The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge brings together artworks and objects from the Caribbean, West Africa, South America and Europe to ask questions about its own involvement with the transatlantic slave trade – and, in doing so, to interrogate wider histories of human exploitation (8 September–7 January 2024). The exhibition opens with a critical look at Richard Fitzwilliam, after whom the museum is named. Fitzwilliam, whose grandfather accumulated wealth through the slave trade, donated vast quantities of money, books and art to the University of Cambridge in 1816. Items from the collection are paired with international loans, while historic artworks are placed in dialogue with work by contemporary artists including Barbara Walker, Donald Locke, Alberta Whittle and Keith Piper. Together, they aim to reveal how the legacies of enslavement continue to shape the world today. Find out more on the Fitzwilliam’s website.
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Vanishing Point 29 (Duyster) (2021), Barbara Walker. Courtesy the artist and Cristea Roberts Gallery, London
History at the Dinner Table (2021), Jacqueline Bishop. Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; © Jacqueline Bishop
Snuffbox with gold piqué point work and interior vignette under glass (c. 1730–60). Photo: © The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Portrait of a Man in a Red Suit (c. 1740–80). © Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery, Exeter City Council