VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

In December 2021, the British Ministry for Arts banned the export of a recently sold work of art. Painted by an unknown artist, “Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies, English School” dates to roughly 1650 and depicts two women, one white and one Black, seated intimately shoulder-to-shoulder, seemingly of equal social class. The Ministry’s position is that the work of art can offer unique insight on race in 17th century England. This decision by the British government, I argue, must be understood within the larger context of art world acquisitions and returns, which are experiencing a “reckoning” with histories of colonial, racial violence: looted artifacts are being returned and discussions about the artificial whiteness of ancient sculptures are gaining momentum. Within this context, the British Ministry’s decision, I argue, constitutes an attempt to re-script histories of racial violence through art. Here, visual aesthetics are harnessed for a larger public history project that re-scripts the past in order to sanitize the present for the perpetuation and the endurance of Eurocentrism and whiteness. This move captures nations’ contemporary efforts to claim an ethnically and racially heterogeneous, diverse historical record in order to better accommodate the contemporary sociopolitical moment. What the British government is clamoring to preserve is a perspective on its national history that is not just racially diverse but also, less stridently and virulently violent. What is the national utility of these efforts and how do works of art constitute a landscape for these contemporary politics of public diplomacy?