A disturbing omission has become institutionalised in the official version of modern British art produced over the last 60 years. This officially recognised history, which provides the basis for teaching in art schools and universities, is a misrepresentation of the transformation of British society resulting from the postwar immigration of artists from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. These artists were major contributors to modernism not only in Britain but internationally. Their exclusion from the 'official' mainstream has deprived British society of a fabric fundamental to the identity of Britain as a postcolonial and multiracial society. A total lack of concern within the artworld mainstream, particularly of its publicly funded institutions whose responsibility should be to represent the interests of the whole of society, is reflected by the complete absence of debate about this situation. The aim of this special British issue of Third Text is to the recover knowledge institutionally ignored or suppressed and to open overdue debate with the hope that those concerned, individually and institutionally, with public knowledge and its role in the transformation of Britain into a more humane and equitable society will come forward at last to rectify the situation.