Rita Keegan is a highly significant yet overlooked artist who has not been represented in a public collection in the UK. Keegan is an important part of the UK’s Black Arts Movement in the 1980s and her work documenting artists of colour was visionary. She co-founded the Brixton Art Gallery in 1982, established the Women of Colour Index (WOCI) in 1987, and was Director of the African and Asian Visual Arts Archive (AAVAA) until 1994. For many years, she was a lecturer in multimedia arts at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Love, Sex and Romance (1984) is a unique example of Keegan’s Copy Art technique, an innovative use of new media in art, which was central to the artist’s career. It was a key work in the major touring exhibition Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990, 2023/24. Love, Sex and Romance speaks directly to Tate collection works by British artists engaged with feminism such as Caroline Coon, Lubaina Himid, Claudette Johnson, Linder and Ingrid Pollard; and International artists such as Lynn Hershman Leeson and Cindy Sherman. Tate holds work by a number of artists associated with the BLK Art Group whose work could be seen in dialogue with Love, Sex and Romance including Sonia Boyce OBE, Keith Piper and Donald Rodney. The acquisition of Love, Sex and Romance not only corrects an historic omission, bringing our holdings in line with the significance of Keegan’s practice, but also supports Tate’s wider commitment to increasing the representation of women artists in the national collection. More specifically, this acquisition will bolster Tate’s holdings of work by women of colour in the UK. Diversifying the collection in this way and telling a more inclusive history of British art which our audiences can relate to and be inspired by remains a key strategic priority. The work would provide invaluable content to engage diverse local and international audiences in our research initiatives and education programmes, encouraging important conversations around womanhood and Black culture in the UK.
