DOCSLIB.ORG

ART of the CARIBBEAN ‘A Wonderful Set of Images Which Helps to Re-Define the Boundaries of the Caribbean for a British Onlooker

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ART of the CARIBBEAN ‘A Wonderful Set of Images Which Helps to Re-Define the Boundaries of the Caribbean for a British Onlooker PartGOODWILL 1 — Caribbean TEACHING art history GUIDE — the essential teaching resource for craft, design and culture LIST OF CONTENTS ART OF THE CARIBBEAN ‘A wonderful set of images which helps to re-define the boundaries of the Caribbean for a British onlooker. The visual art is supported by concise and effective background material, both historical and textual’. Dr. Paul Dash, Department of Education, Goldsmith’s College. LIST OF CONTENTS PART 3 This set explores Caribbean culture Looking at the pictures and its arresting visual art Unknown Taino Artist, Jamaica, Avian Figure Introduction Isaac Mendes Belisario, Jamaica, House John Canoe Map of the Caribbean Georges Liautaud, Haiti, Le Major Jonc Time-line Annalee Davis, Barbados, This Land of Mine: Past, Present and Future John Dunkley, Jamaica, Banana Plantation Wifredo Lam, Cuba, The Chair PART 1 Raul Martinez, Cuba, Cuba Caribbean art history Edna Manley, England/Jamaica, The Voice Colonial Cuba Unknown Djuka Artist, Suriname, Apinti Drum Cuban art since1902 Everald Brown, Jamaica, Instrument for Four People Stanley Greaves Caribbean Man No. 2 Colonial Saint-Domingue Aubrey Williams, Guyana/England, Shostakovich 3rd Symphony Cecil Baugh, Jamaica, Global Vase with Egyptian blue running glaze Haitian art since 1811 Stephanie Correia, Guyana, Tuma 1 Dutch West-Indian colonies Philip Moore, Guyana, Bat and Ball Fantasy British West Indies Ronald Moody, Jamaica/England, Midonz (Goddess of Transmutation) English-speaking Caribbean: Jamaica, Stanley Greaves, Guyana/Barbados, Caribbean Man No. 2 Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, Wilson Bigaud, Haiti, Zombies Ras Aykem-i Ramsay, Barbados, Moses For easy navigation blue signals a link to a Caribbean-born artists in Britain Pen Cayetano, Belize, A Belizean History: Triumph of Unity relevant page. Click to follow the link. Wendy Nanan, Trinidad, Idyllic Marriage Top right of every page is a link returning to PART 2 Michel-Jean Cabazon, Trinidad, French Negress in Gala Dress the LIST OF CONTENTS page. Suggested classroom activities Milton George, Jamaica, Afternoon with Friends Poems Denzil Forrester, Grenada/England, The Burial of Winston Rose Click here for a full list of Goodwill Art titles. Francisco Cabral, Trinidad, Man from Laventille Further reading Peter Minshall, Guyana/Trinidad, Mancrab from River 1 Series 6, Set 51 © The Goodwill Art Service Ltd Part 1 — Caribbean art history LIST OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The Caribbean region is distinguished by These ‘outsiders’, like the early Amerindians the fragmentation of its lands and islands, by of the region — now very few save on the its long and diverse history of colonisation, by mainland — brought and developed their own the mix of its peoples, and by the vitality and art traditions. Although European-style painting outreach of its culture — not least its visual and sculpture predominated under colonialism, art. Yet Caribbean paintings and sculpture, all traditions have now become creolised, that pots, prints and posters are little known is, localised and mixed. compared with the region’s other arts, from Jamaican reggae music and Trinidad Carnival The images show the range of visual work and steelband, to fiction by V.S. Naipaul and made by artists of the Caribbean, especially over poetry by Derek Walcott and Linton Kwesi the past century, with a focus on the English- Johnson. This teaching guide aims to put the speaking countries. The accompanying text record straight. provides a brief introduction to Caribbean art history (Part 1), suggests ways in which the Languages spoken in the region today images can be used in the classroom (Part 2), reflect its colonial history: Spanish in Cuba, the backed up by a detailed note on each work of Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico; French art (Part 3). Unknown Djuka Artist, Suriname, Apinti Drum in Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane; The Caribbean lies between North and South America, and surrounds a sea named English in Jamaica, Barbados,Trinidad and after the Caribs, early inhabitants. Islands to the north and east border the Caribbean many smaller islands, in Guyana and Belize; Sea. The Greater Antilles are the largest: Cuba, Hispaniola (divided between Haiti Dutch in a few small islands, and Suriname. and Santo Domingo), Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Lesser Antilles are much Most Caribbean people are descendants of smaller — only Trinidad, in the far south, is an island of any size. Mainland South colonisers and — predominantly — of labourers and Central America border the sea to its south and west, but only the Guianas brought from Africa, India and China, plus every — Guyana, Suriname and Guyane — and Belize count as Caribbean (see map). possible mix. 2 Series 6, Set 51 © The Goodwill Art Service Ltd Part 1 — Caribbean art history LIST OF CONTENTS Caribbean art history From 1200 BC Central America was home to were of expert craftsmanship and expressive the great Mayan civilisation. A wealth of Mayan artistry. Evidence for this abounds in contemporary ceremonial and domestic sites, carvings in jade written records and archaelogical finds, including and stone, and pottery, is still to be seen there. petroglyphs (carvings on stone) and pictographs PEN CAYETANO features Mayan people and (paintings, often in caves), pottery sherds, and artefacts in his depiction of the history of Belize, ceremonial carvings in wood and stone such as his homeland. the Avian Figure which came to light recently By the time of Columbus, the Taino — in Jamaica. This advanced Taino culture was Amerindians, formerly known as Island Arawaks halted and largely destroyed, and its population — had settled in the Greater Antilles and evolved decimated, under Spanish occupation. effective trade and farming practices, and a In the Lesser Antilles, the Island Caribs’ fierce politico-religious system of government. Artefacts determination to defend their homelands from made for recreational and religious ceremonies invaders deterred the Spanish from settling there. Island Caribs excelled as navigators and as farmers, with skills in boat-building and basketry and, oustandingly, in pottery. Their petroglyphs are to be found on rocks and in caves throughout the Lesser Antilles. Such arts were eroded by later French and, especially British settlers, and their population drastically reduced. A few Caribs live now only in Dominica and St. Vincent. The Guianas are still home to Caribs, Arawaks and other Amerindians. Their artistry is to be seen here, too, in pictographs and in petroglyphs on MAYA Line drawing of a detail of bas-relief at Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico AD450-650. boulders by river banks. Their life-style, based on the cultivation of manioc (cassava), on fishing and hunting, ensures the continuation of arts such as ceramics, basketry, featherwork, beading Line drawing of petroglyphs at and weaving, using forest materials. In recent Marlissa, Berbice River, Guyana. times STEPHANIE CORREIA has celebrated her peoples’ traditional food practices in ceramics, with designs and forms from old artefacts. 4 Series 6, Set 51 © The Goodwill Art Service Ltd Part 3 — Looking at the pictures LIST OF CONTENTS 25 Series 6, Set 51 © The Goodwill Art Service Ltd.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • National Cultural Policy 2012 (Draft)
    NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICY MONTSERRAT (DRAFT) TABLE OF CONTENTS Pg Executive Summary 1 Philosophical Statement 1 2 Methodology 1 3 Background 2 4 Definition of Culture 4 5 Mapping the Cultural Landscape 5 6 The Cultural Backdrop 6 7 Proposed Policy Positions of the Government of Montserrat 16 8 Aims of the Policy 17 9 Self Worth and National Pride 18 10 The Arts 21 11 Folkways 24 12 Masquerades 27 13 Heritage 29 14 Education 32 15 Tourism 35 16 Economic Development 38 17 Media and Technology 41 18 Infrastructure 44 19 Implementation 47 Appendix 1 Groups & Persons Consulted Appendix 2 Consulting Instruments Select Biography EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This Executive Summary presents a brief philosophical statement, the policy positions of the government and the aims of the policy. It defines culture, outlines the areas of national life considered in the policy and provides a selection of the action to be taken. The policy document emphasizes the importance of the development of a sense of self-worth and national pride, the role of folkways in defining a Montserratian identity and the role of training, research and documentation in cultural development and preservation. Particular emphasis is placed on culture as a means of broadening the frame of economic activity. The co modification of aspects of culture brooks of no debate; it is inevitable in these challenging economic times. The policy is presented against a backdrop of the Montserrat cultural landscape. Philosophical Statement Montserrat’s culture is rooted in its history with all its trials and triumphs. Culture is not only dynamic and subject to influences and changes over time, but it is also dialectical, meaning that while it springs from history and development, culture also impacts and informs development .
    [Show full text]
  • Theories of Space and Place in Abstract Caribbean Art
    Bowling Green State University ScholarWorks@BGSU 18th Annual Africana Studies Student Research Africana Studies Student Research Conference Conference and Luncheon Feb 12th, 1:30 PM - 2:45 PM Theories of Space and Place in Abstract Caribbean Art Shelby Miller Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/africana_studies_conf Part of the African Languages and Societies Commons Miller, Shelby, "Theories of Space and Place in Abstract Caribbean Art" (2017). Africana Studies Student Research Conference. 1. https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/africana_studies_conf/2016/004/1 This Event is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences and Events at ScholarWorks@BGSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Africana Studies Student Research Conference by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@BGSU. Shelby Miller Theories of Space and Place in Abstract Caribbean Art Bibliographic Style: MLA 1 How does one define the concepts of space and place and further translate those theories to the Caribbean region? Through abstract modes of representation, artists from these islands can shed light on these concepts in their work. Involute theories can be discussed in order to illuminate the larger Caribbean space and all of its components in abstract art. The trialectics of space theory deals with three important factors that include the physical, cognitive, and experienced space. All three of these aspects can be displayed in abstract artwork from this region. By analyzing this theory, one can understand why Caribbean artists reverted to the abstract style—as a means of resisting the cultural establishments of the West. To begin, it is important to differentiate the concepts of space and place from the other.
    [Show full text]
  • Fluid Ecologies: Hispanic Caribbean Art from the Permanent Collection
    Fluid Ecologies: Hispanic Caribbean Art from the Permanent Collection The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Vassar College January 26 – May 8, 2016 3 Checklist no. 1 Front cover, Checklist no. 6 Back cover, Checklist no. 7 4 Fluid Ecologies: Hispanic Caribbean Art from the Permanent Collection The interpretation of our reality through patterns not our own, serves only to make us ever more unknown, ever less free, ever more solitary. ­— Gabriel García Márquez In a Caribbean region “fissured by histories,”1 where the crossroads has become a familiar metaphor for the multiple crossing and bifurcating paths responsible for the development of our cultures, creativity is nurtured by the ebb and flow of intellectual and physical currents that move artists and ideas across the sea, its islands, and continental shores. Like a fluid ecology forever interacting to generate the whole—rooted in a particular geographic environment in which no place or person is ever too far from the sea that defines it—Caribbean art is protean, hybrid, mercurial, yet always anchored in its historical and cultural environment. The salient markers of the region’s history—a fateful European encounter, forced migrations, slavery, the plantation, a troublesome dependence on tourism, the slow violence of environmental mismanagement, never-ending cycles of diasporan departures and returns—flow in and out of Caribbean art, like revenants who reemerge fortified with renewed powers of invention. When the focus of the art world turned south in the 1960s—thanks in great part to the work of Vassar alumna Barbara Doyle Duncan, class of 1943, who used her position on the International Council of the Museum of Modern Art to promote art exchanges between the United States and Latin America—it shone its spotlight on a burgeoning artistic and intellectual world that had already begun to make its international mark through the unprecedented success of writers like Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia, 1927–2014), Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru, b.
    [Show full text]
  • Download File
    Between a Promise and a Trench: Citizenship, Vulnerability, and Climate Change in Guyana Sarah E. Vaughn Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Sarah E. Vaughn All rights reserved ABSTRACT Between a Promise and a Trench: Citizenship, Vulnerability, and Climate Change in Guyana Sarah E. Vaughn Between a Promise and a Trench examines how science is constituted as a strategic practice and site through which citizens make claims about racial democracy in Guyana. It shows how government policymaking around climate adaptation--which drew upon the recommendations of outside actors, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations (UN), and various NGOs and international scientific networks-- profoundly disrupted the country's delicate racial-ethnic balance. A contribution to the burgeoning anthropology on the social and political impact of climate change, the dissertation also speaks to current debates over race and citizenship, the complex relationship between expertise and democracy, and the competing post-colonial claims of Indo-, Afro-, and Amerindian Guyanese to land and self-determination. The dissertation is based on seventeen months of fieldwork and archival research conducted between, 2009-11 in coastal Guyana. It brings together three conflicting perspectives: of engineers, who drew upon datasets and models about flooding and construction of canals around IPCC and UN climate data; the state officials, who sought to reduce vulnerability to flood hazards through land evictions; and of Indo-, Afro-, and Amerindian Guyanese farmers and squatters who were evicted as a result of post-2005 engineering projects.
    [Show full text]
  • 3 Bagasse Caribbean Art and the Debris of the Sugar Plantation
    3 Bagasse Caribbean Art and the Debris of the Sugar Plantation Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert The recent emergence of bagasse—the fibrous mass left after sugarcane is crushed—as an important source of biofuel may seem to those who have experienced the realities of plantation life like the ultimate cosmic irony. Its newly assessed value—one producer of bagasse pellets argues that “sym- bol of what once was waste, now could be farming gold” (“ Harvesting” 2014)—promises to increase sugar producers’ profits while pushing into deeper oblivion the plight of the workers worldwide who continue to pro- duce sugar cane in deplorable conditions and ruined environments. Its newly acquired status as a “renewable” and carbon-neutral source of energy also obscures the damage that cane production continues to inflict on the land and the workers that produce it. The concomitant deforestation, soil erosion and use of poisonous chemical fertilizers and pesticides on land and water continue to degrade the environment of those fated to live and work amid its waste. It obscures, moreover, the role of sugarcane cultivation as the most salient form of power and environmental violence through which empires manifested their hegemony over colonized territories throughout the Caribbean and beyond.1 In the discussion that follows, I explore the legacy of the environmental violence of the sugar plantation through the analysis of the work of a group of contemporary Caribbean artists whose focus is the ruins and debris of the plantation and who often use bagasse as either artistic material or symbol of colonial ruination. I argue—through the analysis of recent work by Ate- lier Morales (Cuba), Hervé Beuze (Martinique), María Magdalena Campos- Pons (Cuba), and Charles Campbell (Jamaica)—that artistic representation in the Caribbean addresses the landscape of the plantation as inseparable from the history of colonialism and empire in the region.
    [Show full text]
  • The Visual Arts of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles
    Marianne de Tolentino DA The Visual Arts of Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles INCE THE EARLY NINETEEN-EIGHTIES, Caribbean festivals and bienniales have been S instrumental in breaking the insularity that has characterized Caribbean art. These events have stimulated artists to share and exchange their work. The Havana Biennial and the Biennial of Print in Puerto Rico were pioneers in bringing together Caribbean artists. Similarly, the Caribbean and Central American Biennial of Painting, held in Santo Domingo gave impetus to the development of the Caribbean arts. “Carifesta,” a cultural Caribbean festival celebrated every two years in different islands, includes art shows and has done much to pro- mote the visual arts of the region. Other important events have been organized in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The Gala di Arte exhibition in 1991, the Carib Art exhibition in 1993, and the Arte’99 exhibition have been especially important for artists in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles. For, if visual artists in the region as a whole have suffered from a lack of visibility, the artists in Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles have suffered a double invisibility. Speaking with artists from the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba,! one observes a certain pessimism regarding art instruction, museums and opportunities for work. Curacao has no art academy where one can receive a professional degree in studio art and art theory. Aruba offers only a part-time course of study. The Foundation for the Arts organizes art classes and workshops in Saba. In St. Martin, art education falls under the Department of Culture and art instruction is offered in the high school as one of the subjects of the final examinations.
    [Show full text]
  • View Exhibition Brochure
    1 Renée Cox (Jamaica, 1960; lives & works in New York) “Redcoat,” from Queen Nanny of the Maroons series, 2004 Color digital inket print on watercolor paper, AP 1, 76 x 44 in. (193 x 111.8 cm) Courtesy of the artist Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, organized This exhibition is organized into six themes by El Museo del Barrio in collaboration with the that consider the objects from various cultural, Queens Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in geographic, historical and visual standpoints: Harlem, explores the complexity of the Caribbean Shades of History, Land of the Outlaw, Patriot region, from the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) to Acts, Counterpoints, Kingdoms of this World and the present. The culmination of nearly a decade Fluid Motions. of collaborative research and scholarship, this exhibition gathers objects that highlight more than At The Studio Museum in Harlem, Shades of two hundred years of history, art and visual culture History explores how artists have perceived from the Caribbean basin and its diaspora. the significance of race and its relevance to the social development, history and culture of the Caribbean: Crossroads engages the rich history of Caribbean, beginning with the pivotal Haitian the Caribbean and its transatlantic cultures. The Revolution. Land of the Outlaw features works broad range of themes examined in this multi- of art that examine dual perceptions of the venue project draws attention to diverse views Caribbean—as both a utopic place of pleasure and of the contemporary Caribbean, and sheds new a land of lawlessness—and investigate historical light on the encounters and exchanges among and contemporary interpretations of the “outlaw.” the countries and territories comprising the New World.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Curriculum Vitae EDDIE CHAMBERS
    Curriculum vitae EDDIE CHAMBERS www.eddiechambers.com African Art/African American Art/African Diaspora art history, Field Editor, caa.reviews, (http://www.caareviews.org / http://www.caareviews.org/reviews/2969#.VxlZGaX_R94) appointed August 2014, now serving a second three-year term Member of the editorial board of caa.reviews for a four-year term, from July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2022. Art Monthly Foundation Honorary Patron, (together with Liam Gillick, Hans Haacke, Alfredo Jaar, and Martha Rosler) Appointed June 2018 The University of Texas at Austin Department of Art and Art History 2301 San Jacinto Blvd. Stop D1300 Austin, Texas 78712-1421 EDUCATION Historical and Cultural Studies Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, (Supervisor, Professor Sarat Maharaj, Internal Examiner, Dr. Carol McKay, External Examiner, Professor Stuart Hall) Black Visual Arts Activity in England 1981-1986: Press and Public Responses, PhD awarded March 31, 1998 Sunderland Polytechnic, Faculty of Art and Design, Fine Art Department, 1980 - 1983. BA (Hons.) Fine Art, 2:1 UT-AUSTIN APPOINTMENT Assistant Professor, Art History, January 2010 – August 2013 Associate Professor, Art History, September 2013 – August 2016 Professor, Art History, September 2016 onwards Inaugural Curatorial Fellow at the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies, Fall Semester 2013/Spring Semester 2014 Assistant Chair, Art History Division, Fall 2015 – Summer 2017, two-year term OTHER TEACHING Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Visiting Professor, Art History department, spring semester 2008, and spring semester and fall semester 2009. 1 Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Visiting Professor, Art History department, spring semester and fall semester, 2005 and fall semester 2006.
    [Show full text]
  • Eddie Chambers, Spring 2015. Visual Arts of the English
    Eddie Chambers, Spring 2015. Visual Arts of the English-speaking Caribbean (class ARH 345M, LAS 327, AFR 374F M-W-F 3:00 to 4:00 2.204 Office hours, Mondays, 1:00 – 3:00 pm Consistently framed, in some quarters, as little more than a holiday destination, the Caribbean is in actuality one of the world’s most fascinating and complex regions. The countries of the Caribbean, at once united and divided by the great expanse of the Caribbean Sea, are home to a wide range of religions, cultures, nationalities, ‘races’, and peoples. Whilst Spanish- speaking Cuba and French-speaking Haiti are in some ways the artistic giants of the region, equal stature can be attached to the biggest English- speaking island of the Caribbean, Jamaica. Together with its neighbors such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Guyana, the English-speaking Caribbean has produced much of the most dynamic art to come out of the region during the course of the 20th century. This class will look at the work of a fascinating group of modern and contemporary Caribbean artists. The history of the region is a compelling and fascinating one, embracing as it does a variety of factors including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, 20th century patterns of migration and travel, and ‘New World’ sensibilities. This class will examine the work of a range of Caribbean artists whose practice came to the fore over the course of the 20th century, from the 1920s right up to the present time. Artists to be studied include practitioners such as Edna Manley, Barrington Watson, Albert Chong, and artists with substantial links to the Caribbean such as Jean-Michel Basquiat.
    [Show full text]
  • Visual Art As a Window for Studying the Caribbean Compiled and Introduced by Peter B
    Visual Art as a Window for Studying the Caribbean Compiled and introduced by Peter B. Jordens Curaçao: August 26, 2012 The present document is a compilation of 20 reviews and 36 images1 of the visual-art exhiBition Caribbean: Crossroads of the World that is Being held Between June 12, 2012 and January 6, 2013 at three cooperating museums in New York City, USA. The remarkaBle fact that Crossroads has (to date) merited no fewer than 20 fairly formal art reviews in various US newspapers and on art weBlogs can Be explained By the terms of praise in which the reviews descriBe the exhiBition: “likely the most expansive art event of the summer (p. 20 of this compilation), the summer’s BlockBuster exhiBition (p. 21), the big art event of the summer in New York (p. 15), immense (p. 34), Big, varied (p. 21), diverse (p. 10), comprehensive (p. 20), amBitious (pp. 19, 21, 22, 33, 34), impressive (p. 21), remarkaBle (p. 21), not one to miss (p. 30), wholly different and very rewarding (p. 33), satisfying (pp. 21, 33), visual feast (p. 25), Bonanza (p. 25), rare triumph (p. 21), significant (p. 13), unprecedented (p. 10), groundbreaking (pp. 13, 23), a game changer (p. 13), a landmark exhiBition (p. 13), will define all other suBsequent CariBBean surveys for years to come (p. 22).” Crossroads is the most recent tangiBle expression of an increase in interest in and recognition of CariBBean art in the CariBBean diaspora, in particular the USA and to less extent Western Europe. This increase is likely the confluence of such factors as: (1) the consolidation of CariBBean immigrant communities in North America and Europe, (2) the creative originality of artists of CariBBean heritage, (3) these artists’ greater moBility and presence in the diaspora in the context of gloBalization, especially transnational migration, travel and information flows,2 and (4) the politics of multiculturalism and of postcolonial studies.
    [Show full text]
  • Meeting Denis – a Mind Engaged —— a Tribute to Denis Williams (1923–1998)1
    Meeting Denis – A Mind Engaged —— A Tribute to Denis Williams (1923–1998)1 STANLEY GREAVES Y FIRST ‘MEETING’ with Denis Williams took place in the British Guiana Museum of the 1940s – destroyed by fire M in 1945, rebuilt before Independence in 1966, and renamed the Guyana Museum. This ‘meeting’ took the form of looking at a small oil painting of a boy. On Saturday mornings I ran errands to Stabroek market for my mother, Priscilla. The museum was equidistant between my home and the market. A visit to my favourite exhibits before doing the errands provided much pleasure. Of particular interest was the small art gallery, where I enjoyed looking at a few paintings and engravings be- cause of my own efforts in drawing. Assuming he was a schoolboy like myself, my identification with the portrait was total. I visited it every time and often wondered what kind of a person the artist Denis Williams was, a question destined to be answered in full about twenty-eight years later. In the intervening period I did learn something about him. I had be- come a member of the Working People’s Art Class (WPAC), which had been founded by Edward Rupert Burrowes in 1948, the same year in which I joined. It was from Burrowes, “Erb” to most of us privately, that I learnt Williams had been a member of the Guyanese Art Group founded in 1931 under the name of the British Guiana Arts and Crafts Society. He 1 My acknowledgements to Elfrieda Bissember, Director and Curator of the National Collection, Guyana; to Robert Cummings, Head of the Burrowes School of Art in Guyana, for providing dates I did not have; to Anne Walmsley, UK, Caribbean researcher, and to Therese Hadchity of Zemicon Gallery, Barbados.
    [Show full text]
  • Denzil Forrester Hyperallergic 12.16.16
    white columns December 16, 2016 online A Painter Who Captured London’s 1980s Reggae Scene Th e British painter Denzil Forrester, who is currently showing at White Columns, talks about how he made art and was a fl y on the wall at reggae and dub music venues. By Chris Cobb Denzil Forrester, “SAMPLE THE B SIDE” (1982), oil on canvas, 66.93 x 89.37 in. It’s no secret that London in the 1980s was segregated. Th ere was, for one, a stark contrast between the punk rock–obsessed white youth culture and the black youth culture that was madly in love with reggae. In that world, the legendary DJ Jah Shaka and his dub Sound System reigned supreme and would perform live mixes all night long. Th e British painter Denzil Forrester (then in his 20s) saw it as an opportunity not only to dance but also to make his own art. He then became a fl y on the wall at the venues where huge crowds 4 would sway to the beats. 45.476 } . In this way he could use what he was learning at the Royal College of Art to tell the story of that community and the energy he felt all around him. He would typically set up in a corner with his art supplies and sketch what he called “energy that can’t be controlled.” entrance on Horatio St g { During the day, he would be back in his studio transforming those drawings of dancers and club patrons and use them as the basis for large paintings, many of which are now on view at White Columns.
    [Show full text]