Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1935 Karachi, India (now Pakistan)

Year of Migration to the UK: 1964

Biography

Artist, writer and curator Rasheed Araeen was born in Karachi, in what was then known as 'British India', now Pakistan, in 1935. As a child, he played with clay and traced flowers on to cloth for his mother's embroidery, and aged 14 he began painting. Although he studied civil engineering at Karachi’s NED University of Engineering and Technology, graduating in 1962, he had by this time decided to pursue art seriously. In June 1964, after a brief stay in Paris, Araeen moved to London, England. He worked as an engineer for BP until 1968 when he left his job to dedicate himself to his sculpture, despite having received no prior formal training. The following year, he won a prize for sculpture at the John Moores Liverpool biennial exhibition. Building on his engineering knowledge, principles of Islamic geometry and architecture, and influenced by the work of British sculptor, Anthony Caro, Araeen became one of the pioneers of minimalist sculpture in Britain. In his early sculptures he sought to create symmetrical and non-hierarchical open works, before turning to explore other modes of expression, such as paintings, collage, photo-works, and performance. In London, Araeen quickly became aware of the eurocentrism of European art institutions and continuously had to struggle against racial prejudice. He has said: 'My life in Britain has been my struggle against the establishment. It took many forms – within art, outside art, in writing, in performances, in writing letters to the prime minister' (Guardian interview, 16 January 2020). His work, in art, writing and activism, aimed to challenge and expose entrenched racist systems and the exclusionary and discriminatory practices of the white art world and British society.

In 1972, Araeen joined the British Black Panther organisation in London, and a few years later joined the Artists for Democracy group founded by the artist David Medalla. His art increasingly became political as he explored postcolonialism, imperialism, identity and racial discrimination, through performance, photography, painting and sculpture. The catalogue for the 1986 group exhibition From Two Worlds, held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, noted: 'It is the worlds of culture and politics that lie at the very core of all Araeen's work' (From Two Worlds, p. 7). He is considered to be one of the pivotal figures in establishing a black voice in the British arts through his art, activism and publications. His live performances include the mixed-media installation Paki Bastard (Portrait of the Artist as a Black Person) (1977), first performed at Artists for Democracy in London in July 1977, and subsequently at the Whitechapel and at Sussex University. From 1975, Araeen increasingly used his writing to express his ideas and advocate for change, for example with his Preliminary Notes for a Black Manifesto. Along with the poet Mahmood Jamal, he founded the journal Black Phoenix in 1978. This was followed by Third Text in 1987, a groundbreaking journal for Postcolonial art, and by Third Text Asia in 2008. Araeen published his autobiography, Making Myself Visible, in 1984, addressing the apparent invisibility of art and artists whose cultural background is non-western. In 1989, he curated the landmark exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain, at the Hayward Gallery, London, having proposed the idea to the Arts Council eleven years previously, the first retrospective of British African, Caribbean and Asian modernism.

Araeen has curated, published, and exhibited extensively. Exhibitions of his work include a retrospective at Aicon Gallery, London, in 2010, and an international touring retrospective held in 2017-19; he also showed at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. He accepted an honorary doctorate from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, on 2 July 2018, and has additional honorary doctorates from the universities of Southampton, East London and Wolverhampton. Rasheed Araeen lives and works in London, England and in 2020 he opened a community-based restaurant-meets-living- artwork in Stoke Newington. His works are held in UK public collections including Tate, Walker Art Gallery, British Council Collection, and Imperial War Museums.

Related books

Celeste-Marie Bernier, Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art, 1965-2015 (Oakland: University of California Press, 2018), pp. 70-72
Lizzy Carey-Thomas ed, Migrations: Journeys into British Art (London: Tate Publishing, 2012)
Rasheed Araeen, Rasheed Araeen (London: South London Gallery, 1994)
Rasheed Araeen, The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain (London: Southbank Centre, 1989)
Rasheed Araeen, The Essential Black Art (London: Chisenhale Gallery, 1988)
Third Text Journal (http://thirdtext.org) 1987-present
From Two Worlds (London: Trustees of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 1986)
Rasheed Araeen, Making Myself Visible (Kala Press, 1984)

Public collections

Imperial War Museums

Related organisations

Artists for Democracy (member)
Black Panther Movement (member)
Black Phoenix (editor)
Courtauld Institute of Art (recipient of honorary doctorate)
NED University of Engineering and Technology (editor and founder)
Third Text (editor and founder)
University of East London (recipient of honorary doctorate)
University of Southampton (recipient of honorary doctorate)
University of Wolverhampton (member)

Selected exhibitions

Rasheed Araeen: A Retrospective, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2017-18), MAMCO, Geneva (2018), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2018-19), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2019)
Rasheed Araeen, Grosvenor Gallery, London/Dubai (2014)
Zero to Infinity, Tate Britain, London (2012-13)
Before and After Minimalism, 1959-1974, Aicon Gallery, London (2010)
To Whom it May Concern, Serpentine Gallery, London (1996)
Rasheed Araeen: Solo Exhibition, South London Gallery and John Hansard Gallery (1994-95)
The Other Story, Hayward Gallery (1989-1990)
The Essential Black Art, Chisenhale Gallery (1988)
From Modernism to Postmodernism: Rasheed Araeen, A Retrospective, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham; Cornerhouse, Manchester; John Hansard, Southampton; Chapter, Cardiff (1987)
From Two Worlds, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1986)
Pentonville Gallery, London (1984 & 1986)
Artists for Democracy, London (1975)
John Moores Liverpool Biennale (1969)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Rasheed Araeen]

Ben Uri Research Unit

for the study and digital recording of the Jewish, Refugee and wide Immigrant contribution to British visual culture since 1900.

Rasheed Araeen artist