The Art Isles: A 15,000-Year Story of Art in Britain and Ireland

Summary

The British Isles hold a unique position in the history of art, a place where local traditions fuse with international ideas. At once isolated by coastal boundaries, yet also part of larger networks of diverse peoples, these islands have always benefited from a dual perspective.

Artistic creativity in the British Isles stretches back to Ice Age engravings of reindeer, horses, and birds. International networks were already shaping prehistoric art and by 1,000 CE artists working in Britain and Ireland were using lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, walrus tusks from Greenland, garnets from India, and elephant ivory from Africa. The Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans introduced new styles from overseas, as did later European artists, attracted by the wealth of royal courts. Art was traded and looted across the British empire by explorers, merchants, and the military.

In the course of the twentieth century these islands have been a refuge, but also a place where migrants have faced resistance. Sculptures by Jewish immigrants fleeing Nazi death camps, paintings by post-war Caribbean artists, and protest murals sparked by the Troubles in Northern Ireland all express artists' complex relationships with the idea of home. Many artists today consciously reflect on this history in their work, exploring concepts of identity and belonging.