Maud Sulter

Maud Sulter was an award-winning artist and writer of Scottish and Ghanaian heritage. She interrogated and reinvented the visual representation of black women, challenging invisibility and marginalisation by putting, as she said “black women back in the centre of the frame—both literally within the photographic image, but also within the cultural institutions where our work operates”.

She was a prominent member of the British Black Arts Movement in the 1980s, exhibiting in The Thin Black Line (London, 1986) and achieving international recognition for Zabat (1989). Best known for her photography, she worked across photomontage, installation, sound and moving image. Sulter critically investigated the legacies of colonialism in visual culture and museum collecting, histories of persecution and injustice, black women’s creativity and the long-standing cultural connections between Africa and Europe. Deep research underpinned her studio photography investigating the fragmentary histories of black women and her long-standing interest in Jeanne Duval. She was awarded an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Derby and taught at several universities including Manchester Metropolitan.

Sulter represented Britain at the first Johannesburg Biennale (1985) and her art has been exhibited internationally. Her work is included in public and private collections including Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Council, Arts Council England, National Portrait Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, University of St Andrews Museums, Government Art Collection and the Scottish Parliament.