Tate Modern's Soul of a Nation Closing Party

Soul of a Nation Closing Party: Brooklyn Tap Takeover

To mark the end of the blockbuster Soul of a Nation exhibition, Tate Modern is hosting a jam packed weekend of US craft beer, soul food, soul music and Hip Hop Karaoke.

The closing party will kick off next Thursday evening (19 October) with a Tap Takeover from US craft brewery, Brooklyn Brewery. The Brooklyn Brewery is internationally renowned for introducing innovative brewing methods that always deliver on flavour.

On Thursday, the Brooklyn Brewery will give you the opportunity to try five of their most famous beers – their much-loved Brooklyn lager and their Post Road Pumpkin Ale will be on offer. As well as a brewer talk, Brooklyn Brewery will also be exhibiting some of the brewery artwork. The creatives amongst you must seek out their painting by numbers activity too.




Keeping the party spirit alive throughout the weekend will be Hip Hop Karaoke and R&B & Soul DJ Rob Pursey. Although we warn you in advance, the team will be inviting amateur rappers to the stage to showcase their magic!

While you sing and dance the night away, munch on the selection of soul food on offer including buttermilk fried chicken, corn slaw and creole fries.

But make sure you do actually buy a ticket to Soul of a Nation if you haven't seen the exhibition already – we think it has been one of the best exhibitions of the year so far!

We have ten pairs of tickets for Brooklyn Brewery Tap Takeover, which includes 5 Thirds of beer on Thursday 19 October (6.30pm-11pm), for Culture Whisper members to redeem. Book now to avoid disappointment.

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REVIEW of Soul of a Nation 4-STAR

What did it mean to be a black artist in the US at the height of the civil rights movement? How did the birth of Black Power affect the perception of black art? What was black art’s purpose and who was its audience?

Tate Modern’s landmark exhibition, Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power, explores these questions and unearths the ways in which black artists responded to the rallying cries for African American pride, solidarity and autonomy from 1963 to 1983.

A selection of works by the Spiral Group – a New York–based African American artists’ collective active from 1963 to 1965 – open the show with a bang. The choice of 1963 as a starting year – the year of the Great March on Washington D.C, the ‘I have a dream speech’, and widespread violence and unrest – establishes the exhibition as avowedly political.

The political streak strikes loud and clear in the five assemblages by America’s preeminent collagist, Romare Bearden. Hanging proud opposite Norman Lewis’s rather more abstract composition Processional, 1965, which depicts the Selma Marches that took place in the spring of 1963, they speak of discordance and fracture, both in form and subject.



Roman Bearden, Pittsburgh Memory, 1964

In their works, the Spiral Group posed existential questions about their practice and the role of art, as a medium of expression for the self and for the community. They aimed to deconstruct the 'Art for art's sake' mantra.

While the group is not characterized by a coherent style, the artists were experimental in their approach, playing with photomontage and forms of modernist abstraction, which were not typically associated with African American artists at the time.



Betye Saar, Eye, 1972

Meandering on through the exhibition, visitors journey between landmark cities and dates of the Black Arts Movement. We move from the ghettos and back streets of Chicago, to the black-run galleries and studios in New York and LA. Not all the work in the exhibition is great, quite frankly some is extremely questionable, both in terms of quality and address of the issue at hand, but some is good, really good.

The vibrant paintings of the AfriCOBRA artists fall into the latter category. They are simple in form and subject and are a pleasure to look at. The high-key, or what the AfriCOBRA artists referred to as ‘coolaid’, palette draws the eye, and the abundant presence of slogans and copy makes their political message loud and clear.



Wadsworth Jarrell, Revolutionary, 1972

As the only group to devise a manifesto, their work promoted a new aesthetic – an aesthetic characterized by ‘rhythm’ and ‘shine’, which departed dramatically from the Pop and abstract styles embraced by the Spiral Group. Founded by Jeff Donaldson, the AfriCOBRA artists wanted to make art accessible to all. They focused on poster art and prints, which could be mass produced cheaply and bought by engaged but less well-off black followers.

Beyond the prints, oils and assemblages in the exhibition, there are a number of ritualistic pseudo-African sculptures, photographs, portraits of well-known black heroes, and abstract compositions including Senna Negundi's, Internal II 1977, 2015. On display in the closing room, this work is made from a pair of stretched 'flesh coloured' nylon tights, which eerily evokes a truncated spider's web.

The questions evoked are endless. When thinking of the symbolism associated with a spider's web, death trap, struggle, and supreme ruler come to mind. While Negundi's message may not be as extreme as this, the use of a 'flesh' pair of tights – once a standard western marker of femininity and professionalism – serves as a reminder that Black women did not conform to a white standard of beauty.



Emory Douglas, We Shall Survive without a doubt, 1971

Soul of a Nation magnificently spotlights an under-examined period and group of artists in American history. One of a series of recent Tate exhibitions exploring neglected or forgotten artists outside of the European art historical canon this exhibition is long overdue.

It's ambitious to say the least, and not all the big questions are answered succinctly and satisfactorily, but successfully showcases the ways black artists rallied across the USA to produce some of the most radical, politically engaging and challenging art in recent history.