London exhibition celebrates 50 years of black creativity

A 1970s fashion shoot by Armet Francis in Brixton Market, in which a model sits glamorously bedecked in a flowing lilac suit and headpiece with her heeled red-shoed foot atop a white line in the road, is forceful but softer – like an exclamation mark to the beauty of the black aesthetic.

These contrasts abound at London's Somerset House West Wing galleries. Beginning with the Windrush generation and extending to today's brilliant young black talent from around the world, a group of 110 interdisciplinary artists are showcasing their work together for the first time. They explore black experience and influence, from the post-war era to the present day, and how its makers have merged the personal and political to highlight the issues of their time.