At the start of this tremendous exhibition – stunning from first to last – are two mysterious screenprints by the American artist Lorna Simpson, in which Black faces from Ebony magazine ads are superimposed one upon another. At first you seem to be looking at a 60s model, frozen and unknowable, in heavy eyeliner and beehive. But through a simple overlay, her face shifts, her right eye quickens and she breaks out of her pose. Through layers of inky blue and emerald, a model turns into an actual human being, coming alive into our present.
This swither back and forth through time is enigmatic, and beautiful to behold. It might also stand as an emblem for this show. The representation of Black figures in art runs back through the centuries, but so often as a succession of models, masks, ciphers or types – only there to signify something other than themselves. The Time Is Always Now marks a momentous shift in western culture. In all of these works – made in the 21st century, by 22 great British and American artists – each Black figure is free to be their own unique and singular person.
