For Hurvin Anderson, the barber shop is a refuge and inspiration
In 2006, British artist Hurvin Anderson painted his first hairdressing scene. In ‘Barbershop’, reflections from the mirrors above a worktop create a series of rectangular patterns, like an abstract painting. In the front are two slightly disordered chairs surrounded by locks of hair, as if the customers have just left and it is the spectator’s turn to sit down.
The scene is based on an establishment in Anderson’s hometown, Birmingham, where the 58-year-old has painted numerous times over the past decade and a half as he has also returned to a number of barbershops in London and Jamaica. Many of these works are on display now, until Nov. 5.Hurvin Anderson: Salon Paintings‘ at the Hepworth Wakefield, a museum in Northern England. (The name of the show, chosen by Anderson, refers to both hair salons and the historic art exhibitions in Paris.)
Over the past 25 years, Anderson – who was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2017 – has focused on painting the spaces occupied by black people, especially members of the Windrush generation, such as his parents, who were encouraged to travel from the Caribbean area to Britain to help the country rebuild after World War II. (The name refers to the HMT Empire Windrush, which carried passengers from the Caribbean to England in 1948.) He’s also explored his own experiences living in Britain and growing up as the youngest of eight siblings, and the only one born in Britain.
When the Windrush generation first arrived, “Caribbean life in Britain was one identity at home and another when they stepped out,” he said in a recent interview at the Hepworth, dressed casually in a white shirt and black pants, his long hair neatly tied back in a ponytail. This was especially evident in the way the interior spaces of the Caribbean were decorated, Anderson added: “They have a certain aesthetic and it almost describes them.”
Anderson is also known for his striking landscape paintings that draw on different perceptions of the Caribbean, but more than any other subject, Anderson has returned to the interior space of the commercial black barber shop, fascinated, he said, by the space aesthetically and by how it functions within black communities.
Begun in 2007, “Peter’s Series” is set in an attic belonging to Peter Brown, who converted it into a makeshift barber shop that Anderson’s father often visited. The paintings explore the ways in which Caribbean immigrants used their homes to gather in the 1950s and 1960s. With white hairdressers often reluctant to cut black hair, this meant communities created their own spaces.
Anderson initially described his barbershop interior as “slightly chaotic” before adding that, despite this apparent randomness, the spaces are put together in a distinct way, most notable in the posters on the walls.
At the museum, Anderson’s oldest barbershop paintings are displayed almost opposite the most recent works, allowing visitors to see how the series has evolved.
In a recent piece, “Skiffle,” 2023, a poster shows followers of Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey, who strove to unite people of African descent worldwide. “Next to it you see an image of men practicing karate,” Isabella Maidment, who co-curated the show with Eleanor Clayton, said in a recent telephone interview, noting that karate and judo were popular pastimes among young black men in the 1970s in Great Britain.
In 2015, Anderson painted “Is it OK to Be Black?” The title riffs on the common barber shop phrase, “Is it okay in the back?” In the composition, a teal barbershop wall is filled with posters, including one featuring Martin Luther King, Jr. politicized space.
“Apart from the home, it’s one of the places where black men and women can speak freely,” Anderson said.
“The barbershop is a safe space that every black man needs,” Tommy J. Curry, a professor of philosophy and black men’s studies at the University of Edinburgh, said in a recent video interview. “It makes them look presentable, but it also helps them cope, emotionally and psychologically, with the kinds of things they face in the world.”
Curry added that in both Britain and the United States, black men who congregate in public are often demonized by others as threatening or unsafe.
The idea of the black barbershop as a place of refuge can also be found in popular culture. In 2002, the critically acclaimed movie “Barbershop” directed by Tim Story premiered and became a franchise. It centered around a store on Chicago’s South Side, known for its large African-American population. In one scene, a man runs out of the barbershop for an interview, then comes back to pay and the barber tells him to keep the money. “There’s this idea that black barbers understand that they’re helping brothers move into a world that’s extremely hostile to them,” Curry said.
“The Barbershop Chronicles” by Nigerian playwright Inua Ellams was first performed in 2017 at London’s National Theatre. Set on the same day in Lagos, Johannesburg, Harare, Accra, Kampala and London, the play depicts barbershops as places where black men can be vulnerable or quarrelsome.
This same idea has also led to real-life initiatives such as the Barbers Round Chair project in North London, where hairdressers are trained to be mental health ambassadors for their communities, building on the skills many of them have already acquired.
When Anderson started painting commercial barbershops, he was drawn to the large mirrors and overall feel of the places.
“The earlier paintings seem to be observing space itself. It feels like you are the next customer, waiting for your turn,” he said.
Over time, his relationship with the subject has become more about the socio-political context of the shops and the details of the interiors, as in 2023’s ‘Skiffle’.
“In the new paintings you are a customer, the viewer, the hairdresser and maybe the painter,” he said. “The questions are getting much broader.”