Curator’s Tour – George Hallett: Home and Exile

A presentation of George Hallett's work and the George Hallett Research Collection developed by Dr Christine Eyene

Visit the exhibition George Hallett: Home and Exile at ERL Gallery with Dr Christine Eyene who will share stories about South African exile in Britain through the work of George Hallett and the artists featured in his images.

Born in Cape Town (South Africa), George Hallett (1942-2020) lived in exile in Europe from 1970 to the mid-1990s. The exhibition focuses on the first part of his exile in England in the 1970s and 1980s, with photographs of visual artists, musicians and writers who have enriched the British art scene. It also shows Hallett’s graphic design work through his collaborations with Heinemann’s African Writers Series and Ogun Records.

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Biography

Dr Christine Eyene is an art historian and curator. She is Co-Director of ERL Gallery / Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Art at Liverpool John Moores University, and Research Curator at Tate Liverpool.

Eyene was brought up in Paris in contact with South African exiled artists Gerard Sekoto (1913-1993) and George Hallett, as well as UK-based anti-apartheid activist Lorna de Smidt (1943-2022). The mentorship of de Smidt and Hallett led to a longstanding interest in the South African art history and the role of art in raising awareness of sociopolitical issues.

This event is a unique opportunity to learn more about Hallett’s practice, the history of the artists, writers, and activists he photographed, and the George Hallett Research Collection developed by Eyene over twenty years in dialogue with Hallett, and in the framework of the project Making Histories Visible with artist and Professor of Contemporary Art Lubaina Himid CBE RA between 2014 and 2022.

Eyene wrote her PhD thesis on the links between text, African literature, and photography in the work of George Hallett (Birkbeck, University of London, 2024). Her published essays include:‘Where an artist finds freedom: South African Exiled Artists in Paris’ in Alicia Knock (ed.), Paris Noir: Artistic circulations and anti-colonial resistance, 1950 – 2000. Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2025; ‘Tracey Rose: Within and Beyond (Black) Feminism’ in Koyo Kouoh (ed.), Tracey Rose: Shooting Down Babylon. Cape Town: Zeitz MoCAA, 2022; ‘George Hallett: Wherever Jazz Carries the Gaze’ in Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung (ed.), Streams of Consciousness – A Concatenation of Dividuals. Berlin: Archive Books, 2019; and ‘George Hallett: the making of an archive’ in Berit Fischer, Kerstin Pinther, and Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi (eds.), New Spaces for Negotiating Art (and) Histories in Africa. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2015.

This event is part of George Hallett: Home and Exile’s public programme supported by LJMU’s Institute of Art and Technology (IAT) and Enhancing Research Culture.