Explore: Maud Sulter

(1960 - 2008)

Maud Sulter was born in Glasgow to parents of Scottish and Ghanian descent, and worked as an artist and writer, living between London and Yorkshire. She was active in feminist communities in London in the early 1980s and notably programmed 'Check It', a groundbreaking two-week show at the Drill Hall showcasing black women's creativity. She came to prominence with the 1986 exhibition 'The Thin Black Line' at the ICA, London, curated by Lubaina Himid. In 1990, Sulter was awarded the British Telecom New Contemporaries Award, and the Momart Fellowship at the Tate Gallery Liverpool. She wrote and lectured extensively on art history, focusing on women's art practice from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth centuries, and addressing the representation of black women. She also published award-winning collections of poetry, as well as a play about Jerry Rawlings, 'Service to Empire' (2002).