The presence of the South Asian diaspora in Britain reaches back to at least the seventeenth century, but the most significant period of migration came after the Second World War. At this time many were invited to the UK to fill labour shortages or became refugees after the expulsion of Africans of Asian descent from Uganda. A Brief History of British South Asian Art showcases the diverse creative practices of over sixty artists of South Asian descent living and working in Britain from the 1950s to the early 2000s. During the decolonisation period, many artists who had achieved acclaim in South Asia came to London to expand their artistic horizons and to contribute to shaping contemporary culture in the city. In 1980s Britain, many politicised artists of South Asian extraction found solidarity with other artistic communities – such as the BLK Art Group – who shared their experiences of postcolonial displacement and marginalisation. Although artists of South Asian heritage in Britain made vital contributions to art history, much of their work is undiscovered, and the nuances of their narratives largely unexplored. This book, through the works of artists including Sunil Gupta, Samena Rana, Chila Kumari Singh Burman and F.N. Souza, explores the intersections of race, migration, class, gender, sexuality and disability in the context of British South Asian art and culture.

Author Biography

Alina Khakoo is a historian of Global Majority art and activism in Britain. She is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Paul Mellon Centre. This book is based on her doctoral thesis (2024), which explores how artists associated with anti-racist and feminist social movements in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s created their own galleries, magazines and archives in the face of mainstream institutional indifference – and how these infrastructures articulated ideas about social transformation in and of themselves. Alina has also worked at Kettle’s Yard and the Panchayat Special Collection, Tate Library.

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