About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe

“About Face: Revisiting Jamaica’s First Exhibition in Europe” Exhibit online, with video and more: http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface

PDF version of online exhibit provided for use in ease in teaching. See the full online exhibit, with video and links to additional resources, in the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC):

http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface

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About Face revisits Jamaica's first exhibition to tour Europe after gaining independence in 1962. Use this site to view its images, review the original catalogue and understand the context of Face of Jamaica almost fifty years ago. Face of Jamaica The 196364 Exhibition

About Face

Face of Jamaica toured Europe for nine months between 1963 and 1964 and it was never viewed in Jamaica. Almost fifty years later, the exhibition About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe reconsiders that touring show by collating and representing its art and related materials online. Using this interactive format, we invite you to see much of the show as it was staged back then, to look at many of the original pieces displayed; to study its catalogue, and to consider its various locations as well as its reception through newspaper clippings and reviews. Text panels, photography and multimedia such as music and video are all to be employed to help reenvisage this exhibition.

Rather than reconstructing the exhibition in its entirety, curators Petrine Archer and Claudia Hucke work with a selection of its objects to deconstruct the original display and consider Jamaican art's meaning in the context of the 1960s art world and contemporary scholarship. By restaging the exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence online they provide access to an event only previously experienced in Europe. They hope that this online display can serve as a research tool for those interested in understanding how the visual arts supported new definitions of nation. The exhibition remains online for the year of Jamaica's 50th anniversary celebration, after which part of its materials will be archived in dLOC (Digital Library of the Caribbean).

After centuries of colonial rule, Jamaica became independent from Britain on 6 August 1962. It was a time of great optimism. After centuries of colonial rule and decades of political tussles, Jamaicans were taking charge of their own governance. Princess Margaret paid a royal visit to support the celebrations and the national stadium was the scene of festivities with marching bands, parades and dancing. The sound of calypsonian Lord Creator's song Independent Jamaica played: in cars, homes and on street corners. His refrain, “I believe that if we try our best, it will be a great success, so let us live in unity for progress and prosperity,” seemed to reflect everyone's hope for the future.

A year later, its first major international exhibition as a sovereign country toured Germany and Britain for ten months. Titled Face of Jamaica, the exhibition comprised works from a crosssection of Jamaica's artists that included the contemporary forms of Karl Parboosingh, Barrington Watson and Eugene Hyde; sculptures by pioneer Edna Manley and a young Christopher Gonzalez and the symbolic imagery of selftaught artists such as Mallica ‘Kapo’ Reynolds and John Dunkley.

The choice of Germany and Britain for its tour was a strategic one signifying the promotion of Jamaica as a tourism destination with a varied and 'exotic' culture. The exhibition strengthened commercial ties and provided fresh insight into the island's physical beauty, cultural diversity and economic sustainability. The title Face of Jamaica allowed its organizers to test its motto 'Out Of Many, One People' and present its newly independent face to the world.

The show was sponsored by the Flensburg based businessman Norbert LorckSchierning, managing director of H.H. Pott, at that time the sole distributor of Jamaican rums in Germany. He hoped to show the German public that there is more to Jamaica than rum and wanted to introduce them to “a true picture of Jamaica, as seen through Jamaican eyes...”

http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface 1/3 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe Both the German and Jamaican governments endorsed the sponsor’s concept. For Jamaica, the exhibition presented an important and welcome opportunity to promote the newly independent country, and Germany was able to demonstrate its interest in and support of a developing country. Edward Seaga, then Jamaica’s Minister of Development and Welfare established a selection committee to oversee what might be included, while art critic Norman Rae suggested the art works should be grouped into three categories work, play and worship. In the end, Face of Jamaica consisted of 48 paintings, eighteen sculptures and twelve drawings from the 1930s to the 1960s by some of the country’s leading artists as well as 299 craftworks. Gerhard Fritz Hensel Portrait of Dr. Ellen Redlefsen, Seaga made clear: “Jamaica has for many years enjoyed 1974 trade ties with Germany, and a tour of Jamaican art and Image courtesy Museumsberg crafts at this stage will certainly assist in stimulating further Flensburg Städtische Museen interest as well as in presenting a more complete picture und Sammlungen für den of Jamaica to the people of Western Germany...” Landesteil Schleswig Exhibition Poster published in Flensburg Newspapers

Face of Jamaica itinerary

The show premiered at the Städtisches Museum in the northern town of Flensburg, where it opened on 4 August 1963. It then proceeded to Osnabrück (Ausstellungsraum Markt 1, 8–28 September 1963), Freiburg (Museum of Ethnography, 6–31 October 1963), Munich (Terrassensaal, Haus der Kunst, 6–24 November 1963), Düsseldorf (January/February 1964) and Frankfurt (Amerika Haus), where it closed on 13 February 1964. The following month the exhibition moved to Britain, where it opened at the Tea Centre in London on 31 March 1964. Ten days later it was sent to Birmingham before it was finally shown in Nottingham.

A closer look at the choice of exhibition venues is significant to help us understand the status of Jamaican art among German cultural Flensburg Museum, c. 1958 authorities. H.H. Pott, the Image courtesy Museumsberg Flensburg Städtische Museen sponsor, is a company und Sammlungen für den Landesteil Schleswig based in Flensburg, a port town in Germany’s far north. The choice of that city as first location for Face of Jamaica was an obvious one. With the Städtisches Museum, the major local museum with a focus on the arts and crafts of the Watson Flirts with Miss World region, the most prestigious exhibition space in town became Face of Jamaica’s first host. Katarina Lodders, 1962

Even though it also included craft items, the show was mainly marketed as an art exhibition. Nevertheless, it was also offered to ethnographic museums, which traditionally have collected objects from the cultural contexts of non‘Western’ societies, in particular those that fuelled a curiosity for the foreign in the European viewer. In the end, Face of Jamaica was only shown at one ethnographic museum, the one in Freiburg. The venues in most cities other than Flensburg were communal or cultural centres – no art museums. Prominent exception was the Haus der Kunst in Munich, home of the Nazi’s notorious Great German Art exhibition, which offered its Terrassensaal to the Jamaican show.

The continuation of the exhibition's tour at the Tea Centre in London also seemed Watson in Munich Talking, 1963 significant. This postwar building in the heart of the city on Regent Street was funded by various Commonwealth members with the aim of promoting their products. Its glass fronted façade and purposedesigned interior seemed ideal for signaling that the relationship between Britain and Jamaica was on a new more modern footing.

The Tea Centre, Lower Regent Street, London Image from the University of Brighton Design Archives http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface 2/3 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe

Haus der Kunst photo: Maximilian Geuter, courtesy Haus der Kunst

The special guest of Face of Jamaica in Munich was the Jamaican beauty queen Carol Joan Crawford still in her reigning year as Miss World. Photographs of Watson meeting this stunning beauty queen at the airport in Munich, or viewing selftaught artists Kapo's work provided great fodder for society columns but they also tell us much about that postindependence moment and how Jamaica was poised to present itself to the outside world. Carol Joan Crawford as a world icon sent a message at home and abroad that Jamaica had style.

Watson Greets Crawford on arrival in Germany, 1963

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The About Face Gallery allows you to view the forty five images of works featured in the original Face of Jamaica exhibition that toured Germany and the UK between 1963 and 1964. Click on any image to see a larger view.

Carl Abrahams Carl Abrahams Ralph Campbell The Last Supper, 1955 Portrait of a Girl The Old Settlement, pre1957 National Gallery of Jamaica National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Leslie Clerk Leslie Clerk Alexander Cooper Henry Daley The Secret, 1959 The Bather, c. 1960 The Villagers, 1963 The Petitioner, 1945 Susan Alexander Collection, Susan Alexander National Gallery of National Gallery of Jamaica Kingston Collection, Kingston Jamaica Image courtesy of Olivia McGilchrist Image courtesy of Image courtesy of the Olivia McGilchrist National Gallery of Jamaica

John Dunkley Gloria Escoffery Three Spanish Jars, c. 1940s The Old Woman, 1955 Private Collection National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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Gloria Escoffery AnnaMaria Hendriks Albert Huie School Girls Pocomania Meeting, 1953 Portrait of Edna Manley Artist's Collection c. 1940s Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Albert Huie Eugene Hyde Eugene Hyde Portrait of a Girl The Harvest, 1960 Colonization I National Gallery of Jamaica "Eugene Hyde presenting Colonization I Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica to Edward Seaga, 1963"

Roger Mais Edna Manley Edna Manley Edna Manley Siesta, 1952 Head of a Man Horse of the Morning, The Earring Private Collection, Kingston Private Collection, 1943 Private Collection, Image courtesy of John Maxwell Kingston National Gallery of Kingston Image courtesy of Jamaica Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke Claudia Hucke

Edna Manley Edna Manley Edna Manley Alvin Marriott Alvin Marriott The Lady and the Tiger Moses Negro Aroused, 1935 Boysie, 1962 Freeze, c. 1960 National Gallery of Jamaica National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Image courtesy of the Gallery of Jamaica National Gallery of Jamaica http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/gallery 2/4 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Gallery

David Miller David Miller Whitney Miller Whitney Miller Head, 1949 Girl Surprised, 1949 View from North Street Pocomania National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Cleveland Morgan We are Coming, 1960

Leonard Morris Herbert A. Palmer Herbert A. Palmer Herbert A. Palmer Market Day The Cane Cutter Faßroller The Dance (detail)

David Pottinger Karl Parboosingh Nine Night, 1949 Jamaican Interlude, c. 1958 National Gallery of Jamaica National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

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Gaston Tabois Gaston Tabois Mallica 'Kapo' Reynolds Independence Celebrations The Road Repair, 1956 Male and Female Created National Gallery of Jamaica He Them Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica National Gallery of Jamaica

Barrington Watson Barrington Watson Barrington Watson Out of Many One People, 1962 Self Portrait, c. 1962 Tineke, 1961 Wallace Campbell Orange Park Collection Collection Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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Exhibits > About Face > Catalogue Catalogue

View the images and the layout from the original Face of Jamaica catalogue.

The exhibition’s German sponsor, Norbert LorckSchierning of the rum importer H.H. Pott wanted to guarantee the show’s “authenticity” and refrained from influencing the choice of works. Instead, Jamaica’s Minister of Development and Welfare, Edward Seaga set up a selection committee that invited collectors and artists to submit their works. In addition to paintings, drawings and sculptures, Jamaica also sent craft items, for example straw and woodwork and embroidery, and a small selection of photographs to Germany. Barrington Watson, who was then Director of Studies at the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts, and later the painter Karl Parboosingh accompanied the exhibition on its journey.

The works ranged from naturalistic landscapes and portraits to a small number of abstracts. There were examples from academically trained artists, some of which displaying clear European or North American stylistic and formal influences, and works by untutored artists. Face of Jamaica Catalogue Based on Jamaican critic Norman Rae’s suggestion the selected works were divided into three categories, work, play and worship. Even though the large majority of portraits, abstracts, land or cityscapes cannot be classified in any of the Face of Jamaica Catalogue, Page 2 three stereotypical groups successfully, the Flensburg catalogue’s layout underlines the threetiered division: AnnaMaria Hendriks’ Pocomania Meeting (“worship”) is placed opposite to Gaston Tabois’ Road Repair (“work”); and Palmer’s Faβroller (“work”) is juxtaposed with a photograph of a drum (“play” and/or “worship”).

While the Jamaican organisers announced to send the “cream of Jamaican art” to Flensburg, LorckSchierning believed it was not the purpose of the show to present an art collection of international standard but to introduce the audience to the “emotional Face of Jamaica Catalogue, Page 3 world” of an “awakening people.” Consequently, standards of art criticism were of little importance to the German organisers, while, in much the same way as the Jamaican organisers, the understanding of art in the service of cultural education and national development, albeit romantically conceptualised, had higher priority.

The romantic stereotype of the island of Jamaica is viewed in the article entitled “A Beautiful Country, a Young People”. Its unknown author draws on the exhibition’s simplistic separation into the three categories work, play and worship. The author renders Jamaica as an exotic attraction, a carefree and light hearted young country without a history or traditions, constructed as the complete opposite of a presumably cultured Europe. He argues that the exhibition’s purpose was to introduce the German audience to a world of Face of Jamaica Catalogue, Page 4 “powerful awakening, of work and play” and maintained that “...a young people, free of traditions” should be connected with “our culture, rich in traditions, but simultaneously burdened by the same."

http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/catalogue 1/2 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Catalogue With regards to the selection of works, in Face of Jamaica there was little evidence of a Jamaican past beyond the heyday of the nationalist movement in the late 1930s. Edna Manley's 1935 sculpture Negro Aroused, a symbol of the nationalist movement, was the oldest work in the exhibition.

Face of Jamaica Catalogue, Page 5 Face of Jamaica Catalogue, Page 6

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Catalogue, Artists A K

The About Face catalogue allows you to explore the work and biographies of the 30 artists included in the original Face of Jamaica exhibition that toured Germany and the UK between 1963 and 1964. Scroll through pages sorted by surnames alphabetically.

ARTISTS: A K L P Q Z

CARL ABRAHAMS (19132005)

Abrahams developed his caricature style while at high school. As a young man he was influenced by Augustus John during that British artist's 1937 visit to Jamaica. Working as a caricaturist for the Daily Gleaner, Abrahams was successful in allisland competitions during the 1950s but was essentially self taught. Arguably revered as 'the father of Jamaican art', he is definitely viewed as one of its important pioneers.

The Last Supper 1955 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Portrait of a Girl

RALPH CAMPBELL (19211985)

Born 1921, Kingston, Jamaica. Attended the DaCosta Institute of Arts and Crafts, Kingston; Goldsmiths College, London and Chicago School of Art and Design. One of Jamaica's pioneer painters known for his watercolours and fresh, spontaneous brushwork.

The Old Settlement pre1957 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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LESLIE CLERK (18951975)

Born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, of Jamaican parents, born January 7, 1895, died January 12, 1975, Toronto, Canada. Leslie Clerk had a business importing, tuning and repairing pianos which he inherited from his uncle Astley Gunter Clerk. A very close friend of Norman and Edna Manley, he attended Jamaica School of Art and Crafts as an evening student studying sculpture. He was a most sociable and gregarious person.

The Secret 1959 Susan Alexander Collection, Kingston Image courtesy of Olivia McGilchrist

The Bather c. 1960 Susan Alexander Collection, Kingston Image courtesy of Olivia McGilchrist

ALEXANDER COOPER (b.1934)

Born in Enfield, St Mary, Jamaica. Won a government scholarship to the Jamaica School of Art, and graduated in 1959. During the 1960s, he studied at the Art Students’ League and the School of Visual Arts in New York. He was the recipient in 1962 and in 1964 of first prize in the Jamaica National Fine Arts Competition. Has exhibited widely locally and abroad and has become renowned for his images of old time Jamaica.

The Villagers 1963 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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HENRY DALEY (19191951)

Born Portland, Jamaica. One of the first students to attend Junior Centre classes at the Institute of Jamaica. Taught by Edna Manley and Vera Cumming. Exhibited in Kingston and abroad before his untimely death in 1951 just as formal programmes in art were being established at the Jamaica School of Art.

The Petitioner 1945 National Gallery of Jamaica

JOHN DUNKLEY (18911947)

Born in SavannalaMar, Westmoreland, Jamaica, on 10 December 1891, Dunkley left Jamaica when he was 14 to travel through Central and South America and to go to Europe and North America as a sailor before he settled in Panama. It is believed that Dunkley was introduced to art in Panama by the photographer Clarence Rock. He returned to Jamaica in 1926 and opened a barber shop on Kingston’s Princess Street, where H.D. Molesworth, Secretary of the Institute of Jamaica, saw his paintings. His barber shop became a centre for political discussion and he was known for his independence of thought. Was exhibited locally through the Institute of Jamaica and later praised as Jamaica's earliest and foremost selftaught artist.

Three Spanish Jars c. 1940s Private Collection Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

GLORIA ESCOFFERY (19232002)

Born in Gayle, St. Mary, Jamaica. Received BA from McGill University, Montreal, Canada; attended Slade School of Art, London. Exhibited in Jamaica, Britain, United States, Germany, Trinidad, Puerto Rico and Cuba. Also a respected art critic and teacher.

The Old Woman 1955 National Gallery of Jamaica http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/artists 3/6 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Catalogue, Artists A K

Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

School Girls

ANNAMARIA HENDRIKS

Born 1932, St. Andrew. Became interested in drawing and painting through her mother; she began lessons with Leslie Clerk in painting and composition in 1950. She also attended classes in sculpture at the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts from 19511960 as an evening class student. She was the head of the art department at Immaculate Conception High School from 1959 until August 1974. Painting, sculpture, mosaic and studying art history have been her lifelong interests. She has written extensively on art and artists.

Pocomania Meeting Artist's Collection Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

ALBERT HUIE (19202010)

Born Falmouth 1920, Falmouth, Trelawny, Jamaica. Studied at Ontario College of Art, Toronto, Canada with British Council Scholarship to London in the 1950s. Exhibited widely in Jamaica and the USA. Many awards including the Gold Musgrave Medal, 1974.

Portrait of Edna Manley c. 1940s National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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Portrait of a Girl

EUGENE HYDE (19311980)

Born 1931, Portland Jamaica. Studied at the Art Center School, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Art Institute, California. Returned to Jamaica in 1961 to work in the advertising industry and to become a founding member of the Contemporary Jamaican Artists’ Association (1964c. 1973). He also taught at the Jamaica School of Art. Known as one of Jamaica’s first abstract artists, he exhibited extensively, but died tragically at a relatively early age.

Colonization II

Colonization I "Eugene Hyde presenting Colonization I to Edward Seaga, 1963"

The Harvest 1960 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Galleryof Jamaica

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ARTISTS: A K L P Q Z

ROGER MAIS (19051955)

Born 1905, Kingston, Jamaica. As a painter and writer he contributed to the development of modern art and literature in Jamaica in the 1950s. Exhibited locally and internationally.

Siesta 1952 Private Collection, Kingston Image courtesy of John Maxwell

EDNA MANLEY (19001987)

Born 1900, Bournemouth, England. Attended St. Martin's School of Art, London. Married Norman Manley: in 1922 moved to Jamaica with him. Exhibited locally and internationally. Received numerous awards including Gold Musgrave Medal, 1943: Order of Merit, 1980.

The Lady and the Tiger

Moses

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The Earring Private Collection, Kingston Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

Head of a Man Private Collection, Kingston Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

Horse of the Morning 1943 National Gallery of Jamaica

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Negro Aroused 1935 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Featuring the head of an upward looking black male, Manley’s Negro Aroused embodies the new found selfconfidence of black Jamaicans. As the oldest work included in Face of Jamaica it represents the spirit of cultural nationalism during 1930s Jamaica that ultimately led to independence in 1962.

ALVIN MARRIOTT (19021992)

Born 1902, St. Andrew, Jamaica. As a sculptor (he was a student of Edna Manley) he has created some monuments of National Heroes and the statue of Bob Marley. British Council Scholarship provided training at Camberwell School of Art, London, UK. Exhibited locally and internationally.

Freeze c. 1960

Boysie 1962 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

WINSLEIGH MCDONALD

Female (sculpture) Integration (sculpture)

DAVID MILLER JUNIOR (19031977)

Born 1903, in Kingston, Jamaica. Worked closely with his father who shared the same name but somewhat different style of woodworking. Together they started their careers by producing carvings for the Jamaica’s fledgling tourist industry but were very private about exhibiting their work locally.

Girl Surprised 1949 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/artists_m 3/7 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Catalogue, Artists L P

Head 1949

David Miller’s works were favoured by the German critics. One writer, for example, said ‘Here you can feel clearly the strange, the peculiar of a different world…’ He also became one of the Flensburg museum director’s favourite painters in the show.

WHITNEY MILLER (19301989)

Born 1930 in St Elizabeth, Jamaica. Miller attended the Jamaica School of Art and was one of its first graduates. He was something of a loner, and this is reflected in his solitary paintings.

View from North Street

Pocomania

CLEVELAND MORGAN http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/artists_m 4/7 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Catalogue, Artists L P

Introduced to art through his local secondary school teacher, he was one of the first students to benefit from formal art classes at the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts after its establishment in the 1950s. Like a handful of young people from that era, he also benefited from a British Council scholarship and continued his studies at the St Martin’s School of Art. Returning to Jamaica in the 1970s he became an art teacher and continued to exhibit his work regularly. A strong draftsman, Cleveland Morgan's works are very much a product of their time. His concern for society was reflected in images of poverty, oppression and transcendence. Strongly nationalistic, his images of men and women are heroic rooted in the Jamaican experience of struggle and survival.

We are Coming 1960

LEONARD MORRIS (1931 )

Born 1931, Kingston, Jamaica. Morris took his first lessons at the Junior Centre and was one of the first students of the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts inspired by Edna Manley in the 1940s. He attended classes in the evenings studying drawing, painting, graphic design and sculpting after completing his secondary school work during the day. He completed a correspondence course with Columbia University, and attended classes at Washington Art School, Washington DC. He was also ArtistinResidence at both The University of the West Indies and Knox College. Lives and works in St. Albans, New York.

Market Day

DOROTHY PAYNE (1921

Born in 1921 in St. Andrew, Jamaica as the daughter of Leslie Clerk and his wife Berryl. Migrated to Toronto, Ontario, where she worked as a sculptor. Payne died a few years ago.

The Believer (sculpture)

HERBERT A. PALMER (1914 )

Born 1914 in Falmouth, selftaught artist, started painting at the age of 13, took US correspondence courses in art; was especially successful with catering to tourists on Jamaica’s blossoming Northcoast during the 1950s.

Faßroller

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The Cane Cutter

The Dance (detail)

KARL PARBOOSINGH (19231975)

Born 1923 St. Mary, Jamaica. Attended the Art Students’ League, New York; Centre d’Art Sacré, Paris; Atelier Fernand Leger, Paris; Instituto Politécnico, Mexico City. Alongside Barrington Watson and Eugene Hyde a cofounder of the Contemporary Jamaican Artists’ Association (1964c. 1973). Parboosingh accompanied the second leg of the Face of Jamaica tour. Travelled and exhibited extensively.

Jamaican Interlude c. 1958 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of Claudia Hucke

Market scenes have been a popular subject matter in Jamaican art since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in picturesque paintings of European itinerant artists. Parboosingh’s modernist version shows a man and four women resting on a country road with baskets full of fresh produce. In the background, a distant mountain range separates a green field from the blue sky with a few scattered clouds. The overall atmosphere is tranquil, almost picturesque. The flatness of the figures in the foreground contrasts with the PostImpressionistlike style of the landscape in the background. The combination of the market and landscape genres and the juxtaposition of two different styles is a provocative response to more traditional depictions of Jamaican themes.

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DAVID POTTINGER (19112007)

Born 1911 in Kingston, Jamaica. Attended the Institute of Jamaica, Kingston Jamaica and the DaCosta Institute where he was taught by Edna Manley, Vera Cumming and others. Known for his scenes of life in downtown Kingston, where he lived his whole life. Exhibited extensively locally and abroad.

Nine Night 1949 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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VERNAL REUBEN

The Standing Figure (drawing)

MALLICA ‘KAPO’ REYNOLDS (19111989)

Born 1911, Bynloss, St. Catherine. Selftaught artist and leader of a Revivalist group, an AfroJamaican religion. Numerous exhibitions and awards including Silver Musgrave Medal, 1969, and the Order of Distinction, 1977.

The Queen (sculpture)

Male and Female Created He Them c. 1961 National Gallery of Jamaica

Interestingly, even though both the German audience as well as the Jamaican organisers seemed to prefer art that underlined formal and iconographic distinctions to Europe, only a few of the works included in Face of Jamaica follow that model. The reasons for this are varied. First of all, Jamaica was neither a homogenous nor a selfcontained society. The nature of art education at that time, with the Jamaica School of Art and Crafts only having achieved fulltime status the year before, forced aspiring professional artists to study abroad, thereby exposing them to trends elsewhere which they often incorporated in their own works. Moreover, the popularity in terms of collecting and exhibiting of selftaught artists was only slowly gaining ground in Jamaica around that time.

GASTON TABOIS (19312012)

Born 1931 in Trout Hall, St Catherine. Originally selftaught. Attended Dillard University, New Orleans but maintained his unique style of painting. Exhibited for many years through the Institute of Jamaica and the National Gallery of Jamaica. Lived and worked in Kingston.

The Road Repair 1956 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Independence Celebrations

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RALPH THOMPSON (1928 )

Born in 1928 in the USA, his education was heavily influenced by the Jesuits through high school in Jamaica and University in America. After earning his Doctor of Law degree at Fordham University, New York, he served for two years as an officer in the US Air Force, after which he returned to Jamaica and started his career as a businessman, poet and painter. Currently lives and works in Kingston. Awarded the CD Commander of Distinction in 1988.

Bangbelly

VERNON TONG

Jamaican born artist who was active in the 1950s and 1960s but left the island to work abroad. Represented by Hills Galleries, Harbour Street. Continued to paint and exhibit infrequently.

A Study for the Life of Jamaica

BARRINGTON WATSON (1931 )

Born in Lucea, Hanover, Jamaica. Educated at Kingston College. Attended London School of Printing and Graphic Art; the Royal College of Art, London; Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam, Academie de la Chaumiere, Paris, Accademie de Belle Arti, Rome; and Academia de las Bellas Artes, Madrid. Has exhibited extensively locally and internationally. Numerous commissions, and awards including Centenary Medal, Institute of Jamaica, 1980 and the Commander of the Order of Distinction, 1984.

Tineke 1961 Orange Park Collection

Self Portrait c. 1962 Wallace Campbell Collection Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

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Out of Many One People 1962

Against the background of the nationalist sentiments that dominated Jamaica around independence, Barrington Watson expanded the scope of his portrait or genre paintings to that of history painting, regarded as the highest in the hierarchy of genres and especially popular with eighteenth century academy painters that Watson had studied while in Europe. Paintings such as Out of Many One People (1962) capture a sense of history making in the new country, and, therefore, need to be seen in the context of the postindependence process of creating new symbols of national identity. Jamaica’s national motto ‘Out of Many One People’ refers to the diverse ethnic groups that make up the Jamaican population and their unity.

OSMOND WATSON (19342005)

Born Kingston, Jamaica 1934. Attended art classes at the Junior Centre, Institute of Jamaica from 1948 until 1952; then Jamaica School of Art from that year until 1958, Kingston. Travelled to London in 1962 for further study at St Martin's School of Art until 1965. returned to Jamaica in the early 1960s where he lived and worked in Kingston until his death in 2005.

The Locksman Mood of a November Evening

JOHN ‘DOC’ WILLIAMSON

Torso (sculpture)

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Reviews

REVIEWS: GERMANY JAMAICA

View newspaper reviews and articles that appeared during the time that the Face of Jamaica exhibition toured Germany and the UK between 1963 and 1964.

Germany

Due to an extensive campaign, the German media took great notice of Face of Jamaica. The reviews, while mainly concentrated in the regional press at the exhibition’s respective locations, also reached some national newspapers such as Die Welt.

Some of the media responses placed the paintings and sculptures in the context of Western art history. Nevertheless, similarly to the organisers, many journalists rendered Jamaica as a space outside of culture and modernity, or emerging into such. The dominating opinion was that Jamaica’s art was still in the initial stages of its development.

A Flensburger Presse author, "Getting to know the real Face of Jamaica" for example, bemoaned that Heimatzeitung Flensburg ‘no Rembrandts, Rubens and 3 August 1963 Picassos have been created yet.’ In a patronising fashion, he further observed that ‘talents worthy of note are emerging from Jamaica’s palm groves and sugar cane fields.’ Evoking an image of Jamaica as a "Jamaica Minister has left" tropical and rural paradise, he thus contrasted a selection of canonised European ‘geniuses’ Flensburg Newspaper representing Old World standards with, as he implied, a not yet civilised land in which 6 August 1963 juvenile artists evolved from the island’s soil.

The responses to Face of Jamaica fall within a long trajectory of how nonWestern cultures are represented and discussed in exhibition practises.

Several highranking politicians took part in the opening of Face of Jamaica at the Städtisches Museum in Flensburg: the Jamaican Deputy High Commissioner in the UK, Allan Morais, the Jamaican Minister of Housing, D.C. Tavares, and the Minister of Communications and Works, Kenneth Jones. The exhibition seemed to be a matter of national importance not only for Jamaica, but also for the host country as the presence of some highranking German politicians in Flensburg suggests, most notably the Defense Minister KaiUwe von Hassel and the Minister for Nutrition Werner Schwarz.

The then Prime Minister Edwards

Seaga "Barry Watson and Seaga at the Freiburg Opening was with Out of Many One People in the background" unable to Freiburg Newspaper travel to September 1963 Flensburg because of the launch of Jamaican television. He attended, however, the opening at Freiburg’s Ethnographic Museum in October 1963. Standing in front of Barrington Watson’s painting Out of Many One People, Seaga drew attention to Jamaica’s ethnic diversity and underlined that “art also served a political purpose” as it contributed to “unifying the many peoples and races to one nation.” All artists, he continued, were trying to interpret their country, its people and everyday life.

Ellen Redlefsen, the Flensburg museum’s director, was asked to "Watson, Seaga and Mayor of Freiburg" organise the German itinerary. Initially, it was intended to show Face of Freiburg Newspaper Jamaica at art museums. Redlefsen, however, had reservations as with http://dloc.com/exhibits/aboutface/news 1/2 9/9/2016 About Face: Revisiting Jamaica's First Exhibition in Europe: Reviews

October 1963 the inclusion of craft items, it was ‘only partially an art exhibition.’ Instead, she suggested that the show was better suited for anthropological museums. Traditionally these museums have collected objects from the cultural contexts of non‘Western’ societies, in particular those that fuelled a curiosity for the foreign in the European viewer.

Face of Jamaica announcement in London newspaper, 1964

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REVIEWS: GERMANY JAMAICA

Jamaica

The press on the island, it seems, was well aware that Face of Jamaica was an opportunity to stimulate international interest in the young nation. Certainly, the importance of the show as a glamorous showcase cannot be overestimated. The Daily Gleaner, Jamaica's national newspaper, tracked the show from start to finish reporting the opening receptions, attendance figures and giving updates on Barrington Watson, the leading artist and then Director of the Jamaica School of Art, and the painter Karl Parboosingh who stayed with the show for its duration.

The Jamaican reports unmistakably mirror the high expectations the government had for possible economic revenues as a result of the show’s success. Even though Face of Jamaica received extensive coverage, there was very little critical discussion of the works’ artistic qualities. The Daily Gleaner, for example, expressed:

This will be the first occasion on which Jamaica will be on view to the German people, who are among the most travelled in the world. The government considers this Exhibition to be one of great importance, bearing in mind our connection with Germany in so far as technical assistance, investment opportunities and trade are concerned.

The Daily Gleaner’s editorial from 6 August 1963 even declared Face of Jamaica to be ‘the most important exhibition of Jamaican cultural development ever to be shown in Europe.’

The Daily Gleaner continuously updated its readers about the

success of the exhibition: “More than "Parboosingh relieves Watson" 5,000 persons including many The Daily Gleaner visitors from other West European Sunday 15 December, 1963 countries saw the exhibition at p. 20 Gleaner Special Service Flensburg,” “average daily attendance of more than 100 people in Osnabrück,” “8,000 visitors of ‘Face of Jamaica’ show in Flensburg, Osnabrueck [sic], Freiburg, Munich,” “more than 10,000 persons have so far seen this exhibition.”

The photograph of Barrington Watson and the Jamaican Miss World, Carol Joan Crawford, viewing a sculpture by the selftaught artist Kapo tells us much about that postindependence moment and how Jamaica was poised to present itself to the outside world.

The juxtaposition is telling, Watson, trained academically in Europe, would go on to become one of the founders of an artist group that pushed modernist artistic principles and an internationalist outlook in Jamaica. In contrast, Kapo, along with other selftaught artists, was already being celebrated as an icon of an indigenous Jamaican art tradition, the roots of which were said to be inspired by Africa. Carol "Spectators in Osnabrück" Joan Crawford as a world icon sent a message at home and abroad that Jamaica had style.

This encounter illustrates tensions that would become even more apparent in the coming decade; that being, the need to identify a ‘truly Jamaican’ artistic tradition and the aspiration of a young generation of artists to partake in the international art world. Indeed, a main concern of postindependence Jamaica was how to coalesce the urge for nationalism with a growing desire for modernity. This dichotomy is reflected in the multiple art styles showcased in About Face. ‘Being modern’ was generally associated with developments elsewhere, mainly in Europe and North America – in fact, there had been vigorous debates back home about whether the Caribbean was at all capable of generating modernity. These discussions amongst politicians and cultural agents impacted local cultural politics, but they also affected the face that Jamaica wanted to show to the outside world.

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"Miss World Joan Crawford and Watson looking at Kapo" The Daily Gleaner 1963

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Exhibits > About Face > Pop Culture Pop Culture

Understand more about the historical context that gave rise to the Face of Jamaica exhibition that toured Germany and the UK between 1963 and 1964.

Supporting the tourism sector seemed important in the early 1960s as after steadily increasing numbers of visitors in the 1950s and the record high of visitor arrivals in 1960, the figures dropped by almost 11 percent between 1960 and 1963. Visitors from Continental Europe were in the minority compared to Americans or Canadians.

It is interesting to consider the way that exhibitions like Face of Jamaica reflected different images of Jamaica’s tourism package, from a “playground for millionaires” in the 1950s and 1960s to the contemporary spring break destination for American college kids years later. Perhaps incidentally, one year after Face of Jamaica returned home, in 1965 the Jamaica tourist industry came “to full maturity” as “for the first time ever, longstay visitors came to comprise the bulk of arrivals, accounting for 59 percent of the total. It was also “the year in which ¡Hola! tourism surpassed the declining sugar Carol Joan Crawford Cover, 1963 industry as a foreign exchange earner Miss World Pageant 1963 in the economy.” preview from British Pathè In Advert for Playboy Hotel in Jamaica Playboy 1964

1964 when the exhibition made its tour, the newly independent nation appeared to be on the up and up. Jamaica’s mineral rich red earth in St Elizabeth, Mandeville and St Catherine was satisfying a growing world demand for bauxite, while its white sand beaches were acclaimed by movie stars like, Marilyn Monroe and Rock Hudson. For US $105 you could book a five days stay at the newly constructed Playboy Hotel in Ocho Rios. Everybody wanted to be a jet Cover setter but there was another side to that story of Playboy glamorous wealth and that would make itself heard September 1964 before the decades. Reggae, Rastafari and the ground swell of a suppressed African culture was about to refashion Jamaican identity.

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Original Rude Boy - This is Ska - 1964 - P4

Advert for Delta Airlines in Jamaica Playboy 1964

Skatalites – Simmer Down, Byron Lee and the Dragonaires – Original Rude Boy Ska, P. 4

The new sounds of Ska and Reggae were already storming the airwaves displacing the calypso beat and Lord Creator's message that had dominated the pop culture just a year or two earlier. This new downbeat with a combination of local references and Beatle wailing seemed to offer a new form of expression and social critique. Bob Marley's refrain 'She's just a Playboy' is a cryptic commentary on Jamaica's image and the excitement and tensions that exhibition's like Face of Jamaica would generate at home and abroad.

Rum Wars The Spiegel 1966

Advert for Pott Rum

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Playboy - Bob Marley & The Wailers

Bob Marley and the Wailers – Playboy, From album Another Dance, Studio One, 1965

Portrait of Ian Fleming Read Ian Fleming in his own words: On writing Goldeneye in Jamaica

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About Face: Credits

Learn more about how this exhibition was made possible.

Curated by Dr. Petrine Archer and Claudia Hucke

Dr. Petrine Archer is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of History of Art, Cornell University best known for her scholarship related to Negrophilia and Avant Garde Paris and her knowledge of Caribbean art history. Her current research focuses on art in the African Diaspora while her teaching interests relate to black visual culture, Caribbean cultural exchange and distance teaching.

Born in Britain to Jamaican parents, she was educated at the University of the West Indies B.A. (Theology History Sociology, 197578) and an M.Phil (Cultural History, 198387), and also trained as an artist at the Jamaica School of Art (Diploma. Painting, 197982). She gained her M.A. Art History and Ph.D. (Modern) from the Courtauld Institute, University of London, where she subsequently taught (199495). ArcherStraw is also an certified appraiser (New York University, 2010) and an Associate of the Appraisers Association of America.

Throughout her career Archer has maintained her professional activities as a curator and writer in the main working on exhibitions and catalogues that expose international audiences to Caribbean art. She is the co Dr. Petrine Archer author of Jamaican Art (Kingston Publishers, 1990 & 2011), editor of Fifty YearsFifty Artists (Ian Randle Publishers, 2000), and the author of Negrophilia: Avant Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s (Thames & Hudson, 2000). She has also written numerous articles on a wide range of issues related to her research in the field of Negrophilia. For more information visit: www.petrinearcher.com

Claudia Hucke is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, and an independent curator. She has a PhD in Art History from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research focuses on the art of the African Diaspora, especially in Jamaica and the Caribbean, and the relationship between art and nation building. Recently, she was a visiting scholar at the Free University of Berlin, the Yale Center for British Art, and the IberoAmerican Institute, Berlin. Her curatorial work includes Barrington – A Retrospective at the National Gallery of Jamaica (2012) and Jazz and Tings – Selections from Karl Parboosingh’s Sketchbooks (Bolivar Gallery, 2010). Her book Picturing the Postcolonial Nation: (Inter)Nationalism in the Art of Jamaica, 19621975, which examines the development of Jamaican art in the immediate postindependence period, is forthcoming with Ian Randle Publishers (fall 2012). One chapter of her book looks at Jamaican art exhibitions abroad, including Face of Jamaica.

Exhibition design by Lourdes SantamaríaWheeler

Lourdes SantamaríaWheeler is the Exhibits Coordinator for the University of Florida George A. Claudia Hucke Smathers Libraries. This role includes planning, directing, and organizing an active exhibition program designed to share, interpret, and promote the Libraries’ collections. She also serves as the designer and translator of the Digital Library of the Caribbean. Previously she was the Museum and Special Projects Coordinator at the UF Digital Library Center. Recent publications include “Digital Dreams: the Potential in a Pile of Old Jewish Newspapers” (with Rebecca Jefferson and Laurie N. Taylor) in the Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship and "Advancing Digitization: Art and Technology” (with Laura Nemmers) in the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at Twenty Years: The Collection Catalogue. She holds an MA in Museum Studies and a BFA in Creative Photography, both from UF.

We would like to especially thank the following individuals and institutions whose generosity in allowing us to use their collections made this exhibition possible: Susan Alexander, Andrew Bogues, Winsome Boyd, Marjan BruinMaxwell, Alexander Cooper, Edna Manley Estate, Edna Manley Foundation, Fabian Escoffery, AnnaMaria Hendriks, Haus der Kunst, München, Christine HuieRoy, Johnny Mais, Olivia McGilchrist, Museumsberg Flensburg Städtische Museen und Sammlungen für den Landesteil Schleswig, National Gallery of Jamaica, Paris Parboosingh, Stefan Rambow, Michael Sloly, Gaston Tabois, Barrington and Doreen Watson, Patricia Zaskalicky, Brooke Wooldridge, Laurie Taylor, Leah Rosenberg, Knolly Moses, Dr. Veerle Poupeye and the George A. Smathers Libraries.

Acknowledgements and disclaimer: The curators wish to thank the artists, authors, and photographers who have generously donated their images and texts and given permission for their works to be used in this groundbreaking presentation. Every effort has been made to contact artists and authors. Wherever possible we have referenced the source from which they were taken. If any images or articles have not been appropriately assigned we will be happy to do so and thank all the artists for their support and cooperation.

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