cm. Collection of the Bangladesh National Museum. Digital image courtesy of The Estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Painting. A person sits painting at an easel at the far end of a room. The floor, wall, and ceiling are cobalt blue. The man has dark peach-coloured skin and black hair. Rails and grilles of the window opposite us seem to box the man in.
Handwritten letter in Chinese. A small part of one line and the entire following line are blacked out near the bottom.
Figure 60 Tseng Yu, Interior with a Man Painting, 1955, oil on canvas, 101.7 x 76.2 cm. Collection of the UCL Art Museum (LDUCS-5311). Digital image courtesy of Tseng Yu / UCL Art Museum (all rights reserved).
Figure 61 Letter from Tseng Yu to David Hawkes (in Chinese), between 1959–1984. Collection of The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library. The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (all rights reserved).
Painting. In shades of olive and eucalyptus green, ivory white, rust brown, and brick red, this scene is loosely painted so details are difficult to make out, though four forms give the impression of people. A loose black grid overlays the vertical canvas, giving the impression of looking through window panes.
Painting. This abstract composition is made up of smudges and strokes in shades of earthy blue and green.
Figure 62 Wendy Yeo, Townscape with Figures, 1958, oil on canvas, 182.9 x 121.9 cm. Collection of the UCL Art Museum (LDUCS-5057). Wendy Yeo / UCL Art Museum (all rights reserved).
Figure 63 Wendy Yeo, Mountain Streams, 1958–1959, oil on canvas, 106.6 x 61 cm. UCL Art Museum (LDUCS-5275). Wendy Yeo / UCL Art Museum (all rights reserved).
Figure 64 Wendy Yeo, Mountain Streams, 1958–1959, oil on canvas, 106.6 x 61 cm. UCL Art Museum (LDUCS-5275). Wendy Yeo / UCL Art Museum (all rights reserved).
Figure 65 A.J. Shemza: Paintings Drawings 1957–1963, exhibition catalogue (Durham: Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art, Durham University, 1963). Collection of the Oriental Museum, Durham University. Digital facsimile courtesy of the estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza (all rights reserved).
Painting. A loose pattern is made of squares that are each made up of mirrored D-forms, creating hourglass shapes, mirrored Bs, or one of each. A net of yellow squares fills most of the space to our right, and it is surrounded by a net of navy-blue squares. The backgrounds behind the squares and across the top half of the composition are mottled and streaked with copper, bronze, pewter, and gold-coloured paint. The bottom half of the background is white.
Figure 66 Anwar Jalal Shemza, The Wall, circa 1958, oil on board, 60 × 44.5 cm. Collection of the Birmingham Museums Trust (1998P81). Digital image courtesy of the estate of Anwar Jalal Shemza / Photo 12 / Ann Ronan Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo (all rights reserved).

IV. Contrapuntal Pedagogies

The records gathered here, including curricula, artists’ notes, and administrative and artistic correspondence, enable us to consider how a number of overseas artists who passed through the Slade reworked, supplemented, and often disrupted the school’s pedagogical models in contrapuntal fashions. Transversal comparisons of three groups of pedagogical artefacts from three different sites—Dhaka, Lahore, and the Sinophone world—provide a means of analysing critical appropriations of the Slade’s curriculum in order to draw relational comparisons between different colonial and postcolonial histories of art education.

Figure 67 Kim Lim, Typed Manuscript, 2 pages. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital facsimile courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London (all rights reserved).
Typewritten label reads, “1958 Sculpture Composition 2nd Prize (divided) Chengkim Lim”.
Sculpture. Two roughly oval-shaped stones are carved with one eye each. The eyes are close together, suggesting they may kiss. Some areas of the stone are smooth and others incised with chisel marks.
Figure 68 Label from the Slade student prize album, showing that Kim Lim’s work, Untitled, won the second prize for sculpture composition, 1958. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital image courtesy of Liz Bruchet (all rights reserved).
Figure 69 Kim Lim, Untitled, 1958, winner of the second prize for sculpture composition. Slade student prize album. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital image courtesy of Liz Bruchet and the estate of Kim Lim, London (all rights reserved).
Sculpture. Three wood beams create a base below a flat plank of wood cut into a wide, shallow, cup-like form. At first glance, it could be the silhouette of a wide goblet or a blooming flower.
Sculpture. Thirty boards of honey-brown lumber are stacked one atop the other so half of each board overlaps the board below. This creates an alternating, comb-like appearance to each side of the solid stack.
Figure 70 Kim Lim, Ronin, 1963, sculpture. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital image courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London / Photo: Sotheby’s (all rights reserved).
Figure 71 Kim Lim, Stack, 1976, sculpture. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital image courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London / Photo: Sotheby’s (all rights reserved).
Architecture. This black and white photograph shows a structure made of five levels held up with only pillars, so light and a breeze can pass through. The bottom two levels of the Panch Mahal are the widest, and each subsequent level is narrower, ending with a single square unit at the top.
Architecture. We look sharply up columns supporting entablatures in these two colour photographs.
Figure 72 Kim Lim, Study Photograph from Fatehpur Sikri, India, undated. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital image courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London (all rights reserved).
Figure 73 Kim Lim, Study Photograph from Karnak Temple Complex, Egypt, undated. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital image courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London (all rights reserved).
Architecture. We look up at eight storeys of a wooden temple in this black and white photograph. The floors are supported by pillars and the framing is exposed. The roofline is straight to our left, and curves shallowly up to a peak over the three rightmost bays.
Figure 74 Kim Lim, Study Photograph from Kiyomizu-dera, Japan, 1962. Collection the estate of Kim Lim, London. Digital image courtesy of the estate of Kim Lim, London (all rights reserved).
Figure 75 University of London, University College Calendar: Session MCML–MCMLI, (London: Taylor & Francis, 1950): “The Slade School Session 1950–51”, 119–133. Collection of UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 76 Zainul Abedin’s notes on printmaking, 1951. Collection of the estate of Zainul Abedin. Digital facsimile courtesy of the estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Figure 77 Zainul Abedin’s notes for the curriculum at The Government Institute of Arts, Dacca, circa 1956. Collection of the estate of Zainul Abedin. Digital facsimile courtesy of the estate of Zainul Abedin (all rights reserved).
Typewritten document. The title “Qualifications Etc. of Mrs. Jamila Zaidi” is followed by sections for “Academic qualifications”, “Teaching Experience”, “Papers Read”, and other academic details.
Typewritten document. Text reads, “The responsibilities of an art teacher in Pakistan as a guide and as a critic have increased tremendously because the whole concept of art and its aesthetic values has changed”. It concludes, “The art criticism therefore is a complex process which will be discussed in the paper”, and is signed “Mrs. Jamila Zaidi”.
Figure 78 Jamila Zaidi’s Curriculum Vitae, circa 1964. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 79 Jamila Zaidi, Abstract for “Criticism in Art Education at the College Level”, a paper delivered by Zaidi at the 16th Annual All Pakistan Science Conference, 1963. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Typewritten document. Titled, “Lectures for the fundamental course intro to visual Arts- for the year 1960.61. Vis. Prof. & S.L.D.” The calendar is broken into “First Term-Term Related Arts”, which runs from September 16 to December 16, “2nd Term: Applied & Industrial Design” from January 6 to March 17, and “3rd Term” from March 31 to May 29.
Typewritten document. Syllabus with the following sections: “Introduction”, “Prehistoric”, “Ancient Egyptian”, “Ancient Mesopotamian”, “Ancient Minoan”, and “Ancient Greek: Archaic and Transitional.” Each has a brief summary.
Figure 80 National College of Arts, Lahore, History of Art and Architecture fall term syllabus, undated, page 1 of 2. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 81 National College of Arts, Lahore, History of Art and Architecture fall term syllabus, undated, page 2 of 2. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Typewritten document. Syllabus with the following sections: “Ancient Greek Classic”, “Ancient Greek: Hellenistic”, “Ancient Roman”, and “Ancient Gandharan and Indian Buddhist”. “Recommended References” conclude the document.
Typewritten document. Syllabus with the following sections: “Introduction”, “Realism in Painting: 1848-1860”, “Material Realism in Sculpture and Architecture: 1848-1860”, “Background of Material Realism in Ancient Roman”, and Luministic Realism: 1860-1870”. Each has a brief summary.
Figure 82 National College of Arts, Lahore, History of Art II, fall term syllabus, undated, page 1 of 2. Collection of the National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 83 National College of Arts, Lahore, History of Art II, fall term syllabus, undated, page 2 of 2. Collection National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Typewritten document. Syllabus with the following sections: “Background of Luministic Realism in Tokugawa Japan”, “Impressionism: 1870-1885”, “Background of Impressionism in Byzantium and Gothic Europe”, and “Background of Impressionism in Islam”. “Recommended References” conclude the document.
Handwritten document. Written in black pen on yellowed paper. Titled “Brief Outline of the Course.” Sections below include, “3rd year Art”, “1st Term”, “2nd Term”, and “3rd Term”.
Figure 84 National College of Arts, Lahore, Handwritten syllabus for third-year class on technical methods, undated. Collection National College of Arts, Lahore Archive. Digital image courtesy of National College of Arts, Lahore Archive (all rights reserved).
Figure 85 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Bulletin, 8, no. 5 (December 1971), 4. Collection of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Digital image courtesy of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (all rights reserved).
Page of a publication. A black and white photograph of a young, smiling woman holds a piece of coral at the beach is above the subtitle, “Prospects of the Department of Fine Arts”. Sections of text include, “New Board of Studies”, “New Staff”, “Teaching Programme”, and “New Department Head – Mr. Tseng Yu”.
Page of a publication. A black and white photograph of a young, smiling woman holds a piece of coral at the beach is above the subtitle, “Prospects of the Department of Fine Arts”. Sections of text include, “New Board of Studies”, “New Staff”, “Teaching Programme”, and “New Department Head – Mr. Tseng Yu”.
Figure 86 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Bulletin, 8, no. 5 (December 1971), 5. Collection of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Digital image courtesy of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (all rights reserved).
Figure 87 The Chinese University of Hong Kong Bulletin, 8, no. 5 (December 1971), 5. Collection of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Digital image courtesy of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (all rights reserved).
Page of a publication. Continued from a previous newsletter page, text begins, “Mr. Tseng has held two one-man exhibitions, one in 1955 in London’s Arthur Jeffress Gallery, one in 1959 in Paris’s Galerie Benezit”. Other sections are headed, “Mr. Liu Kuo-sung”, “Future Prospects”, and “Symposium on Changes in Hong Kong since the 1950’s”.
Book cover. A white and pink peony and their flat, green leaves are against a burnished gold-coloured square background. A pattern of traditional, interlocking Chinese designs are in pale blue, dark blue, white, and grey behind the image. The title is in gold Chinese characters against wine-red text boxes.
Book cover. The title, “History of Art Part One The Ancient World H.W. Janson” appears in English and Chinese across the top. A colour reproduction of a fresco from Pompeii is below.
Figure 88 Cover of the Chinese translation of Michael Sullivan, The Arts of China, (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1977), translated by Tseng Yu and Wang Bo Lian, Zhong Guo Yi Shu Shi [History of Chinese Art] (Taipei: Nan Tian Publishing, 1985). Digital image courtesy of Nan Tian Publishing (all rights reserved).
Figure 89 Chinese Translation of H.W. Janson, History of Art, (London: Thames and Hudson, 1977), translated by Tseng Yu and Wang Bo Lian, Xi Yang Yi Shu Shi [History of Art] (Taipei: You Shi Publishing, 1991). Digital image courtesy of You Shi Publishing (all rights reserved).
Figure 90 Chinese Translation of Giulio Carlo Argan and Maurizio Fagiolo, Guida a la storia dell’arte, (Firenze: Sansoni Università, 1974), translated with a foreword by Tseng Yu and Tien-Tseng Yeh Liu, Yi Shu Shi Xue De Ji Chu [Guide to Art History] (Taipei: Dong Tai Tu Shu Publishing, 1992). Digital image courtesy of Dong Tai Tu Shu Publishing (all rights reserved).

V. Schema and Correction: Repositioning Art Histories

As the first art school situated within a university in Britain, the Slade was established with a mandate to provide fine arts training in the context of a liberal arts education, which distinguished it from other art schools until the more academic Diploma in Art and Design (DipAD) was introduced to studio courses nationwide in 1960. In this section, we juxtapose archival records with artists’ accounts of art history at the Slade and its situation within the broader intellectual ecosystem of the University of London. This distinguishes the provision of art history within the art school fostered as at once a fertile ground for cross-disciplinary artistic experimentation, and a context deeply rooted in Eurocentric and colonial epistemologies, inheritances, and positionings. For artists coming from the colonized or decolonizing worlds, this art-historical education, designed to enable contemporary artists to situate their work within the arc of history, made evident the Eurocentrism of the art world and catalysed a variety of critical responses.

The interventions made by artists such as Ben Enwonwu, Anwar Jalal Shemza, K.G. Subramanyan, and Tseng Yu as well as by art historian Partha Mitter can also be understood in dialogue with those scholars of art history who taught at the Slade in the 1950s, namely, Rudolph Wittkower (1949–1956) and Ernst Gombrich (1956–1961). These “corrections” to the “schema”, to use Gombrich’s formulation, point to a mutually informing, albeit at times fraught, terrain of contact between art historians and artists that continues to have resonances in our understanding of global art histories.6

6 Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960).

Figure 91 Rudolf Wittkower, “The Artist and the Liberal Arts”, an inaugural lecture delivered at University College London, 1950. Collection of UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 92 Slade Committee Meeting Minutes and Report, 4 March 1954. Collection of UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 93 Sam Carter, Perspective Notes, 1957. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 94 Ernst Gombrich, Handouts for students attending the Slade course on ancient art, autumn 1956. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital facsimile courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL / the estate of Ernst Gombrich (all rights reserved).
Figure 95 Ernst Gombrich, Handouts for students attending the Slade’s spring term History of Art lectures, March 1957. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital facsimile courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL / the estate of Ernst Gombrich (all rights reserved).
Figure 96 Ernst Gombrich, Gombrich’s personal notes for a lecture given at the Slade, 1956. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Digital facsimile courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL / the estate of Ernst Gombrich (all rights reserved).
Handwritten letter. This two-page letter has text that reads, “There is an exhibition of Contemporary Chinese Painting Exhibition at Foyles, which probably might interest you”. The letter goes on to share information about two artists, Ch’i Pai Shih and Han Pei-Hung.
Leaflet. The artists' names are printed in large text with the latter, Hsü Pei-Hung, crossed out with a single handwritten line. Text continues, “Presented by the Arts & Sciences Committee of The Britain-China Friendship Association 20th January to 12th February 1955 Foyles Art Gallery Trefoile House Charing Cross Road London WC2”.
Figure 97 Letter from Tseng Yu to William Coldstream, 20 January 1955. Tseng Yu’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 98 Leaflet accompanying letter from Tseng Yu to Professor William Coldstream, 20 January 1955, Exhibition of Paintings by Ch’i Pai-Shih (Qi Baishi) and Hsü Pei Hung (Xu Beihong), Foyles Art Gallery, 20 January–12 February 1955, leaflet cover. Tseng Yu’s Slade student file. UCL Special Collections. Digital facsimile courtesy of UCL Special Collections (all rights reserved).
Figure 99 Tseng Yu, Lecture on Chinese painting given at the Slade, 1975, audio file, 1:29:03. Collection of the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL Archives. Cover image: Tseng Yu, Self-Portrait, 1955, ink on paper, 35.8 × 24.8 cm. Tate Archive (TGA 8214/108). Digital image courtesy of Estate of Richard Gainsborough / artist / artist’s estate (All rights reserved). Audio courtesy of Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (all rights reserved).
Audio file. The cover image is Tseng Yu’s pen-drawn self-portrait. His face and shoulders are exaggeratedly narrow. He looks out, unflinching. He wears a buttoned, collared shirt and holds a drawing instrument in his left hand. The recorded lecture is 90 minutes.
Figure 100 seng Yu, Self-Portrait, 1955, ink on paper, 35.8 × 24.8 cm. Tate Archive (TGA 8214/108). Digital image courtesy of Estate of Richard Gainsborough / artist / artist’s estate (All rights reserved).
Figure 101 Extract from Siva Kumar Raman, K.G. Subramanyan: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi, January 2003 (New Delhi: National Gallery of Modern Art, 2003). Digital facsimile courtesy of National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi).
Figure 102 Partha Mitter, “The Paradox of Ernst Gombrich”, Art and the Mind: Ernst H. Gombrich, ed. Sybille Moser-Ernst (Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2018). Digital facsimile courtesy of Partha Mitter / V&R Unipress.
Figure 103 Excerpts from an oral history interview with Partha Mitter conducted by Ming Tiampo on 3 February 2021, film, 18 minutes, 6 seconds. Film editing by Edward Spreull. Digital files courtesy of Partha Mitter (all rights reserved).
Book cover. The title appears under an image of the three-faced god Brahma with the author's name below.
Figure 104 Partha Mitter, Much Maligned Monsters: A History of European Reactions to Indian Art, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), cover design.

About the authors

  • Picture of Liz Bruchet
    Liz Bruchet is a researcher, archive curator, and oral historian, and Senior Lecturer in Archival Studies in the Department of Information Studies, UCL. Her research focuses on the records and recordkeeping practices of visual arts organisations, with particular interests in the interconnections between archives and curation, as well as the biographies of archives, “orphan” objects and records, and the value of these for curation. Her MA in Curatorial Studies (UBC) drew on her experience in museum and gallery work in Canada, and her PhD in Archival Studies from the University of Brighton developed a conceptual framework for understanding the tangled relationships between archival and curatorial practices. She has led oral history projects for institutions such as the Association for Art History and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and prior to her current role, was Researcher and Archive Curator at the Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, for which she has developed a range of collaborative research, digitisation, and exhibition projects. Recent publications include “Archival Finding Aids and Perceptual Frames: Tracing Material Contact Points Through Stephen Chaplin’s Slade Archive Reader”, in The Materiality of the Archive: Creative Practice in Context, ed. Sue Breakell and Wendy Russell (Routledge, forthcoming 2022).
  • Picture of Ming Tiampo
    Ming Tiampo is Professor of Art History, and co-director of the Centre for Transnational Cultural Analysis at Carleton University. She is interested in transnational and transcultural models and histories that provide new structures for understanding and reconfiguring the global. She has published on Japanese modernism, global modernisms and diaspora. Tiampo’s book Gutai: Decentering Modernism (University of Chicago Press, 2011) received an honourable mention for the Robert Motherwell Book award. In 2013, she was co-curator with Alexandra Munroe of the AICA award-winning Gutai: Splendid Playground at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Her current book projects include Transversal Modernisms: The Slade School of Fine Art, a monograph which reimagines transcultural intersections through global microhistory, and Intersecting Modernisms, a collaborative sourcebook on global modernisms. Her latest book, Jin-me Yoon, is forthcoming with Art Canada Institute in 2022. Tiampo is an associate member at ici Berlin, a member of the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational Advisory Board, a member of Asia Forum, a founding member of TrACE, the Transnational and Transcultural Arts and Culture Exchange network, and co-lead on its Worlding Public Cultures project.

Footnotes

  1. 1

    The concept of transversals was first used by Tiampo to theorize the relationships between histories that are both parallel and linked through a third term. Ming Tiampo, “Slade, London, Asia: Intersections of Decolonial Modernism”, 10 November 2020, https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/slade-london-asia. ↩︎

  2. 2

    Edward Said, Culture and Imperialism (New York: Vintage, 1993), 51. ↩︎

  3. 3

    Shu-mei Shih, “Comparison as Relation”, in Comparison: Theories, Approaches, Uses, ed. Rita Felski and Susan Stanford Friedman (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013), 79–98. ↩︎

  4. 4

    Carolyn Hamilton, Verne Harris, and Graeme Reid, Introduction to Refiguring the Archive, ed. Carolyn Hamilton et al. (Dordrecht: Springer, 2002), DOI:10.1007/978-94-010-0570-8_1. ↩︎

  5. 5

    Anne J. Gilliland, Sue McKemmish, and Andrew J. Lau, eds., Research in the Archival Multiverse (Clayton, VIC: Monash University Publishing, 2016), http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/31429. ↩︎

  6. 6

    Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion (New York: Pantheon Books, 1960).

↩︎

Imprint

Author Ming Tiampo Liz Bruchet
Date 18 July 2021
Category Animating the Archive
Review status Peer Reviewed (Double Blind)
License Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Downloads PDF format
Article DOI https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-20/animatingsladearchive
Cite as Tiampo, Ming, and Liz Bruchet. “Slade, London, Asia: Animating the Archive (Part 1).” In British Art Studies. London and New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Yale Center for British Art, 2021. https://main--britishartstudies-20.netlify.app/issues/20/london-asia-and-the-slade-archives/.
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