WILLIAM BLAKE AND AFRICA.

By Nii B. Andrews.

William Blake (1757 – 1827) was largely ignored during his lifetime. 

He was thought to be mentally ill and he died poor and unheralded.

He wrote enigmatic poems laced with prophecies; he produced watercolor paintings; he had only one solo exhibition; none of his work was deemed popular or important.

From childhood, he was haunted by visions of angels, demons and strange apparitions.

EUROPE SUPPORTED BY AFRICA AND AMERICA. Does the linking of the arms show interdependence  – or a dependence of Europe on the other two? And the braid posits a binding together? Why do Africa and America have gold bangles on their upper arms; why do they look straight at the viewer while Europe has downcast eyes?

But Blake remained confident that posterity would absolve him and appreciate the quality of his artistic output. As far as he was concerned, he “labored upwards to futurity” – he was way ahead of his time.

Today most art historians and scholars consider Blake a “model of the autonomous genius and isolated visionary”.

His poem, “The Little Black Boy” is interpreted by some readers from the perspective of presentism; tyranny though is the denial of nuance. 

For some of us the two striking paintings NEWTON and THE ANCIENT OF DAYS with the prominent display of the compasses in each have major resonance. 

Blake was a staunch defender of the fundamental role of art in society and the importance of artistic freedom. 

Since he lived during a time of political oppression, he served up searing critiques of the state and organized religion; he also assailed mind- forg’d manacles and the tyranny of Reason; he was a freedom loving idealist.

Blake had an abolitionist stance towards slavery. 

David Bindman in the catalog Blake, Slavery and the Radical Mind, wrote about Blake – “The physical enslavement of Africans was a consequence of the British elite’s own mental enslavement that only true artists and poets, like himself could see clearly”.

The almost constant themes in Blake’s art were liberation and bondage; the juxtaposition of bodies both chained and free abound in his visual images.

His radical ideas made him the chosen commissioned artist for the seminal book written by John Stedman on slavery in Surinam. 

The paintings though based on drawings by other artists, are still clearly differentiated as his own. 

His imagery hints at minds imprisoned, bodies contorted and brutalized. He succeeds in demonstrating the negative and horrific aspects of the institution.

The book publisher forced a considerable toning down of the anti slavery sentiments of the text and the artwork.

THE CELEBRATED GRAMAN QUACY.

That the state of the mind is shown by the condition of the body was Blake’s enduring metaphor for slavery and liberation. 

How can we not take due cognizance of this powerful allegory from the art of Blake as we remember and celebrate the YEAR OF RETURN – 400 years after the first African slaves arrived in America?

Does the current condition of our individual bodies, and our nation’s – and what about the earth (our collective body), reflect the state of our minds?

THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.

*****The William Blake retrospective is at London’s Tate Britain until February 2 2020.

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