Richard Taws The Revolutionary Image, from Gillray to Haiti

About

Gillray's caustic representations of the French Revolution form part of a complex culture of print media - and his images were reproduced and re- appropriated on both sides of the Channel. Richard Taws reveals the French Revolution's role in spurring on further transformations in communication media. Technological revolutions - such as telegraphy - were fuelled by a desire to spread utopian ideals over great distance at high speed. The desire to conquer time and space however confronted a conundrum - presented to the French in the form of the Haitian Revolution - how could France spread a message of universal human rights, while also profiting from colonialism and slave economy? Dr. Richard Taws currently teaches eighteenth and nineteenth century European art at University College London. Nottingham Contemporary's public programme is jointly funded by Nottingham Trent University and The University of Nottingham.