A brush with history: Tate Britain explores how art confronts the past

From slave lynchings to the poll tax riots, the Tate’s Fighting History exhibition examines how art forces us to reflect on our own place in historyAt first glance it seems a rather benign, pretty photograph of a pastoral scene and out of place in a new show on British history painting. The work’s title and the artist responsible reveal more. It is called Lynching Tree and it was taken by Steve McQueen in 2013 when he was scouting locations for his film 12 Years a Slave.Previously used as a