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.

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.