The 2010 NGJ Christmas cards will be available on November 1. As is customary, we have selected a number of popular works from our collection, with subjects appropriate to the Holiday season. This year’s selections, which can be seen in the flier above, are available with  pre-printed Holiday greetings and blank. Since we wish to diversify the offerings in our gift shop, which have previously tended towards the traditional, we have however also launched a new series of notecards on contemporary Jamaican art. These are not specifically themed for the Holidays and do not include any pre-printed messages. The selections can be seen on the flier below. In addition, we also have two new notecards related to our current Edna Manley’s Bogle: A Contest of Icons exhibition, one features Michael Thompson’s Bogle poster and another David Boxer’s c1970 photograph of Edna Manley’s Bogle in front of the Morant Bay courthouse.

Gift shop sales play an increasingly important role in funding the exhibitions and programmes of the NGJ and we look forward to your support. For more information, call us at 1.876.922-1561/3 (Lime fixed line); 1.876.618-0654/5 (Digicel fixed line); fax: 1.876.922-8544 or e-mail our Gift Shop Manager Tiffany Martin at: <tmartin@natgalja.org.jm>

Stanford Watson - Malnourished Dog from an Independent State (1996), NGJ Collection

Stanford Watson was born in Lucea, Hanover in 1959 as one of eight children. He enjoyed his time growing up in the country, engaging in activities such as swimming in the rivers or the sea, catching crabs and fish, and going to Sunday school, although he outgrew the latter as he expanded his education through reading many books. He attended Ruseas High School and came to Kingston in 1979 to attend the Jamaica School of Art (now Edna Manley College) where he studied painting, which is still his primary medium of visual expression today. As a young man during the socio-political upheavals of the 1970s, Watson became fascinated with ideas of cultural and social revolution, wishing to see the appearance of, and to be involved in, radical movements to challenge the status quo. He soon associated with a group of contemporary artists, which included Omari Ra, Khalfani Ra and Eric Cadien, who shared similar Black Nationalist views and pursued varying modes of expressionism in their works.

His career as an exhibiting artist began with his final year exhibition at the Jamaica School of Art in 1983. From there, he continued to maintain his artistic presence through group exhibitions at venues including the Mutual Life Gallery and eventually the National Gallery of Jamaica. He has also exhibited internationally and is represented in art collections in the Caribbean region, in Africa, the United States, Europe and Latin America. Watson began teaching art at the Wolmer’s Girls School in 1984, and also taught a year at Jamaica College in 1985, returning to Wolmer’s thereafter, all the while staying true to his passion for painting, continuing to produce and exhibit.

Stanford Watson - Phobia (1996), NGJ Collection

Upon leaving art school, Watson for a while maintained academic painting traditions such as realism in his works, painting landscapes and the like. However, he always felt that there were other options in painting for him. He therefore began to explore the work of Latin American artists such as Wifredo Lam from Cuba, Fernando Botero of Columbia and the Mexican artist, Rufino Tamayo and was energized to move away from his academic approach and to create an artistic identity of his own. Lam, Botero and Tamayo also reflected strong connections to indigenous culture and reflected on the socio-political contradictions and conflicts in their countries. Inspired by these ‘Third World’ artists, Watson developed a visual rhetoric to communicate his feelings about the dilemmas and problems of Jamaican society in his paintings. African identity, especially within the African diaspora, is another recurring theme in Watson’s oeuvre – often incorporating signs and symbols from African pictorial languages as part of his compositions.

In terms of the iconography used in his work, Watson is perhaps most famous for his dog imagery. The symbolism of the dog was inspired by an experience he had in 1988 while living in a Downtown Kingston tenement. As the story goes, police officers had raided the ‘yard’ he lived in. They searched him and the premises but apparently found nothing of interest. As they made their way to the back of the premises they encountered a small barking dog. One of the officers shot the animal, killing it instantly. According to Watson, it occurred at a time when the police were given unlimited power. He stated in a 1997 interview: “This dog’s life and death [was] similar to a lot of people in this world who are unrepresented, unprotected.” Malnourished Dog from an Independent State (1996) is a triptych that uses the dog as its primary image and presents a scathing critique of the inequalities in Independent Jamaica. The schematic depiction of the dog, intentionally or not, is reminiscent of depictions of animals in pre-Columbian pictograms such as those produced by the Tainos on cave walls.

Stanford Watson - Articulating I and I (n.d.), NGJ Collection

Watson’s work involves alternative techniques such as collage and assemblage and non-art materials such as dirt, along with or added to his paints. He also keeps his colours as raw or pure as possible, avoiding tinting them. Watson coined the term “conceptual intuitivism” to describe the raw informal appearance of his work. It is his way of working from a place of pure expression without the restrictions of formal artistic influence. He admits, however, that he could never totally negate his academic training and finds it important to his process.

The use of materials like dirt and newspaper with text, is symbolic to the subject matter of Watson’s painting – dirt, a natural unrefined element and newspapers or text, symbolic of information, social propaganda and control, implied but not directly expressed. Phobia (1996) appears to contain no recognizable imagery. Dark hues of black, blue and red pervade the composition, their dominance seemingly overwhelming an area of superficial white. Articulating I and I is another mixed media diptych seemingly to portraying a conversation, or the connective relationship, of two canvases. The title of the work alludes to the Rastafarian way of referring to the self in tandem with the Spirit, as all individuals being equal under the single divinity, Jah or as a way of reaffirming individual identity.

Watson is currently a part-time lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual Performing Arts. He also works with the MultiCare Foundation as the co-ordinator of the Visual Arts programme. There he is responsible for children’s art programmes such as “Art on the Waterfront,” which is held every summer in conjunction with the National Gallery of Jamaica, and “Art on the Street,” which is held on weekends, both of which invite children, particularly from the downtown area, to participate in art-related activities. Stanford Watson is also responsible for outreach programmes in which visual art workshops are conducted at various public schools that have been adopted by the MultiCare Foundation. He recently completed a master’s degree in community arts at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Watson is highly committed to the idea of art as a tool for social change. He is well aware that art, especially contemporary art, is not readily understood by many people but believes that this provides an opportunity for dialogues that are beneficial for not only the audience but the artist as well. He believes that that exposure to art and art-making involves valuable learning experiences and this is where his work as an artist, art teacher and community art activist find common ground.

This post was written by Monique Barnett, who is a Curatorial Assistant at the NGJ. It is based on a recent interview with Stanford Watson.

As an experiment to explore the utility of such new, interactive technologies, we are introducing Microsoft Tags on our labels for the 2010 National Biennial.

If you have a smart phone (Blackberry, iPhone etc.) with a camera and active internet connection, you can scan these tags and read a short biography for each of the participating artists.

To use smart tags, take the following steps:

1.  Download the application to your smart phone from: <gettag.mobi>

2.  Open the application and photograph the tag with your smart phone

3.  The information contained in the tag will open on your smart phone

4.  Try it out with the tag below:

We’d love to hear back from you on your experience using smart tags: <info@natgalja.org.jm>

Click to view slideshow.

The NGJ is pleased to announce that Laura Facey has been awarded the 2010 Aaron Matalon Award for her installation Plumb Line in the 2010 National Biennial.

Laura Facey was born in 1954 in Kingston. She was educated at the Jamaica School of Art (now Edna Manley College), the West Surrey College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design. She was awarded the Institute of Jamaica’s 2006 Silver Musgrave Medal. Laura Facey has exhibited in Jamaica and internationally since the mid 1970s. Her most recent solo exhibition, Propel, was held at the Roktowa is 2010. She lives and works in St Ann.

The mixed media installation Plumb Line consists of large wooden objects, a plumb and needles. Part of a recent series of works that explore the formal and symbolic potential of tool forms, exquisitely carved in local woods, the installation has a stark beauty that requires the viewer to experience the space by walking around in it. The sound track, which combines water sounds and an Indian prayer sung by Charmaine Lemonious, adds to the ceremonial quality of the work.

The 2010 Aaron Matalon Award was announced at the opening of the 2010 National Biennial on Sunday, December 12. The Award is granted to the artist who, in the opinion of the Exhibition and Acquisition Committees of the NGJ, has presented the most outstanding work or group of works in that year’s National Biennial. It was named in tribute to the late Hon. Aaron Matalon, O.J., former Chairman and benefactor of the NGJ. The award involves a cash prize and a uniquely designed and produced medal (made by noted Jamaican jeweler Carol Campbell). As of 2010, a work by the Aaron Matalon Award winner will be featured on the catalogue cover of the next National Biennial. This year, we feature the 2008 winner, Phillip Thomas, with his painting The N-Train. In 2012, Laura Facey will be similarly featured.

The 2010 National Biennial, and Laura Facey’s Plumb Line, will be on view until March 5, 2011. We extend a special invitation for members of the public to join us on Wednesday, December 15, when we will be open until 10 pm for Christmas in the City – Downtown Comes Alive.

Albert Huie - Crop Time (1955), Collection: NGJ

On January 31, 2010, Jamaica received the news that Albert Huie, a major figure in the development of Jamaican art and, indeed, one of Jamaica’s most outstanding painters and printmakers, had passed away in Baltimore. Nearly one year later and on the eve of what would have been Huie’s ninetieth birthday, the National Gallery of Jamaica pauses to pay tribute to this outstanding Jamaican Master and pioneer of modern Jamaican art.

The National Gallery’s tribute to Huie will take the form of an informal function on Thursday, December 30, starting at 12:30 pm, in the presence of the Artist’s daughter Christine Huie-Roy and some of his closest friends. We will also open, on that occasion, a special tribute exhibition consisting of works of art by Albert Huie from the National Collection. The exhibition provides an overview of Huie’s oeuvre from the late 1930s to the late 1990s, essentially spanning his entire artistic career, and illustrates Huie’s unparalleled ability to capture, in print and in paint, the beauty of the Jamaican environment and the spirit of its people – an artistic legacy we cherish and honour.

Members of the public are invited to join us for the Albert Huie tribute on December 30, which will include special tribute, poetry and music, and a reception, as well as the opportunity to view the Albert Huie tribute exhibition and the 2010 National Biennial.

The Jamaican ceramicist Gene Pearson in 2010 received a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, the NGJ’s parent organization. As has become customary for artists who have been awarded Musgrave medals, the 2010 National Biennial includes a special tribute exhibition of his work. Below is the citation for Gene Pearson’s Silver Musgrave medal.

Installation view - Gene Pearson exhibition in 2010 National Biennial

The Institute of Jamaica recognizes Gene Pearson, O.D., for outstanding merit in the field of Art.

Ceramicist and sculptor Gene Hendricks Pearson was born in 1946 in St. Catherine, Jamaica. He attended the Jamaica School of Art; now the Edna College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where he studied under Jamaica’s Master Potter Cecil Baugh and was one of the School’s first graduates with a diploma in ceramics in 1965. He subsequently taught at the Jamaica School of Art, for some eighteen years, and has also taught ceramics at the Calabar and Vere Technical High schools. At present, he works exclusively as a studio artist and divides his time between Jamaica and California. A keen cultural entrepreneur, he recently opened a gallery in New Kingston – the Gene Pearson Gallery – where he sells his ceramic and sculptural work.

Gene Pearson - Sculptured Pot (1987), stoneware, Collection: NGJ, Gift of Ken and Patricia Ramsay

While he also produces more conventional ceramic forms, such as vases and bowls, Pearson is best known for his sculptural work, especially his popular heads and masks. He has worked extensively with local clays, such as the Castleton clays, which he uses in his earthenware pieces. His ceramic work also shows the results of his constant experimentation with the ancient Japanese technique of Raku-style firing, of which he is an acknowledged master. The characteristic crackled surface of his Raku ware is used with great finesse in his sculptural forms and has become part of his signature style. While he works primarily in ceramic media, Pearson also produces bronze sculptures and this departure should not surprise, since the process of bronze casting involves the production of clay models and molds and thus incorporates ceramic media and techniques.

Gene Pearson - Mother (1992), bronze, Aaron and Marjorie Matalon Collection, NGJ

Pearson’s ceramic and bronze sculptural work celebrates black beauty and dignity, which accounts for the popularity of his work in Jamaica and the African Diaspora cultural sphere. His style and subject matter are inspired by the arts of ancient Nubia, Benin and Rastafarian culture and emerged in dialogue with the visual language of contemporaries, such as Christopher Gonzales. His style is however firmly distinguished from the latter’s moody expressionism by the silent, introverted monumentality of his sculptural and ceramic forms and is arguably among the most distinctive and recognizable of the artists of his generation.

Pearson sees the promotion of clay sculpture as his personal battle. Having, in his own words, fought “to get some recognition for the clay, boycotting the National Gallery for years when they were at Devon House [when] they didn’t recognize the clay.” And he has been quite successful in this struggle gaining greater local recognition for ceramics and ceramic sculpture as a fine art and is today one of Jamaica’s most sought-after and well acclaimed artists.

Gene Pearson

Gene Pearson has exhibited widely in Jamaica and overseas and is represented in major Jamaican collections, such as the National Gallery of Jamaica, the Bank of Jamaica and the Hardingham Collection, as well as the private collections of international celebrities such as Stevie Wonder, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diahann Carroll, and Alice Walker. His ceramic works have also served as official Jamaican gifts to Heads of States and other public figures including Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, Prime Minister Phan Van Dong of Vietnam, President Lopez Portillo of Mexico, President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Roberta Flack, Maya Angelou and President Bill Clinton of the USA.

Pearson’s work appears on the 1993 Jamaican $1.40 stamp, as part of an issue that featured Jamaica Ceramics from the Hardingham Collection. In 2001, he was awarded the Order of Distinction, Officer Class, for distinguished performance in the Arts.

For his contribution to Art the Council of the Institute of Jamaica is pleased to award Gene Pearson, O.D. the Silver Musgrave Medal for outstanding merit in the field.

The Jamaican Intuitive painter Gaston Tabois in 2010 received a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica, the NGJ’s parent organization. As has become customary for artists who have been awarded Musgrave medals, the 2010 National Biennial includes a special tribute exhibition of his work. Below is the citation for Gaston Tabois’ Silver Musgrave medal.

Gaston Tabois – Road Menders (1956), Collection: NGJ

The Institute of Jamaica recognizes Gaston Tabois for outstanding merit in the field of Art.

Born in Trout Hall, Clarendon in 1924, Tabois’ early years were spent on his parents small farm in the village of Rock River, a few miles from Chapelton, where as an only child he received the full attention of a doting mother who instilled in him a sense of order, discipline and of pride in completing every set task with a maximum of constructive effort. The late Gloria Escoffery, author of a memorable account of Tabois’ journey as an artist, adds other early lessons from his mother:

Today Tabois has his mother to thank not only for the moral
standards she set for him…, but also for the example of those nimble
fingers as they brought to life the intricate designs she embroidered
on the bridal gowns of Rock River belles (…) without realizing that
he was learning, Tabois came to understand the importance of
planning, of careful craftsmanship, of giving thought to the
materials, or ground on which one worked, the tools and medium
one selects for a particular job.

At the elementary school in Rock River, Tabois’ gifts as a draughtsman surfaced and were quickly utilized by the teacher who roped him into the creation of the charts for the class. In 1940 he was sent to Kingston to Tutorial College which he attended until the age of twenty. After graduation, while holding down a variety of jobs, he embarked on a self-education programme where he tackled numerous subjects including Latin, History, Human Physiology and, of course, Art. He taught himself the rudiments of architectural drafting and after years of practicing as a professional he formalized his education in the field, gaining a diploma at the College of Arts Science and Technology in 1968.

Gaston Tabois – Reaping Sugar (c1956), Collection: NGJ, Gift of Royal Bank Foundation

In the meantime however, Tabois the self-taught painter had come to national prominence. By 1955 when he held his first one-man exhibition at the Hill’s Galleries in Kingston, he was being hailed in some quarters as the heir to the acknowledged master of Jamaican “Primitive” painters, John Dunkley. In Jamaica the “International set” took this true “naïf” to its bosom delighted by his joyous depictions of Jamaican landscapes and village life. The label of “Primitive” and later of “Intuitive” however, did not sit well with Mr. Tabois. He wanted to be considered as being in the line of masters like, as he said “Rubens…and the man who painted the Mona Lisa.” So he set about bettering himself by more and more detailed work and more and more careful application of paint. By the time of his 1975 exhibition at the Bolivar Gallery, an announcement from the gallery would state: “Since 1973 Mr. Tabois has dropped his primitive style for professional realism.” The “new” style that emerged would be a disappointment for some, but his integrity and obvious devotion to the determined muse of “Realism” won him many new admirers. For them it is his pre-occupation with details, lovingly depicted that gives the later work its special charm.

Gaston Tabois – Taino Cave Rituals (1996), Collection: Michael T. Gardner

Tabois is one of a mere handful of artists who exhibited in all three editions of the National Gallery of Jamaica’s defining series of Intuitive Eye exhibitions staged in 1979, 1987 and in 2006. He is also one of very few artists whose work has been featured on Jamaican postage stamps. In 1986, his famous Road Menders was one of four works selected for the “Intuitive Painters” set of four stamps, thus Tabois joined Dunkley, Kapo and Sidney McLaren in the pantheon of Intuitive Masters. His John Canoe at Guanaboa Vale was used on the Christmas issue of 2002.

In the nearly twenty years since the award of the bronze Musgrave medal in 1992, Tabois’ work continues to be marked by ever greater and greater refinement. Always reluctant to say a work is finished, he has often re-entered earlier work, repainting and retouching, constantly refining. As he says: “there’s always room for improvement.” The most recent of these repainted works is called Tribute to Rex and is a moving tribute to the late Rex Nettleford who collected his work and who opened one of his early exhibitions at the Institute of Jamaica. The wish expressed back in 1987 “I put out my effort. Hopefully I’ll die very old having accomplished a lot of good for mankind” is clearly being fulfilled.

Mr Gaston Tabois, Silver Musgrave Medalist

For his contribution to Art the Council of the Institute of Jamaica is pleased to award Gaston Tabois the Silver Musgrave Medal for outstanding merit in the field.

The National Gallery of Jamaica is pleased to announce the receipt of the John Pringle Collection, a major donation of 23 paintings by the Jamaican Intuitive master Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds. The inaugural exhibition of the John Pringle Collection will take place at the Montego Bay Civic Centre from May 2 to June 25.

Hotelier and founder of the famed Round Hill resort, John Pringle was Jamaica’s first Director of Tourism and, after he left Jamaica for England in 1967, continued to play an important role in the promotion of Jamaican tourism and the economy. Pringle had always been strongly interested in Jamaican art and culture, and the important role it should play in sustainable tourism, but started collecting Jamaican art in earnest after he left Jamaica. As his daughter Shawn Tower has argued, this allowed him to maintain his deep connection with his home country. While he also collected other artists, such as Milton George, Omari Ra, and Laura Facey, he assembled a particularly fine group of paintings by Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds and had expressed the desire for this to be returned to Jamaica after his death. We are very privileged to have been the beneficiary of this generosity and vision.

Kapo, there can be no doubt, is one of most important Jamaican artists of the twentieth century and his association with Jamaica’s main African-derived religion, Zion Revival, makes him doubly important. Revival, as the paintings in the John Pringle Collection well illustrate, was Kapo’s main source of inspiration and even those works that do not represent recognizable Revival practices, such as the landscapes, portraits and romantic couples, are illustrative of its life world. Kapo faced prejudice and, even persecution, during his early years, because of the negative stereotypes that surrounded African-derived religions during the colonial era. While some of these may still linger today, it is of great credit to the cultural vision of Edward Seaga, who first brought Kapo to public attention, and John Pringle in the 1960s and, later on, the likes of Annabella Proudlock and David Boxer, that Kapo was given due recognition as a Jamaican master artist and representative of an important and defining African-derived cultural tradition. Kapo received many prestigious awards including Silver and Gold Musgrave Award from the Institute of Jamaica – received in 1969 and 1986 respectively – and the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 1977.

The John Pringle Collection of 23 Kapo paintings has joined the 28 paintings and 57 sculptures by the Intuitive master already in the collections of the National Gallery of Jamaica and Kapo is now the best represented artist in the National Collection, which is a just tribute to his significance. The inclusion of these works into the National Collection will also create a more balanced perspective on Kapo: not only an accomplished sculptor but also a prolific and equally accomplished painter.

The John Pringle Collection will be officially handed over at a special function at the Montego Bay Civic Centre on May 1, when Principal Director of Culture, Mr Sydney Bartley, will receive the donation on behalf of the Hon. Olivia Grange, M.P., Minister of Youth, Sports and Culture. The Hon. Edmund Bartlett, M.P., Minister of Tourism, will be the guest speaker on the occasion.

The John Pringle Collection will be on public view at the Montego Bay Civic Centre, Sam Sharpe Square, from Monday, May 2 to Saturday, June 25. Viewing hours will be: Mondays to Fridays, 10 am to 6 pm and Saturdays, 10 am to 3 pm. Admission: $100 for adults and $ 50 for children under 16 and students with ID.

The repatriation and inaugural exhibition of the John Pringle Collection were funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund and the St James Parish Council is a sponsor of the exhibition at the Montego Bay Civic Centre.

This first in a two-part feature on Eugene Hyde was researched and compiled by Monique Barnett, Curatorial Assistant.

Rex Nettleford in discussion with Jamaican painter Eugene Hyde, who was working on his 1966 exhibition The Dance (photographer unknown)

One of the most ambitious developments to take place within the realm of the
Jamaican art movement was the formation of the Contemporary Jamaica Artists’ Association (CJAA) in 1963. It emerged at a time when Jamaica had already established several galleries, a tertiary institution of art (the Jamaica School of Art), and a viewing public along with competent critics – all indicators of the professionalization of Jamaican art at that time. This association of professional artists was geared towards building “respectability for the profession as well as [making] art a financially viable concern and [elevating] it to a standard comparable with other movements abroad” (Archer-Straw & Robinson 1990, 57). The founders of the Association, Karl Parboosingh, Eugene Hyde and Barrington Watson, all shared strong commitment to the adoption of modern approaches to art in Jamaica. Hyde in particular was responsible for introducing a number of international artists to exhibit in Jamaica during the sixties and seventies. Described as a quiet and systematic worker, he was possibly the first of Jamaica’s artists to develop the idea of working ‘serially’- creating a series of works based on a single theme. In fact, it was his Flora series (1969-1973) that brought him public recognition as an accomplished young Jamaican painter.

Eugene Hyde - From the Croton Series (1974), mixed media on canvas, Collection: NGJ

Eugene Siedel Hyde was born on January 25, 1931 at Cooper’s Hill, Portland. His father, John Hyde, was described as a well-respected citizen and the leading photographer in Port Antonio at the time, responsible for doing graduation photography for schools, for leading families as well as photography for the United Fruit Company which was a banana shipping company. John Hyde had three sons of which Eugene was the eldest (the other two were John and Oswald). Three years after Eugene Hyde’s untimely death in 1980, Mrs. Ivy Larman, Eugene’s mother, describes to Rosalie Smith McCrea (then Assistant Curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica),  her son’s early years as a naturally gifted artist:

I noticed that during his childhood he undoubtedly had a special ability in art, even the way he coloured the cartoon figures in children’s books was special. This progressed until age nine when he used to draw and paint for hospitals, nurseries and schools in the locality (Smith-McCrea 1984, 30).

She added that Jonkanoo bands, which travelled about around Christmas and New Year’s time, played a major role in the entertainment life of young Hyde:

He always took a distinct interest in the exciting colours and designs which were displayed as well, he was an observer of poverty and how the average man worked for a living. (Ibid.)

Hyde attended Titchfield High School in Port Antonio. After the death of his father in 1944, Hyde and his mother moved Spanish Town where he attended Beckford and Smiths, now known as the St. Jago High School. In 1948, he began his career in advertising as a graphic apprentice at Art and Publicity Service, a graphics firm that used to operate on Harbour Street, Kingston. Before long he became a graphic artist and full member of staff. Hyde learned to draw from copying images in art books, particularly those that focused on the human figure. George Garel – an artist acquaintance of Hyde while he lived at Monk Street with his mother and stepfather – introduced him to the idea of drawing from nature. He described Hyde as someone who saw things with a graphic sense rather than in a painterly way and as such, landscapes did not really appeal to him as much as the human figure studies of Michelangelo. Hyde expressed to Garel that he was not particularly fulfilled at Art and Publicity – “he wanted to be a fine artist.” (Smith-McCrea 1984, 31)

Eugene Hyde - Counting (c1953-55), Collection: NGJ

In 1953 he studied Advertising Design for two years at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, California. There, he discovered there was more to art than just advertising. From 1955 – 1960, he majored in Graphic Art and Painting at the Los Angeles County Art Institute, ultimately receiving his Masters Degree in Fine Arts. In that same year, after completing his first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings at the Conde Gallery in Hollywood, California, Hyde returned to Jamaica. Initially he applied, without success, for teaching positions at the University of the West Indies Mona Campus and the Jamaica School of Art (now the Edna Manley School of the Visual Arts). Eventually he was accepted as Art Director at Art and Publicity Service where he had first done his apprenticeship years before. He subsequently returned to the United States where he studied “Principles of Advertising” at the University of California Los Angeles and did extra post graduate work in Architectural Ceramics at Otis Art University. Upon his return to Jamaica in 1961, he became the art director of Stewart Johnson and Associates (formerly Art and Publicity Service). However, Hyde felt culturally out of touch having spent so much time away from his homeland. In addition to that he never applied his fine art background and it wasn’t until two years later that he was able to re-immerse himself into the movement and rhythm of Jamaica and begin his career as a serious fine artist.

Eugene Hyde - Standing Figure (1964), mixed media on board, Collection: NGJ

In 1963 Hyde accomplished his first solo exhibition in Jamaica at the Institute of Jamaica which consisted of 55 works – paintings, drawings, etchings, architectural ceramics and murals. Hyde’s art style was unusual and foreign for some Jamaican viewers, particularly his abstract representations of the human figure. However, there were others that felt that his level of expressiveness as a draughtsman represented possibly the beginnings of a shift in the current visual art paradigm of the day. From then on, Hyde involved himself in many activities related to the arts including having extra classes for young artists at his home at “Hyde-a-Way” at Old Stony Hill road, completing commissions for other artistic groups such as the N.D.T.C as well as a mural project for the late A.D. Scott at the Olympia International Art Centre. He also taught part-time at the Jamaica School of Art, brought on staff by Barrington Watson who was then the Director of Studies. Hyde was critical of teaching methodology at the Jamaica. Hyde admitted:

I was unpopular…they are not involved in history and the things which build the total person. An artist today is an educated…he must be able to understand and be aware of where he is in relationship to society (Smith-McCrea 1984, 35)

Hyde continued his work in the graphics and advertising industry eventually founding the firm Hyde, Held and Blackburn in 1968, with several partners (the company is now known as the Pear Tree Press). In 1970, he established the John Peartree Gallery with the objective of giving those artists legitimately involved in creative experimentation a place to display their work. In the same year, Hyde travelled with his wife, Beth, Karl and Seya Parboosingh to various parts of the Caribbean “to make contact with Caribbean artists with a view to promulgating cultural exchanges within the area and also to attend the first Biennial of Latin American Graphics, staged in Puerto Rico” (Smith-McCrea 1984, 48). Hyde continued to work passionately towards a development of modern visual arts in Jamaica through the various activities within Jamaica’s developing cultural sector. In March of 1980, he was invited to give a lecture to second year students at the Jamaica School of Art on the topic, My Work and its Development over the Last Twenty Years. He, however, didn’t fulfil the invitation, instead inviting the students to the John Peartree Gallery to view and discuss the works on view there. Tragedy struck on July 15, 1980, when Eugene Hyde drowned at a beach in Hellshire while on an outing there with his wife and three children. He was 49 years old. Posthumous exhibitions were held in his honour in 1981 at Gallery Barrington as well as at the John Peartree Gallery in 1982. In 1983, he was posthumously awarded the Silver Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica for his contribution to the field of art. In 1984, another posthumous exhibition was mounted by the National Gallery of Jamaica, entitled, Eugene Hyde 1931-1980: A Retrospective.

For more on Hyde’s work, click here..

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archer-Straw, Petrine, and Kim Robinson. Jamaican Art. Kingston: Kingston Publishers, 1990.

Smith-McCrea, Rosalie. Eugene Hyde: A Retrospective. Kingston: National Gallery of Jamaica, 1984.

This second in a two-part feature on Eugene Hyde was researched and compiled by Monique Barnett, Curatorial Assistant.

Eugene Hyde - Good Friday (Casualties series), 1978, Collection: NGJ

Eugene Hyde’s artistic oeuvre includes drawings and etchings on paper, mix media paintings on canvas as well as explorations in architectural ceramics. Hyde also executed commissions for large murals, for example a stone mural for University of the West Indies Extramural Campus on South Camp Road. He was also commissioned to do a stage backdrop for Dialogue for Three, a dance piece choreographed by the late Professor Rex Nettleford for the National Dance Theatre Company during the mid-1960. Today, he is considered one of Jamaica’s great muralists. “Hyde brought a new aesthetic to Jamaica…together with Barrington Watson, he introduced a new sense of scale [and] a more “expansive” imagery.” (Smith-McCrea, 1984, 10)

Eugene Hyde - Design for Coloured Stone Mural, n.d.

Throughout his artistic career, Hyde seemed to always have a preoccupation with visually exploring the human figure. Perhaps for Hyde, the human figure with its versatility of form and expression could be used as the ultimate symbol for a myriad of human conditions and expressions of his time. His interest in the human figure began long before his fine arts career (see blog article Jamaica’s Art Pioneers: Eugene Hyde (1931-1980) – Part I: His Life, May 11, 2011) and after committing himself to exploring visual art beyond the boundaries of illustrative design through the study of fine art painting, Hyde would continually push the envelope in terms of finding that ‘new’ image or images of the modern humankind.

Hyde was adept at communicating deep emotional content in his works as observed in one of his earlier illustrations, Man Reading Paper (1953-55). His gestural approach in other drawings, particularly the misshapen and distant character of some of his figures, such as Standing Woman (1954-55), is largely credited to the influence of Italian-born painter and sculptor Rico LeBrun (1900-1964), who taught classes at the University of California while Hyde attended the institution during the mid to late 1950’s. Though it is not certain that Hyde was ever taught directly by LeBrun, Hyde greatly admired and identified with the older artist’s proficiency with line as well as his ability to invoke psychological content into his figures and the spaces in which they existed.

Eugene Hyde - Man Reading paper (1953-55)

Particularly in his etchings, Hyde sought to extend the linear dynamism of his human figures into the rest of the pictorial space, effectively revealing yet trapping them inside the composition as seen in Bunch Fruit and Jelly Man, both done in 1959. He would push the envelope even further as evidenced in paintings such as Standing Figure (1964) in which the figure is almost completely abstracted and sculptural. It should be noted, however, that no matter what lengths Hyde took to explore abstraction, there was always a representational element in his compositions.

Eugene Hyde - Jelly Man (1959), Collection: NGJ

Eugene Hyde is categorised by some as an artist whose works, beginning around the mid-1960’s, reflect strong influence of Abstract Expressionism, an art movement that was innovated in the USA, post-World War II in the mid to late forties. Though the movement itself was losing prominence during the late fifties to early sixties, there were still international artists that were using elements of it in their works. Elements of abstract expressionism such as the dynamism and movement of form, shape and space characterized most, if not all, works produced by Eugene Hyde. Works from his flower series, such as Sunflowers (1964) and Croton Series (1974), micro-cosmically display sweeping movements of gradating colours as they begin to imply form.

Eugene Hyde - Sunflowers (1967), Collection: NGJ

In the late 1970’s, Hyde would more aggressively apply his use of figurative expression with social commentary in another of his painting series, The Casualties. Hyde depicted the human figures in this series as figures of poverty and deprivation – marginalized individuals without identity, represented in flurries of restless, fragmented lines and hollowed forms as seen in Good Friday (1978). Socio-political references are evidenced through the use of the Jamaican flag colours, subtly dominated by the existence of a thin red line (possibly a visual clue to what Hyde what perceived as a political move towards communist ideology by the government at that time). Hyde was adamant about the demise that would befall his island home if certain political ideologies were to be adopted. Landing of the Advisors (1978), for instance, depicts a merging of the Cuban and Jamaican flag colours as they appear to plummet into a restless and formless dark space.

 As mentioned previously, Eugene Hyde’s stylistic approach was adventurous and foreign to Jamaican audiences who, at the time, had come to embrace the calm and edifying characteristic of traditional Jamaican artwork. Considered a major force in the development of abstract art in Jamaica, Eugene Hyde can be seen as the fore-runner for later expressionists like Omari Ra and Milton George in the late eighties to nineties. Their post-modern approaches to art making and the expansion of the conceptual framework of abstract art to speak about various subject matter further challenged the way Jamaicans accepted the evolution of Jamaican art within the context of a more advanced global perspective. According to Smith-McCrea (1984), Hyde did not feel that he belonged to mainstream Jamaican art, even questioning the idea of a Jamaican art movement. Despite that, Hyde – through his collaborations with artists, local and foreign as well as other cultural entities and corporate business institutions – was able to contribute to developing the infrastructure needed to facilitate the development of Jamaican artists through education, organized contemporary exhibitions and a culture of art appreciation and collection. His lifelong commitment and work has indeed earned him the title of Jamaican Art Pioneer.

For more on Hyde’s life, click here.

SOURCES

Archer-Straw, Petrine, and Kim Robinson. Jamaican Art. Kingston: Kingston Publishers, 1990.

Hyde Archives, National Gallery of Jamaica

Smith-McCrea, Rosalie. Eugene Hyde: A Retrospective. Kingston: National Gallery of Jamaica, 1984.

Louisa Jones "Ma Lou" - Bowl (n.d.). Collection: Museums of History and Ethnography, Institute of Jamaica

The following post – another in our Jamaica’s Art Pioneers series – was researched and written by Dwayne Lyttle, Curatorial Assistant at the NGJ.

Louisa Jones O.D., popularly known as Ma Lou, has been described as a national treasure and a master practitioner of the African-Jamaican pottery tradition.

At approximately nine years old Ma Lou started learning how to make clay pots, mainly from her mother, an uncle’s wife and three maternal aunts. By the age of thirteen she started to work as a potter full time and from that point on began a career which would span a period of 67 years. She primarily produced yabba pots, cooling jars, coal stoves and flower pots, particularly for household use and domestic applications. Of all the ceramic forms within the African-Jamaican tradition Ma Lou rarely made the water storage vessel known as the Monkey Jars.

Louisa Jones "Ma Lou" - Bowl (n.d.). Collection: Museums of History and Ethnography, Institute of Jamaica

Characteristically her pieces consist of terra-cotta earthenware bodies, predominantly completed without any decoration. However, her flower pot designs with there undulating edges and her yabbas with there single beaded line pattern, rounding the form, stand out as consistent and obvious exceptions. Additionally, she covered many of her cooking pots and yabba bowls with a bauxite dirt slip and burnished them with river stones to fashion their marble like sheen finish. Her pieces were always “signed” with four shallow finger impressions which were horizontally placed.

Isaac Mendez Belisario - Water-Jar Sellers, Sketches of Character (1837-38), lithograph. Belisario's print illustrates how African-Jamaican ceramic ware was sold on the streets of Kingston in the Emancipation period.

The African–Jamaican pottery tradition within which Ma Lou worked, evolved from a “syncretic” (Ebanks 1984) ceramic heritage which archaeological and ethnographic researchers suggest contains “a combination of European and African” (Ebanks 1984) elements. It has even been suggested that this tradition has some of its roots in the Precolumbian era. This syncretic tradition is believed to have emerged in Jamaica, sometime after the English capture of the island from Spain in 1655. Other experts have suggested, that Ma Lou’s execution of specific techniques within the tradition, namely vessel formation and firing, represent a distinctly “more African” (Baugh & Tanna 1999) approach to ceramic production as compared to other approaches within the same traditional vein.

When her work began to be described as a significant aspect of Jamaica’s cultural heritage and identity, Ma Lou’s pieces, production methods and biographical anecdotes where observed, recorded and popularized by journalist, historical researchers and visual arts professionals. Of note in this regard is the Jamaican master potter Cecil Baugh O.D. who during his life time did much to expose Ma Lou’s artistry, to his fellow Jamaicans and the world at large, especially through educational field trips to her home in Spanish Town – Jamaica’s first capital – and joint demonstrations with her both locally and abroad, most notably of which was their 1984 appearance at Broward College, Fort Lauderdale in the United States of America. Also, during 1984 an article largely detailing Ma Lou’s production processes, authored by Roderick Ebanks, was published in the Institute of Jamaica periodical Jamaica Journal.

Louisa Jones "Ma Lou" or Merline Meggie "Munchi" - Cooking Pot (c1985), Private Collection

Due to the growth of her popularity and critical acclaim, Ma Lou was provided with an exhibition space at the Peoples Museum of Craft and Technology in Spanish Town Square – now Emancipation Square and also exhibited works in the Annual National Exhibition (1981) and the Clay and Fire (2005) exhibition, which all were held at the National Gallery of Jamaica. In 1991 Ma Lou had a solo exhibition at the Petite Gallery in the capital of Jamaica, Kingston and of note during that exhibition were a few works by Merline “Munchi” Meggie, one of her daughter’s, who continues to produce pots in the African–Jamaican tradition to the present day, carrying on one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions on the island.

In 1986 Ma Lou was honoured with a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica and in 1988 she received the Order of Distinction from the Government of Jamaica.

Bibliography

Tanna, Laura, and Cecil Baugh. Baugh: Jamaica’s Master Potter. Kingston: DLT Associates, 1999.

Boxer, David et al. clay and Fire: Ceramic Art in Jamaica. Kingston: National Gallery of Jamaica, 2005.

Ebanks, Roderick. “Ma Lou and The Afro-Jamaican Pottery Tradition.”Jamaica Journal 17, no.3 (1984).

Dwight Larmond - Wi and Dem (2011, mixed media)

On the afternoon of September 15, 2011 Dwight Larmond, participant and bronze medallist of the 2011 National Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition, a joint project of the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission and the National Gallery of Jamaica, received the Claro Viewer’s Vote award at the National Gallery. He won the award for his mix-media piece entitled Wi and Dem – a work based on events surrounding the Tivoli incursion of May 2010. Presenting the award was Ms Latoy Williams, Claro Media Manager. Also in attendance to the presentation was Mrs Sana Rose-Savage, representing the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), Dr Veerle Poupeye Executive Director of the National Gallery, Dr David Boxer, Chief Curator and Mr O’Neil Lawrence, Assistant Curator.

2011 Claro Viewer's Vote Award ceremony - from left to right: David Boxer, O'Neil Lawrence, Sana Rose-Savage, Dwight Larmond, Latoy Williams, Veerle Poupeye

A regular participant of the National Visual Arts Competition as well as the National Biennial (both of which he began entering in 2008), the confident and driven Dwight Larmond is a self-taught artist with vision of social change through artistic collaboration. This was evident in his 2008 biennial entry Team Roots which was comprised of clays from each of Jamaica’s fourteen parishes. A used car salesman and avid sports enthusiast, Mr. Larmond emphatically states that art is central to his life.

Have a look at this video, recorded at the opening of the exhibition’s traveling showcase at the St Mary Civic Centre on September 27,  to get a sense of how viewers have responded to Dwight Larmond’s work:

Mr. Larmond sat down with curatorial assistant Monique Barnett for a brief interview in which he spoke about some of his aspirations as an artist as well as his experiences. Here are excerpts from that interview:

MB:    So now, coming down to the reason you have that trophy, Wi and Dem – the conception of the piece. Can you walk me through how that came about?

DL:      … I realized that the whole incident that took place, on that May Tivoli incursion as much we tried to put it together, it was always out of control. People were always speaking about it, there were unresolved issues – from different angles from the political side, from the native side. So I said, you know what, let me try to see if I can add my two cents to this as a concerned citizen who was actually visualizing it from my apartment on Red Hills road – the smoke, the fumes going up in the air, I was hearing the echoes from the gunshots…The concerns stayed deep in my head, the picture was really there…I said okay let me sit down and draft something – muscle up the security forces and muscle up the citizens with their concerns – and decided that I could go now and find the pieces , the different elements I would want to use to finish this piece and it just parachuted from there.

MB:    One of the things a lot of viewers were impressed with was the amalgamation of the painting and the zinc…How important was it for you to bring that material into that traditional painting?

DL:      I don’t know if it has anything to do with the fact that I am not a trained artist so I’m always exploring and part of my exploration is to find a particular style that you can identify with me. So I think until I can get any two or any three or one hundred collaborations of different things, different materials together, I will always be searching…To honestly answer your question, I don’t think that I really have any fixed reason for using those two pieces or for them to come out like that except we can better identify with the ghetto or with the inner-city from zinc. It draws the viewer more into that ghetto feel or inner-city feel. It does encourage the eyes to want to read what might be said on that piece of zinc, ultimately giving you an effective piece which is what I really wanted.

MB:    … Are you involved with any other art activities, for example, you have some artists that like to stick together…Do you have that kind of relationship with others working in the visual arts?

DL:      To be honest I try to attend as many art forums as possible. I try to meet who I can meet. Where I’m from in Westmoreland, art isn’t the thing for many different reasons. We don’t hold art festivals there, we are without art galleries…But …I’m very encouraged and I’m very moved towards changing that whole dynamic in my parish. So I’m offering myself as that figure who can get people more interested in art down there because we have at least four high schools there that turns out children who are very artistically inclined but with nowhere to turn.

MB:    You made it very clear that art is very central to you and how you think, how you perceive and how you move forward with your life. But there are many that feel that the visual art really doesn’t have a place in terms of the wider scheme of things. How do you feel about that?

DL:      I move to rubbish that. For me art is everything. If you walk into a store, the very clothes you wear, the design of anything that you see, the cars you want to own, the buildings that you put up has a fair amount of art in it. So art has to be very, very essential to everybody. I can understand if people might want to turn a blind eye to it because very few artists make themselves available in terms of their achievements to people. You know how we are as human beings. We gravitate towards what we see. So we look at a dancehall artist or a pop artist for example, and we see the returns that come from their discipline. I know that art can take a lot of the [displaced] youths, especially, from the inner-cities. Because I know, I’ve seen where there are a lot of people there from the inner-cities, [and] the country areas are really skilled. So how then, what we use to trap them, to turn their minds to art? I would like to be the person that does that, I think I’m on the road to doing that. With the help, I can change it. I hope I’m not sounding like a politician (laughs).

Mallica "Kapo" Reynolds - Rising Table (Revival Table), 1972, John Pringle Collection, NGJ

While preparing for our next major exhibition, the Barrington Watson Retrospective which is scheduled to open on January 8, 2012, the National Gallery is pleased to present the following temporary displays:

The John Pringle Collection: The John Pringle Collection is a recent major donation of 23 paintings by Mallica “Kapo” Reynolds by the estate of John Pringle, Jamaica’s first Director of Tourism and the founder of the famed Round Hill resort. The collection, which had its inaugural exhibition at the Montego Bay Civic Centre in May-June of this year, is on view in its entirety at the National Gallery in Kingston until mid November, after which selections will be included in the new Kapo Galleries, which will reopen towards the end of the year. The catalogue of the John Pringle Collection is now also available for sale in our gift shop. The repatriation and exhibition of the John Pringle Collection have been funded by the Tourism Enhancement Fund.

Ebony Patterson - Di Real Big Man, 2010, Collection: NGJ

Selections from the Permanent Collection: On view in the central lobby, mezzanine and circulating areas of the National Gallery are selections from our permanent collection, with works of art in various media from the 1960s to the present, by major Jamaican artists such as Carl Abrahams, Ebony Patterson, Cecil Baugh, Renee Cox, Ralph Campbell, Bryan McFarlane, Kapo, Osmond Watson, Milton George, Everald Brown, Albert Artwell, Hope Brooks, Norma Rodney Harrack, Gloria Escoffery, Peter Wayne Lewis, Karl Parboosingh, and Eugene Hyde. This temporary exhibition includes selections from our ceramics collection, our contemporary art and Intuitive holdings, the Eugene Hyde prints in our collection, Milton George’s Pages from my Diary, as well as a thematic display on religion in Jamaican art. Not to be missed, this exhibition includes several less known but important works from our collection that are not normally on long term public view.

Isaac Mendez Belisario - Cocoa Walks Estate (c1940), Collection: NGJ

In addition, we also offer our permanent exhibitions. The first of these, Art in Jamaica, c1000 to 1500 AD, provides an overview of the development of art in Jamaica from the Pre-Columbian era to the late 19^th century, including several rare Taino woodcarvings and the famous Sketches of Character (1837-38) lithographs by the first documented Jamaican-born artist Isaac Mendez Belisario, and has which recently been updated with examples of African-Jamaican pottery, as examples of the visual and material culture of the African-Jamaican population during the Plantation era.

The second and largest permanent exhibition, Jamaican Art: the 20^th Century, is currently being updated and will, in its new form, provide an historical overview of modern Jamaican art. The Early Intuitives gallery, which features the work of John Dunkley and David Miller Sr and Jr, has already been completed, as has the entrance alcove with Edna Manley’s famous Negro Aroused (1935). Three other galleries in this section are also currently open, although yet to be refurbished, and feature artists such as Edna Manley, Albert Huie, David Pottinger, Carl Abrahams and Karl Parboosingh. The second part of the Jamaican Art: the 20^th Century exhibition – the section on Jamaican art in the post-Independence period – is currently closed for refurbishing and will reopen in 2012.

Edna Manley - Horse of the Morning, 1943, Collection: NGJ (Gift of Michael Manley)

In addition, our permanent exhibitions also include the Edna Manley Galleries, which provide a detailed overview of Edna Manley’s work from the late 1910s to the time of her death in 1989. This section includes Edna Manley masterpieces such as Man with Wounded Bird (c1934) and Horse of the Morning (1943).

Guided tours of these permanent and temporary exhibitions are available by appointment. The tour fees are $2000 for schools and $3000 for other groups up to 30 persons. A full tour takes approximately one hour. Please call our Education Department to make arrangements: 1.876.922.1561/3 (Lime landline), 1.876.618.0654/5 (Digicel landline), or e-mail: info@natgalja.org.jm.

Click to view slideshow.

The National Gallery of Jamaica regrets the passing of Jamaican artist Hylton Nembhard (1950-2011). This is our tribute to him, with thanks to Herman van Asbroeck for images of his recent work.

Hylton Nembhard (1950-2012) received early training at the Junior Centre of the Institute of Jamaica and later attended the Jamaica School of Art, now the Edna Manley College. He exhibited regularly over the years, starting with the Festival Fine Arts exhibition in the 1960s and the NGJ’s Annual National in the 1970s. He also exhibited his work at the Bolivar Gallery and Amaicraft.

Nembhard’s earlier work consisted of figurative woodcarvings, in local woods such as lignumvitae and cedar, but more recently he worked inventively with recuperated materials, especially sheet metal, which he hammered into relief shapes, combined with fibers and sometimes also painted.

The NGJ’s Chief Curator David Boxer contributed the following reflection on hearing of Nembhard’s passing:

Hylton Nembhard was one of those interesting hybrid artists that the Jamaican Art movement has thrown up from time to time. He began his career as a woodcarver (though he has also worked in metal) that we would today define as an Intuitive, but he sought out the advice and training available to young artists associated with the Institute of Jamaica in the fifties, sixties and early seventies. These associations resulted in his early vital work being somewhat tempered. When I arrived at the NGJ in 1974 two of his carvings an Eve, and a Rasta Head, both done in the early seventies attracted me and over the years I have shown the Rasta Head in one of the Intuitives galleries at the National Gallery. He has never however been included in any of the exhibitions which have virtually established the Intuitive canon. This Rasta Head remains, in my opinion his finest work, full of vitality and raw expressive energy.

Nembhard’s work indeed defies the categorizations that have been proposed in Jamaican art history. He was an eccentric and this became more pronounced in his later life but his artistic style and subject matter always remained rooted in the local popular culture, particularly the world of Rastafari. His work also existed in dialogue with the artistic language of mainstream artists such as Osmond Watson and, even, the Rasta-inspired woodcarvings that proliferate in the local tourist market.

Irrespective of how he is categorized, or whether he can be categorized at all, Hylton Nembhard possessed a powerful artistic voice and deserves to be studied and recognized as a significant figure in the context of Jamaican art.

Note: We had initially reported that Hylton Nembhard had passed away in 2012 but have since learned that it occurred on December 13, 2011.

Sidney McLaren – Scene on Harbour Street (1972), Collection: NGJ

The Intuitive painter (and occasional sculptor) Sidney McLaren lived and worked in the parish of St Thomas, in eastern Jamaica, but is best known for his fanciful depictions of life and physical environment in Jamaica’s bustling capital city, Kingston. Frequently using postcards as a visual source, his intricate city-scapes were made by a painter who only saw the best, as it was put in a 1974 Gleaner article on his work. The unknown author of that article further wrote:

McLaren often distorts the perspective if he feels it improves the overall design and he may even shift a building or a church-steeple to left or right to achieve a kind of poetic geometry in his compositions. His pedestrians and motorists are always nicely dressed, looking most prosperous. They seldom seem to be in a hurry to get anywhere and so their gait is appropriately measured and dignified as they progress along spotless and shining pavements.

And:

A somewhat unusual picture by him is in the National Collection in that it depicts racing at Caymanas Park.here, unexpectedly, McLaren shows himself quite skilful in recording almost violent movement of the horses and riders and the tense atmosphere of the grand-stand packed with spectators.

McLaren’s upbeat perspective on Kingston life stands in striking contrast with that of David Pottinger, which presents a dignified but far more somber view, which was perhaps informed by Pottinger’s personal experience of life, and poverty, in the capital city

Sidney McLaren – Racing at Caymanas Park (1971), Collection: NGJ

Here is Sidney McLaren’s biography, in his own words:

I, Sidney McLaren, born at Spring Garden. St Thomas, on the 18th of March 1895 in the year of our lord, reached 6th grade in primary school. After leaving school, I went to learn “Coach Building” trade. After finishing, motor cars started to come into the island. The owners of carriages put them away, and got motor cars in their place. The trade that I learned did not have any use to me, so I started to do some farming on my fathers little plot of land.

I got married on the 27th June 1926.

I met with three years of hurricanes, one after another, so I was compelled to leave the farm and go in search of work.

Many times I try to work and failed to obtain same except at the P.W.D. As a casual worker on asphalting. This condition went on for many years until I got fed up. I decided to make a job for myself.

In the yard in which I was living, one day I took a bit of cardboard and pencil and started to draw the house , trees, fencing etc. After showing it around , people praised it, so I was more interest and discovered that my mental faculties started to work by my concentrating on art.

Then my motives drove me to action, and without a teacher I found myself doing the “Fine Drawing”- Drawing and Painting.

Sidney McLaren – Morant Bay (1970), Collection: NGJ

I won a first prize at Lyssons Agricultural show in 1960, and a second first prize at the Morant Bay Parish Library in 1964. A third first prize at the institute of Jamaica in 1970, and another first prize at the Institute in 1973.

In 1975 I was awarded a Silver Musgrave Medal.

In 1977 I won another first prize at institute of Jamaica.

If it pleases the lord, my desire is to go on drawing and painting until I can do more. For the lord said he will fulfill the desire of those that love and fear him”.

Sidney McLaren was one of the key artists featured in the NGJ’s seminal  Intuitive Eye exhibition in 1979, the year of his death, and was awarded the Order of Distinction, one of Jamaica’s national honours, in that same year. His work is well represented in the NGJ collection and several private collections.

Sidney McLaren – King and Barry Street (1971), Collection: NGJ

Allan “Zion” Johnson – Peacock (2001), Collection: NGJ, Gift of Herman van Asbroeck.

Biography

Allan ‘Zion” Johnson (birth name: Isaac Johnson) was born May 28th, 1930, St Andrew, Jamaica. At the age of 11 years, he went to Kingston Senior School, where he took some lessons in making furniture, which he started painting. Zion recounted what happened next:

I made a pushcart and decorated and painted it and wrote passages on it from the Bible. Soon other people asked me to make carts for them and that way I started to make a little money. I also made “Ludo” boards and painted and sold those too.

He decided to try painting and drawing in about 1965. He took a few lessons in painting at the University, helped by a friend, but soon gave that up. He started exhibiting regularly in 1980 and quickly gained recognition as a self-taught, Intuitive artist. He was featured in several major NGJ exhibitions, such as Fifteen Intuitives (1987) and Intuitives III (2006).

Zion lived and worked in August Town, near Kingston, where he had a small studio. He died in 2001 and was survived by his mother, Estella Gordon, who celebrated her 103rd birthday in that year. His mother passed away in 2003.

Allan “Zion” Johnson – Untitled (1992), Aaron & Marjorie Matalon Collection, NGJ

Work

Drawing from his own life-world, Zion’s work consists mainly of cheerful, fanciful depictions of the Jamaican environment and popular religion and, occasionally, his imaginations about the rest of the world, in his “Moscow, USA” paintings. David Boxer, Chief Curator of the NGJ, in 1987 commented on his work:

Richly coloured and highly detailed, his works delight the eye with their fanciful cubistic citiscapes and with their askew perspectives and disproportionately scaled figures and animals […] always full of the jostling rhythms of life’s hustle and bustle.

And:

Zion is a Zion Revivalist and feels his art must praise God – and so it is that every technical device, every formal invention […] operates towards this end, the creation of works that are forever bright, cheerful and above all, ecstatic.

Zion’s work is represented in the NGJ collection and several major collections of Intuitive art, such as the Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection and the Herman van Asbroeck Collection.

Allan “Zion” Johnson – Giving Praise to the Lord (1986), Aaron & Marjorie Matalon Collection, NGJ

(Information collated from the NGJ Education Department files)

Ras Dizzy – photograph by Wayne Cox

It is believed that Ras Dizzy was born in 1932 as Birth Livingstone, the date and name stated in his passport, although he also used Birch Lincoln and Dizzy Gillespie Johnson, as well as several other variations on his name. He died in Kingston on April 17, 2008. The following is extracted from the obituary published by the NGJ at that time:

Ras Dizzy first came to public attention in the 1960s as a Rastafarian poet/philosopher, who sold his mimeographed tracts and poems on the University of the West Indies campus, although he was already painting at that time. His writings were regularly featured in the weekly Abeng, which was published in 1969 by members of the young radical intelligentsia associated with UWI. His inclusion in the National Gallery of Jamaica’s seminal The Intuitive Eye exhibition in 1979, established him as a major Intuitive, as the Gallery henceforth called those self-taught artists who had previously been labelled as “primitive” or “naïve.”

Ras Dizzy – The Warship (1998), Aaron & Marjorie Matalon Collection, NGJ

Ras Dizzy chose to live outside of the system, as one who had no fixed address and, for that matter, no fixed name. His nomadic wanderings extended outside of Jamaica, among others to Haiti and Panama. While there were moments of significant hardship and even some brushes with the Law, he ultimately lived life on his own terms, as a free spirit. David Boxer, the National Gallery’s Chief Curator, described him as “a man who seemingly lives and paints at the very edge of what we might call sane/rational existence.”

Ras Dizzy – Dizzy Bill in Damasco (1993), Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection (photograph by Wayne Cox)

The expressive power of his work indeed derived from his eccentricity. He typically worked in extended series, on select “trademark” subjects. Many of his works are self-images, in the guise of a Wild West sheriff, an outlaw cowboy, a champion boxer or a racetrack jockey. These images are in part delusional but they are also rooted in the local popular culture and reflect a legitimate yearning for personal status and dignity. In the case of the sheriff, they also reflect a desire to restore order and justice to an often chaotic and unjust social environment.

Ras Dizzy – When I Fighted Sharcie Lewis (late 1990s), Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection (photograph by Wayne Cox)

Back of “When I Fighted Scarcie Lewis”

Other works celebrate nature, such as his birds (which probably also allude to his first name), his landscapes and his close-up depictions of palm trees, flowers and fruits, and others still represent common figures in the Jamaican environment, such as his market women. In some instances, his characteristically intense colours and bold brushstrokes took over, resulting in complete abstraction, and he told the American art writer Edward Gomez that these were “pictures of his dreams.” While his writings have received less attention in recent years, painting and poetry were integrated and most of his paintings have poetic writings on the back that elaborate on their content.

Ras Dizzy – Palm Trail the Holy Bible (1998), Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection (photograph by Wayne Cox)

Ras Dizzy has exhibited widely in Jamaica and abroad. The National Gallery of Jamaica also included him in the two major surveys of Intuitive art that followed The Intuitive Eye, namely Fifteen Intuitives (1987) and Intuitives III (2005), and several Annual National and National Biennial exhibitions. He was also a regular participant in Harmony Hall’s annual Intuitives exhibitions in Ocho Rios. His overseas exhibitions include: Jamaican Intuitives (1987) at the Commonwealth Institute in London; New World Imagery (1995), an exhibition of contemporary Jamaican art which toured in England, and Redemption Songs (1997 & 2002), an exhibition of work by Jamaican Intuitives which toured in the USA. Ras Dizzy was an extremely prolific painter whose work was very widely collected, often by persons who bought directly from him on his regular rounds through Kingston, the University of the West Indies and other parts of Jamaica. Internationally, his work has, among others, been sold through the Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York City, and the Pan American Art Projects in Miami and Dallas.

Portrait of Ras Dizzy, detail of study for Out of Many One People (1962) by Barrington Watson

With special thanks to Wayne Cox for his photograph of Ras Dizzy and works from his collection.

Woody in Stony Hill, early 1980s (NGJ files, photograph: Maria LaYacona)

Born May 1, 1919, in Castleton, St Mary, Jamaica, and died September 18, 1998, William “Woody” Joseph was one of modern Jamaica’s most original artists, although his work was firmly rooted in African-Jamaican religious and cultural traditions.

Life and Work

Woody was self-taught and started carving around 1965 or, as he put it, “two years after [hurricane] Flora”. He recounted:

I was farming … yam, banana, cocoa, thyme, cane, dasheen, potato … farming to get the food from the bushes … didn’t have no dependents to work the field wid me … and one day, I tek sick, the two legs cripple. Couldn’t walk, couldn’t stand up, couldn’t lay down … I go to the river-side and was praying. When mi was praying, I see a piece of wood coming down in de water … I see the piece of wood swimming in the water to mi. I tek it up….and form a bird.

(Homage to Woody, Mutual Life Galley, July 26, 1998)

William “Woody” Joseph – Angel (1983), stained cedar

His carvings, most of which were made from cedar root, first came to the attention of the art world in 1978 when two young Jamaican artists, Stanley Barnes and Eric Cadien, came across Woody at work while on a walk along a river bank near Stony Hill. Woody remembered:

Stanley Barnes and Eric Cadien come to mi river to bathe and buy orange one morning. I was working on a piece of wood … when dem see it, dem didn’t bother wid de orange dem again…

Barnes and Cadien were impressed by the unique expressive power of Woody’s carvings and offered him an exhibition at the Paisley Gallery in Stony Hill, which they were operating at that time. This exhibition brought Woody to the attention of the Jamaican art world and the NGJ’s then Director/Curator, Dr David Boxer, included him in the landmark Intuitive Eye exhibition in 1979, which launched the concept of Intuitive art and provided national and international validation for Jamaica’s self-taught, popular artists. Boxer wrote in the catalogue:

Joseph has almost certainly never seen an African carving or a photograph of one, yet with no Jamaican carver, except Kapo in his earliest works, are we so conscious of the continuation of the creative force of Africa

Woody became a regular participant in exhibitions of Jamaican art, locally and abroad, and he was awarded the Institute of Jamaica’s Bronze Musgrave Medal in 1988. His work is represented in many private collections and is also part of the NGJ Collection.

William “Woody” Joseph – Group of standing figures (1980s, various collections), stained cedar

Wayne Cox about Woody’s Work

The collector and researcher Wayne Cox offered the following insights into Woody’s sources and methods, in the catalogue that accompanied a 1999 exhibition of work from his collection at the Fondo del Sol in Washington, DC:

Woody’s figures depicted humans or animals in a strong vocabulary of form of his own invention. Occasionally, he made staffs or bowls. At exhibitions of his work, he wore a cedar hat he carved for himself. Woody ended most conversations with ‘Give thanks and praises’. As with most of Jamaica’s self-taught artist, the spiritual was present in his work; sometimes overtly, sometimes not. He sometimes created figures that were specific to Jamaican spiritual life – rivermaids, angels, spiritual birds and persons with hands clasped in prayer or arms raised in praise.

William “Woody” Joseph – River Maid (1995), stained cedar, Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection (Photo by Wayne Cox)

But carving non-religious subjects was equally spiritual. Carving itself was the way Woody was called to give spiritual service. Carving as a spiritual exercise has roots in Jamaica’s African and Taino forebears. Using a sparse, almost archetypal language, Woody seemed to divine a soulful presence in the figures of ordinary persons and animals he created. …

Woody’s method meant gathering cedar roots for carving, some as small as three or four inches high, some maybe two or three feet high. He dried the wood on a fire, cured it for months. He studied each piece until he “caught” it – saw the final shape in his mind. He usually followed the lines of the natural shape of the piece of wood. He cut enough away to give the form, never overworking the piece, almost never repeating himself. …  After carving, Woody further cured his figures in a barel containing water and a solution leeched form logwood. Next he stained the works either red or black or, more rarely, brown.

Critical Reception

Woody’s work received significant critical acclaim. Ferdinand Protzman of the Washington Post for instance wrote in 1999, after seeing work by various Intuitive artists from the Cox collection at the Fondo del Sol:

The figurative cedar carvings by Woody Joseph, who may be the best-known artist in the show … look almost as if they came from West frica – but not quite; there are other aesthetic strains at work. The lines are strong, simple, assured. Some of the figures are vaguely reminiscent of sculptures by European expressionists. Joseph bases his work on real people as well as mythological figures like river maids, and all of them are imbued with a kind of effervescent spirituality that makes them appear to be on the verge of singing, shouting, or simply ascending to Heaven. Sculpture with such spiritual resonance and evocative power is rare in this world. It is produced only by great artists.

William “Woody Joseph – Amos (1987), stained cedar, Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection (photo by Wayne Cox)

This post was compiled from archival material in the NGJ’s Education Department and the Wayne and Myrene Cox Collection, which is gratefully acknowledged. 

Taj Francis – The Upsetter (2012), fifth place winner in the First International Reggae Poster Contest

The Jamaican graphic designer and illustrator Taj Francis placed fifth in the International Reggae Poster Contest, of which the best 100 entries can currently be seen at the NGJ. His poster is a tribute to “The Upsetter” – Lee Scratch Perry. The design not only captures this seminal Jamaican musician’s eccentric appearance but also visualizes Scratch’s dub philosophy, as related to Doug Wendt in an interview from the mid 1990s:

“Everyone who started dub music must have heart. Your heart goes boop boop, boop-boop; that’s the beat of the drum. A brain goes tick-tick, tick tick; that’s the bass. Your brain is your bass and your heart is your drum. So make sure your heart is not corrupted because what you send out comes back to your heart. If you send out a good heartwave it’ll come back with a dub you see flying in a cloud of good news. So you start from a good heart and a clean brain – drum and bass. You can have guitarists and pianists around, if they are not confusing, but I prefer drum and bass”

Taj is a recent graduate of the Edna Manley College’s School of Visual Art, with a major in Illustration and has been doing art for as long as he can remember. The media used for his artworks are the usual pen and ink, brush and ink, spray paint, and digital illustration and painting and he thus combines traditional and new media. Taj has a unique graphic style which relies on elaborate, psychedelic patterns, contrasting textures, 3-D effects offset against 2-D backgrounds, and bold splashes of colour – it can be described as “contemporary baroque” and resonates with Jamaican and global pop culture. His artwork is inspired by music, a strong social conscience, and a passion for what he does. Much of his current free-lance work is for the music industry and he is also working on a clothing line where he does custom artwork on sneakers.

Taj Francis

The World-A-Reggae exhibition continues until November 10.

Read more about Taj Francis at:

Taj Francis – da portfolio

behance.net

Aesthetics Now – June 2010

Gleaner – 22 October 2010

Source:

Joshua Wilkie, Lee “Scratch” Perry, April 1998

Gloria Escoffery – Old Woman (1955), Collection: NGJ

Who isn’t asking anyone to send me back

From where I was born to where I wish to have been born.

Italia, my Africa, I study your painters and your language,

Content to save my cents for the pensione vacation

After the glimpse of the Giottos

To return home, with no regrets.

 – From A Painter’s Philosophy, Gloria Escoffery, c1973

The painter, art critic, poet and journalist Gloria Escoffery was born on December 22, 1923 in Gayle, St Mary. It was during her formative years at St Hilda’s High School that she met Rhoda Jackson, who at that time taught art at the school and introduced her to the subject. Rhoda Jackson was a painter and designer who worked mainly for the tourist industry, among others producing murals for the Tower Isle Hotel, but she was a pioneering and influential female Jamaican artist whose contributions deserve more attention than they have thus far received – she will be the subject of an upcoming blog post.

Gloria Escoffery was further educated at the McGill University in Canada, the University of  the West Indies, Mona Campus and the Slade School of Fine Arts in London. After London, she spent a year in Barbados teaching, then returned home to continue her teaching career at Knox College. She subsequently moved on to teach English and English Literature at Brown’s Town Community College in Brown’s Town, St. Ann. In fact, she made her home in the community of Brown’s Town, continuing to live and work there until the end of her life. She was a regular writer and journalist, and contributed to Jamaica Journal as well as the Gleaner newspaper. She is considered as one of Jamaica’s most insightful, and idiosyncratic, art critics, who brought a highly personal but well-read perspective to her writings. She also wrote poetry and published an anthology, Loggerhead, in 1988.

Gloria Escoffery – Mirage (1987), Collection: NGJ

Escoffery began exhibiting as a fine artist around the mid-1940s alongside other important artists of her generation such as Ralph Campbell, Albert Huie and Carl Abrahams, maintaining an active presence on the Jamaican art scene until shortly before her death. Her early work consisted of landscapes and genre paintings, many of which were inspired by themes of community life in Brown’s Town, for example as depicted in the Old Woman (1955). From the 1960s onwards, she also produced paintings that have been described as ‘surrealist’. This is interesting, since the early nineteenth century movement of Surrealism was primarily a literary one in which writers sought creative and artistic freedom in their works via explorations of the sub-conscious mind. In fact it was her involvement in literature and art history that fueled her conceptual development as an artist. In describing her relationship with writing and painting, she stated:

… in order to do that, I’d better borrow T.S. Elliot’s ideas about the composition of a poem…One starts with certain strong ‘floating feelings’ which are then expressed by sifting the images to which they spontaneously attach themselves…although craft and media are different, I myself…start from the same basic feeling and the images, the visual ones, are the same too.

The scene depicted in the triptych Gateway (1965) qualifies as genre, in terms of the activities of the characters depicted. However, the otherworldly glow of the yellow sky adds an element of surrealism or rather magic realism to the entire scene. Many of her later works were abstracted, such as the epic, five-panel paintings like Mirage (1987), with its rippling layered patterns and floating abstract shapes, imply a conscious attempt at constructing visual context as an almost dream-like scenario in which fragments of thoughts can be ordered and identified. The concept of the ‘dream’ is further illustrated and narrated through iconography historically attached to Judaic social and religious history, which was part of Escoffery’s heritage.

Gloria Escoffery – Gateway (1965), Collection: NGJ

Gloria Escoffery has received many accolades for her contribution to the development of fine arts in Jamaica. She was made Officer of the Order of Distinction in 1977 for services in the field of Art by the Jamaican Government and later in 1985, she received the Silver Musgrave from the Institute of Jamaica. She was also inducted into the Caribbean Hall of Fame in 2001. Escoffery passed away at her home in Brown’s Town in 2002.

Gloria Escoffery – detail of Mirage (central panel)

This post was compiled by Monique Barnett-Davidson, Curatorial Assistant, NGJ

Bibliography

Artist’s file – Gloria Escoffery, Education Department, National Gallery of Jamaica

Boxer, David and Veerle Poupeye, Modern Jamaican Art, Kingston: Ian Randle. 1998

Escoffery, Gloria, Loggerhead, Kingston: Sandberry Press, 1988

Jamaica Journal:  Vol. 5, Issue 1 , 1974