From Surrealist selfies to feminist self-portraiture, the ISelf Collection explores identity and the human condition through the central themes of birth, death, sexuality, love, pain and joy. Taking the display of the collection at Whitechapel Gallery as its springboard, this book looks generally at the question of the self in modern and contemporary art, and the ways in which artists are thinking about being and identity as an individual, in relation to others, to society and the wider world.

The book suggests new narratives about canonical artworks of the British Black Art movement, such as Lubaina Himid’s Freedom and Change, Eddie Chambers’ Destruction of the National Front and Sonia Boyce’s Lay Back Keep Quiet and Think of What Made Britain So Great, interrogating their critical agency from an art-historical perspective.

Created in collaboration with Pussy Riot, this book links together the events leading up to and after the group’s arrest and the themes they fight for – feminism, LGBTQ rights, freedom of speech and the environment.

Primarily concerned with the feminist body as a site for making and exhibiting works, this book examines themes that look at the body as material, the body and performance, as well as the alternative creative platforms in 1970s feminist art. Drawing on original material – never-before-seen images from artists’ personal collections and commissioned interviews with prominent artists from the period – the book is an invaluable resource for artists, researchers, curators and students interested in recovering this period from the margins of art history.

This item is part of the ‘Glimpses of before: 1970s UK Performance Art’ Study Room Guide by Helena Goldwater (P2497)

Offers a provocative and personal interpretation of the theme of sex and sexuality in art.

Explores the visibility of women’s art in Britain, Europe and America.