The recent debate around the decolonisation of the sculpture gallery in the Walker Art gallery in Liverpool is part of a broader one currently being had in the UK: how to exhibit artworks challenging the slavery and postcolonial history of the empire (‘We want to ruffle a few feathers’: Liverpool gallery confronts colonial past, 8 July).
In a series of psychological studies exploring the role of implicitly held attitudes to Black people on the viewing of paintings, we have shown that they influence eye movements to Black people depicted in the paintings.
This important finding illustrates that racial attitudes did not just affect the content of some historic artworks but continue to influence the perception of contemporary art.
The conclusion that we have reached is that racial attitudes will continue to influence how art is perceived, even as art exhibitions try to challenge the colonial past.
The fact that this is the case does not diminish the urgent argument for diversifying art collections.
Dr Tobiasz Trawinski
Department of psychology, Liverpool Hope University
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