William Blake Exhibition at the Burrell from 3 Nov 2007

[Alex Glass]

Mind’forg’d Manacles: William Blake and Slavery

In every cry of every Man.
In every infant’s cry of fear.
In every voice; in every ban.
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear. Songs of Experience: London

This autumn brings an important selection of work by the visionary artist and writer William Blake (1757–1827) to the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. The exhibition is a collaboration between Hayward Gallery Touring and the British Museum Partnership UK, and marks two important anniversaries. One is the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade Act, and the other is the 250th anniversary of Blake’s birth.

Over 60 works will be on display, mostly by Blake but also a few other relevant items, including the diagram of a slave ship circulated by Wilberforce, which was a powerful tool in his abolition campaign. The exhibition has been curated by Professor David Bindman, an authority on Blake and issues of race in art.

In the 1770s a British mercenary called JG Stedman was part of a Dutch force that put down rebellious slaves in the Dutch colony of Surinam, on the North Atlantic coast of South America. Stedman was greatly troubled by the brutality that he witnessed there and wrote a full account of his experiences. Blake was employed to make engravings of Stedman’s sketches to illustrate the book, so Blake and Stedman worked together for several years.

The exhibition also draws upon items in the Burrell Collection, including an engraved glass from the 1760s, which depicts colonial Surinam, complete with sugar cane and plantation buildings. Part of the Burrell’s important collection of engraved Dutch glass, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see it in this different context.

While the considerable time Blake spent with Stedman must have informed him of issues relating to slavery, this was only part of the context in which Blake’s own ideas developed. Through publishing and literary connections, Blake met many of the leading, frequently radical, thinkers of his time. Themes of freedom and oppression, justice, suffering and redemption permeate Blake’s work. We are all, in Blake’s eyes, enslaved by authority and our acceptance of restrictions imposed by society. This exhibition draws out Blake’s experience of the slave trade, showing how this influenced his work.

Mostly, Mind-forg’d Manacles deals with Blake’s visions as expressed in his own voice. All his major works are represented, such as Visions of the Daughters of Albion, Jerusalem, Milton and America: a prophecy. These, and a set of illustrations to the work of other writers, explore themes of lost innocence and enslavement. Slavery was used as a metaphor by many writers and thinkers, and Blake carries this further into ideas of revolution, of breaking free from chains.

By the end of his life, Blake’s views had gone beyond those of the mainstream abolition movement. Unlike others, he did not see slavery as an aberration from normal British justice, but an inevitable extension of a national enslavement to power and wealth.

Although Blake’s writings have contributed to ideas of English identity, his influence in Scotland is less assured. However, important examples of his work are available on the Burrell’s doorstep, at Pollok House. Eve naming the birds, Adam naming the beasts and The Canterbury Pilgrims are all on display in the Cedar Room.

Mind Forg’d Manacles is at the Burrell Collection from 3 November 2007 until 6 January 2008. There will be short introductory gallery talks at 3pm most Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
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The Burrell Collection, Pollok Country Park, Glasgow
0141 287 2550
http://www.glasgowmuseums.com for opening hours and events information

[My Kitten]

lovely. I love william blake and his especially his pics of adam and eve in pollok house and the songs of innocence and experience poems

[thecatsmother]

Oooh, ta. I like a bit of Blake, me.
Let the slave, grinding at the mill, run out into the field;
Let him look up into the heavens & laugh in the bright air.
Let the inchained soul, shut up in darkness & in sighing,
Whose face has never seen a smile in thirty weary years,
Rise & look out: his chains are loose, his dungeon doors
are open;
And let his wife & children return from the opressor's scourge.