Click here - The Barbados National Art Gallery

Acquisitions: 2001-2006 is a publication of the
National Art Gallery Committee.
Curator: Therese Hadchity.
Copyright © 2006 National Art Gallery Committee.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, whether electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the authors or publishers.
ISBN: 976-8082-66-6
Layout and design by won (design@wonland.com)
Photography by won, Dan Christaldi (christaldi@sunbeach.net), the
NAGC & John Tamblyn.
Printed in Barbados by COT Caribbean Graphics.
4
INTRODUCTION
In late 1999, one year after its initial establishment, the National Art
Gallery Committee gave serious consideration to the whole issue
of a collection policy and collection strategies. This was against
the backdrop of a comprehensive surveying and documentation
project on the existing National Collections completed that year.
Collections consultant Anne McDonald’s 1999 report on the
status of the 800+ National Collection, had revealed some rare
jewels in the collection, but had also exposed serious deficiencies.
Principal amongst these was the fact that many of these works
were not acquired with the intention of forming a cohesive and
comprehensive collection. This had resulted by 1999 in what
McDonald referred to as “ an ad hoc collection of artworks of
diverse media and quality –many of inferior standard”. ( McDonald,
1999) These works were acquired in a variety of ways without any
ongoing consideration to the building of a national collection.
One of the core concepts embraced by the National Art Gallery
Committee was envisioning the National Gallery not simply as a
singular building housing a permanent collection but rather as
a satellite system of sister institutions which share resources and
programmes. The role of the National Gallery will be not simply to
document and preserve the visual arts but to promote it and foster
a healthy environment for its continued development. This involves
the stages of artistic production, public exposure and education,
interpretive dialogue and promotion. All of these are mutually
dependent.
It therefore became critical to know and understand the scope of
other existing public art collections. The collection of the Barbados
Gallery of Art ( principally representative of pioneer artists from the
1930s to 1960s) also benefited from the assistance of the NAGC
and combined with the National Collection and the holdings of
the Barbados Museum and Historical Society ( which was strong in
antique and historical works prior to 20th century), helped to define
the priorities and focus which the Committee gave to the role of
acquiring work for a permanent collection.
Essentially the NAGC adopted the approach of working
cooperatively with sister institutions to share the costs of developing
and maintaining these collections . Ensuring coordination amongst
the institutions whereby each museum is assigned a specific
collections focus, would avoid both duplication and gaps in the
broad spectrum of collecting, while at the same time enabling
each institution to collect more efficiently and effectively.
One of the major actions to be undertaken once the existing
National Collection had been documented, was to define an
appropriate collections policy and procedures, subsequently
approved by Cabinet in 2001, which would provide the basis on
which the Collections Committee would begin to build and shape
the National Gallery collection, in an intelligent and responsible
manner. In developing its acquisition policy during 2000, the
Committee took cognizance of the experience of sister agencies
both within the region, and beyond, at the same time considering
some significant questions:
1. What is the status of the National Collection – its mandate
and function in relation to the various government
departments and ministries where it is housed?
2. What is its relation to a National Gallery/Visual Arts Institute?
3. What procedures need to be in place to govern the
acquisition and management of artworks in the National
Collection – including monuments and murals, a collections
policy?
At the same the Committee adopted the position that “the
acquisition of public works of art implies a long term investment of
funds and care.” The subject of this catalogue is not the area of
1
INTRODUCTION CONTINUED…
conservation of the collections. Indeed that subject deserves its
own comprehensive report, but for the present forms a significant
part of the NAGC’s annual report. One reality which needs to be
appreciated is that for each dollar spent on acquiring artwork,
the Committee must invest at least triple these resources in
documenting and conserving the work. The responsibility therefore
for the development and management of the National Gallery
collection, cannot be underestimated and should be appreciated
and supported at all levels in the community.
The outcome of the actions outlined above was that the
Committee concluded that rather than having the luxury of being
able to regard the existing National Collection as the starting
point, or a solid, cohesive core or foundation on which to build,
we were, in fact, the beginning of a highly demanding process,
“ really starting from scratch”, while being able to draw on some
of the resources identified in the National Collection. Indeed, the
Committee has assessed that some 10% of the existing National
Collection may be of relevance to the role of the future Barbados
National Gallery.
The Committee determined that it would therefore be necessary to
approach the work of acquiring art from two critical directions:
•
to document the historical development during the 20th
century, to carefully identify the best examples of the work of
pioneer and modern artists, and to work conscientiously and
prudently towards building up this area.
•
To actively acquire contemporary work, to ensure the most
important examples are in the national collection, and
to play an active role in stimulating and encouraging a
dynamic contemporary art activity.
In addition to these two factors, it was proposed that the scope of
the National Gallery Collection focus on the following areas:
2
•
Barbadian art – art produced in Barbados and/or by
Barbadians
•
Caribbean art – In addition to its unique position as a public
collection of Caribbean art located in the Caribbean, it
would provide access to the rich visual cultural heritage of
the region and provide an important comparative field in
which to judge Barbadian art, and to emphasis that this art
was not created in isolation.
•
Art that is of significance or relevance to Barbadian and
Caribbean culture or experience.
This is what makes the statements made at last year’s Fifth Annual
Exhibition of the National Art Gallery Committees at the Queen’s
Park Gallery so disappointing, and the fact that government
continues to ignore the policies it had demanded and adopted.
Equally disappointing has been the indifference of Barbadian
artists to the efforts of the Committee to develop a comprehensive
database on Barbadian artists to facilitate both its own work and
that of government in the commission and production of new work.
To address these points however, the NAGC will in the near future
finalize its work on reports in both these areas. We trust that the
results of these activities, as well as the results of our proposals
for the establishment for an Arts Integration Policy, and this most
important annual exhibition ( the 15th exhibition conceptualized by
the Committee to provide the public with unprecedented access
to the National Collection) will essentially engage the interest and
commitment of the Barbadian community and the public in the
work or future action of the future National Gallery.
Alissandra Cummins
Chairperson
National Art Gallery Committee
April 2006
FOREWORD
The Art of Collecting
Standing amongst a tightly packed group of teenagers in front of
the high altar at St. George’s Parish Church, I recently urged my
class of Barbados Community College art students to really ‘look’ at
the large and imposing painting hanging there - “The Resurrection”
painted in the late 18th century by the British academician Sir
Benjamin West. I tried to impress upon them that after months of
studying art from slides and books, we were now looking at a ‘real
painting.’ I encouraged them to get close to the large canvas, to
look at the surface to truly understand the materiality of the work of
art. This was no longer just an image, but now was also an object. I
quoted, as I often do, Caribbean art collector, Mervyn Awon, who
emphasizes the importance of looking at original works - even if it
is the same painting - over and over again, as an essential process
in acquiring an understanding of art in general. I always enjoy the
field trip to St. George’s Church, although we really don’t do it as
often as we should. Certainly not as often as Awon’s wise words
would warrant. And it reminds me of what it will mean to have a
National Art Gallery with a permanent display of work representing
the scope of contemporary visual culture within Barbados and the
wider Caribbean region.
The opportunity to see and study and contemplate the visual
heritage of Barbados and the wider Caribbean in the form
of a permanent and public collection is a long-awaited and
much anticipated event. In preparation, the National Art
Gallery Committee (NAGC) has been charged with the task of
documenting all those works which are owned by the Government
of Barbados and form the National Collection; to make proposals
for the building of a distinct collection for the National Gallery itself;
and to make acquisitions as part of the process of building such a
collection, designated as the National Art Gallery Collection. This
collection, which will function in conjunction with those of other
institutions such as the Barbados Museum and Historical Society as
well as the Barbados Gallery of Art, will focus on work from the 20th
and 21st centuries. It will aim to document the artistic activities and
developments that have taken place, it will attempt to present the
most significant examples of this artistic activity; and through the
presentation it will seek to entice us to ‘look’. By look, I do not mean
to glance at but rather to engage with. As a consciously and
deliberately constructed body of works, the National Art Gallery
Collection aims to inspire contemplation and provoke dialogue.
One aspect of this documentation has been the compilation
of a digitized database recording the details of more than one
thousand works which make up the National Collection. The
National Art Gallery Collection is a smaller and more deliberately
considered body of works which is itself a part of the National
Collection. Approximately ten percent (100 works) of the National
Collection has been identified to form part of the National Art
Gallery Collection. To date, an additional 139 works have been
acquired to become part of the National Art Gallery Collection.
But the process of building the Collection also functions as a
form of documentation. It can be read as a testament to the
artistic activity of a number of years as the committee has made
a committed effort to examine the work of local group and solo
shows and representations in overseas exhibitions. Through its
acquisition activities, the committee has also been cognizant
of the importance of contributing to and fostering an active
and productive arts environment. Indeed the activity of the
committee has served as a point of motivation, encouragement or
confirmation for artists. This has included young and emerging artists
who have been encouraged by this recognition of their work, midcareer artists whose contributions have been acknowledged, and
mature artists who are represented by a number of works across the
scope and range of a lifetime of artistic development.
3
FOREWORD CONTINUED…
Through a process of strategic collecting following guidelines set
out in the Acquisition Policy, the NAGC has built up a modest
collection of considerable breadth and depth. While the primary
focus is work by Barbadian artists, the inclusion of works from the
wider Caribbean region provides a broader context in which to
view and understand the work. Acquisitions have ranged from
major iconic paintings such as Stanley Greaves’ “There is a Meeting
Here Tonight” to small works by artists whose careers have been
virtually undocumented. From established artists to emerging artists,
from those academically trained to the self-taught or visionary, the
collection seeks to represent their diverse and ranging expressions.
It has sought to address deficiencies and gaps in the National
Collection and has, for example, started to collect contemporary
photography. It has been able to secure work imperiled by
unforeseen circumstances such as the paintings of Francis Griffith.
The committee has generated work through commissions to mark
events such as the 375th anniversary of Bridgetown (Bill Grace and
Ann Rudder). And acquisitions have resulted from the NAGC’s
Artist in Residence programmes (Philip Moore) and individual
artists’ projects (Joscelyn Gardner, Bob Kiss) and workshops (Albert
Chong).
Through the dual objectives of defining the scope of its own
activities and making proposals for the mandate and operations
of a National Gallery, the committee has emphasized that one of
its the core concepts has been to envision the National Gallery,
not simply as a singular building housing a permanent collection
of artworks; but rather as a satellite system of sister institutions
which share a number of common resources and programmes. In
this way the National Gallery can be integrated into community
experiences in order to foster increased interaction between
the visual arts and the Barbadian public. While its activities have
been hampered by the lack of a permanent centre, there have
been some significant outcomes in the face of such challenging
4
limitations which hopefully will secure this founding principal
of community outreach. In addition to the ongoing activity of
acquisition, the NAGC has staged fifteen public exhibitions and
numerous public workshops, forums, conferences and education
programmes in a range of facilities and locations. The success of
the National Gallery will ultimately depend on the vibrancy of the
artistic community it serves and it therefore must take an active role
in contributing to and stimulating this development.
Nevertheless what is missing is the ‘permanent exhibition’ of a
comprehensive selection of Barbadian and Caribbean art – so
that on any given day, the visual arts of the region are made
accessible, both physically and intellectually, to a wide and varied
public audience. Perhaps a better term is ‘on-going display’ of
work, since the intention is not to present a static and authoritative
narrative but rather to propose diverse points of views and multiple
interpretations. Simultaneously it can facilitate and stimulate the
local and regional artistic communities, to provide opportunities
and environments through which artists can produce and present
their work.
One important activity of the NAGC has been the current
production of the Statistics Report on the National Collection
which provides valuable information on the collecting history and
strategies of several institutions including the governmental National
Collection as a whole, as well as the National Art Gallery collection,
Barbados Museum and the Barbados Gallery of Art. The report
confirms that the majority of works in the National Collection are
located at sites which are not easily accessible to the public,
including Illaro Court, Government House, Parliament and the
Central Bank of Barbados. This fact highlights the importance of
the NAGC programmes of exhibitions and catalogues which in
the past three years have been able to bring more than 300 of the
works at these locations to public audiences.
FOREWORD CONTINUED…
The Statistics Report confirms that there are 306 known artists
represented by more than a thousand works in the National
Collection. The NAGC has built one of the largest collections
within the National Collection (the Parliament holdings marginally
exceed it with 144 works) and has been responsible for 37% of the
overall growth of the National Collection since the establishment
of the NAGC in 1999. As such, the NAGC has brought a significant
number of new artists into National Collection. Of the forty artists
represented in the NAGC Collection, forty percent were not
previously represented within the National Collection. In relation
to collection size, the NAGC represents the largest proportion of
artists. Very few artists are represented by more than one or two
works, and in only a few cases are artists represented by any sort of
comprehensive body of their work. Thus there is a clear need for
the NAGC to continue its focus on developing adequate selections
for artists of major significance.
The evolving National Art Gallery collection will experience
another act of renewal when it is finally displayed within the eagerly
awaited permanent home.
Allison Thompson
May 2006
During the 1930s, Frankfurt School philosopher Walter Benjamin
described the activity of collecting as a process of renewal and
noted that the acquisition of an object was its rebirth. While the
merits of an individual work are of utmost importance when under
consideration for acquisition, its contribution to the strengths and
weaknesses of the collection are also paramount. This is what
differentiates the National Art Gallery Collection from the National
Collection which was assembled in what has been described
as an ‘ad hoc’ manner without due consideration to or even
comprehension of the collection as a whole. Each acquisition
is incorporated into this new context and as such, takes on new
meanings and significances, and equally proposes new positions
within the ongoing dialogue of the collection. Just as every
new viewer has the potential to bring new readings to the works
individually and in their collectivity.
5
NOTES FROM THE CURATOR
The catalogue consists of two sections, of which the first is an
exhibition-catalogue and the last a catalogue raisonné of all
NAGC acquisitions from 2001 to the first quarter of 2006. The artists
are placed in alphabetical order, and the entries pertaining to
each artist are listed with un-dated works first, followed by works in
chronological order of their execution.
The exhibition features a selection of acquisitions, and each
acquired artist is represented with at least one piece. Where works
in different media have been acquired from an artist, one piece
from each category has been chosen. A few art-works, which are
either site-specific, in progress or part of a larger installation, are
represented by photographs of excerpts.
The installation of the exhibition in the three galleries adheres to four
different themes. These are identified by the curator and in no way
reflective of the rationale behind the various acquisitions.
Catalogue texts have kindly been authored by Janice Whittle (JW),
Allison Thompson (AT) and Harclyde Walcott (HW) in addition to my
own (TH).
Therese Hadchity
May 2006
6
EXHIBITION LIST
Armstrong, Mary
Butcher, Ras Ishi
1)
9)
Boss Crab (etching, n.d., 36 x 39 cm) March 02
Diario Secreto Tres (mixed media on canvas, 2003, 163 x 145
cm) April 05
Atkinson, Arthur
2)
3)
Untitled (Abstract) (mixed media, c. 1960s, 49.5 x 53 cm) March
02 (donation)
Only When it Rains (acrylic on canvas, 2004, 49.5 x 60 cm)
November 05
Atkinson, Ewan
4)
To: Factory Re: Storage (mixed media, 2002, 122 x 143 cm)
Many Boys and Girls Live in Flats (mixed media, 2005, 62.5 x 40.5
cm) March 06
Belgrave, Eric
6)
Triptych:
Chandler, Chris
10) The Other Side (sculpture, 2004, paint on limestone/concrete,
400 x 1750 cm). Co-sponsored project. June 03
Chapman-Andrews, Alison
11) Falling Leaves 2 (acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 2004,
42.5 x 32.5 cm) January 05
12) Young Palms, Martin’s Bay (drawing, mixed media and inkpastel, charcoal, 1995, 60 x 72 cm) November 02
Chong, Albert
13) Blessing the Throne (photograph, 1992, 38 x 47 cm) December
04
Passage (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm) November 02
Test (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm) November 02
Temple (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm) November 02
Blackett, Keith
7)
Rum Shop (oil on canvas, 1997, 39 x 48.5 cm) May 04
Brathwaithe, Hubert
8)
Tuk Band at Baxter’s Road (oil on canvas, n.d., 56 x 63 cm)
March 06
Clarke, Briggs
14) Maureen (oil on masonite, 1962, 34.5 x 27 cm) November 02
Clarke, Thomas
15) Mahogany Forest 2 (photograph, 2004, 44 x 35.5 cm) July 04
Crichlow, Kenwyn
16) Sea Murmurs of a Dream (oil and 22 carat gold leaf, 2004, 156
x 135 cm) December 04
7
EXHIBITION LIST CONTINUED…
Cummins, William
Gall, Indrani
17) Rainbow Static 8 (pastel on arches paper, 2003, 52 x 53.5 cm)
January 05
25) Oh Civilization III (collograph/woodcut, 1995, 80 x 75 cm)
October 03
Daniel, Joyce
26) Target (mixed media assemblage, 2001, 200 x 121 cm) October
03
18) Corselette (mixed media construction, 2003, 76 x 56.5 cm)
August 03
Dodson, Ann
19) Expectations (acrylic on canvas, 2004, 37 x 29.5 cm) January
05
Donawa, Wendy
20) Christopher and Wind Chimes (woodcut/ink on paper, 1969, 53
x 30 cm) March 02 (donation)
Downey, Justin
21) Connection/Direction (acrylic on canvas, 2004, 53 x 62 cm)
January 05
Drakes, Maurice
22) Christmas Night Choraliers (acrylic on linen, 1990, 67 x 55 cm)
May 04
Gall, David
23) Mahakal (oil on canvas, 1988, 144 x 93 cm) October 03
24) Postmodernism Well Installed (print on paper, 1998, 15 x 21 cm)
October 03
8
Ganthier, Patrick “Killy”
27) Untitled 2 (mixed media, n.d., 91.5 x 61 cm) November 04
Gardner, Joscelyn
28) Black Skin – White Kin (DVD installation, 2003) February 05
Gill, Edmund
29) Revolt and Emancipation (acrylic on canvas, 1996-99, 106.5 x
76 cm) February 06
Grace, Bill
30) Long Time II (clay, glass, coral-stone and white cement
mounted on ply, 2004, 132 x 132 cm) (point-to-point).
Commission. June 03.
Greaves, Stanley
31) Birth of Forms No. 1 (wood sculpture, n.d., 64 x 19 cm) October
02
32) Election Results (acrylic on canvas, 1997, 122 x 95 cm) February
06
EXHIBITION LIST CONTINUED…
Griffith, Francis
Kirby, Brian
33) A History of Time, a.k.a. King Solomon’s Palace (enamel paint
on board, c. 1966, 109 x 107 cm) May 01
41) Providence Methodist Church (mixed media/watercolour,
1972, 48.5 x 32 cm) March 02 (donation)
Guru
Kiss, Bob
34) Nocturnal Artist (acrylic on canvas, 2002, 50 x 76 cm) March 06
42) Chattel: Bean Plants (platinum-palladium print on 100% cotton
paper, 2004, 28 x 36 cm). Commission. March 03
Hatcher, Russell
35) Improvisation (mixed media on wood, 1992, 122 x 162.5 cm)
April 05
Ménard-Greenidge, Denyse
43) Untitled Diptych (aluminium sheets, n.d., 88 x 119 cm) April 05
Hussein, Oswald
Moore, Philip
36) Kachikabura (Before the Full Moon), (wood sculpture, 2003, 46
x 20 x 20 cm) July 03
44) Reparation (mixed media sculpture/barrel, n.d., 103 x 60)
November 03
Izebo
37) Garrison Mural (acrylic on wood polyptych, 2004, 244 x 488 cm)
Commissioned for the 2004 AICA World Congress. March 06
45) Women Selling Paint at Courts (Sales), (oil on plywood, 2004,
122 x 142 cm). Executed while in artists-residence in Barbados,
2003. January 03.
Nassief-Thiebaud, Gilda
Jones, Basil
38) House in the Fields (oil on masonite, n.d., 35.5 x 46 cm)
November 02
39) Suttle Street (photograph, n.d., 27 x 38 cm) May 04
46) Butterfly (print, n.d., 17 x 21.5 cm) March 02 (donation)
Piggott, Terrence
47) Inner Self No. 1 (in the Monster Series), (acrylic on canvas, 2004,
178 x 91.5 cm) September 05
Kellman, Winston
40) Untitled No. 1 (from the Transformation Series), (charcoal on
paper, 2005, 110 x 77 cm) September 05
Pounder-Speede, Gail
48) X-in-Law (acrylic and mixed media, 2002, 50 x 40.5 cm) August
03
9
EXHIBITION LIST CONTINUED…
Ramsay, Ras Akyem
Talma, Norma
49) Art Animal No. 10 (acrylic on canvas, 2004, 123 x 168 cm)
November 04
56) The Wonder of Kites (acrylic and mixed media on canvas,
1969, 124.5 x 53 cm) March 02 (donation)
Rudder, Ann
Whittle, Alberta
50) The Indian Bridge Town, Barbados, Capital of Cultures
1628-1788 (mixed media, 2006, (in progress), 122 x 244 cm)
Commissioned 2003
Sargeant
51) Super Tanker (mixed media on plywood, n.d., 23.5 x 69.5 cm)
Donation by the artist, 2004.
Sealy, Samuel
52) The Careenage No. 2 (oil on canvas, 2003, 64 x 101 cm) May
04
Skeete, Campbell
53) Village Scene (oil on canvas, 2005, 21 x 37 cm) March 06
Smith, Stephen
54) The Trafalgar Hotel (photograph, 2003, 25 x 38 cm) May 04
Spieler, Goldie
55) Fruit and Leaves (charcoal and watercolour, 1967, 63 x 47.5
cm) March 02 (donation)
10
57) Eve (from the Fiat Lux Series) (watercolor, 2005, 37 x 45 cm)
January 06
Whittle, Nick
58) Full Fathoms Five I-VI (mixed media on paper, 1996, 76 x 56 cm
each) March 02
WORKS ON EXHIBIT
11
12
01
Mary Armstrong
(1925-2005, b: Barbados. Education:
self-taught, classes with Karl
Broodhagen and Sybil Atteck).
Boss Crab (n.d)
Etching, n.d., 36 x 39 cm.
Acquired March 02
Mary Armstrong is a Barbadian intuitive artist, who exhibited consistently
the tiny grains of sand as well as her precise drawing of the crabs. The
from the 1960s until she immigrated to New Zealand in 1974. Most of
composition is very well considered in this world in microcosm. (JW)
her work consisted of imaginary compositions based on memories of
Barbadian life and folktales. Nature also was a source of inspiration. She
had a wonderful sense of design with her precise drawing and flat colour.
The image of the crabs on the sand in Boss Crab becomes abstract shapes
recalling Kandinsky. The artist takes a bird’s eye view of the activity on
the sand, drawing the attention of the viewer to the pattern created by
13
This early piece by Arthur Atkinson exemplifies
the young artist’s stylistic experimentation
during the 1960s. The free exploration of
shapes, mark-making, different media
and the interrelation between control and
randomness is reminiscent, both of the
surrealists’ notion of “automatic writing”
(the artwork as an uncensored expression
of the artist’s subconscious) and of the
non-figurative, organic nature of abstract
expressionism. In this energetic composition
Atkinson has achieved a remarkable
dynamic between surface and depth,
structure and impulse, “positive” and
“negative” spaces, light and darkness,
readable symbols and accidental marks.
The spontaneity of this Untitled piece makes
it an interesting predecessor to a painting so
much more intentional in its expressiveness
as The Ninth Hour (1981), yet a remarkable
contrast to the controlled precision of most
of Atkinson’s later works, such as Only When it
Rains (2004). (TH)
Arthur Atkinson
(b. 1945, Barbados. Education: selftaught)
Untitled (Abstract) (c. 1960s)
Mixed media, 49.5 x 53 cm.
Acquired March 02
Donation by the late Mary Armstrong.
14
03
Arthur Atkinson
(b. 1945, Barbados. Education:
self-taught)
Only When it Rains (2004)
Acrylic on canvas, 49.5 x 60 cm.
Acquired November 05
No viewer can resist the enticement of this delightful landscape with
it finds relief in the little bit of sky above the tree in the upper right corner.
its dappled sun-light amid the greens and browns. The composition of
The allure of this landscape is almost beguiling - the gentle curves of the
Only when it Rains follows a classical and ingenious landscape-tradition,
stream virtually beckons the viewer to follow its flow, while the trees in the
where the viewer’s eye discreetly is guided through the picture-plane
background bow in acquiescence before closing the curtain behind the
from foreground to background. In this case, it is the parallel lines of the
adventurous caller. (TH)
riverbed, which pulls the spectator’s eye from the estuary in the foreground
to the trees further into the distance, and then upwards in both directions,
towards the spots of light on the grass and coppice behind the trees, until
15
04
Ewan Atkinson
(b. 1975, Barbados. Education: Queen’s College,
Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA)
To: Factory, Re: Storage (2002)
Mixed media, 122 x 143 cm.
Acquired May 04
“Family” and “socialization” are some of the key issues in Ewan Atkinson’s
“innocently” and adopted so unsuspectingly - are reflective of a more
work. To: Factory, Re: Storage is one of several works in which he seeks
general fear of trespassing social taboos. The origins of many such values in
to expose the inherent societal values introduced through play and
the early capitalist/industrial era are suggested through Atkinson’s frequent
education. Atkinson here engages with the underlying conformity of the
use of William Morris wall-papers and other emblematic expressions of
way we “connect our own dots”, i.e. become who we are, with little room
Victorian canons. (TH)
for individuality – if the lines do not connect according to the numbers,
the drawing is “wrong”. The dot-to-dot drawings and other early learningmaterial are thus intrinsically connected with established standards
of acceptability. Many guidelines, such as the emphasis on teaching
children to “follow the numbers and stay within the lines” - passed on so
16
Many Boys and Girls Live in Flats belongs to a new series,
in which Ewan Atkinson juxtaposes the soothingly domestic
and (intentionally) pleasingly subtle appearance of former
works, with something decisively uncomfortable. Each piece
is divided into two segments, of which pages from children’s
work-books of the 1950s or 60s (with Atkinson’s stenciled
and appliquéd additions) occupy the lower half, while the
upper half consists of photos of the artist caught in various
poses, wearing either a little red dress or a jacket and tie
from the same period. The photos are inserted into doll-house
environments - complete with vinyl-tiles and floral wallpapers.
There is, however, a sense of disproportion between the rooms
and the figures - things do not quite fit - and the startled,
uncertain or insane facial expressions of the figures suggests a
desperation induced, not by the physically small spaces, but
by the narrow mental spaces offered by the “house” which
is society. In Many Boys and Girls Live in Flats the figure stares
with defiant skepticism, as if cornered, towards the two rooms
designated respectively for girls (red chair) and boys (blue
chair). The issue of sexual identity is ingeniously supplemented
in the other works by statements about the corrupting notion
of sexuality as depravity and about madness induced by the
oppression of natural impulses. (TH)
Ewan Atkinson
(b. 1975, Barbados. Education: Queen’s College,
Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA)
Many Boys and Girls Live in Flats (2005)
Mixed media, 62.5 x 40.5 cm.
Acquired March 2006
17
Eric Belgrave
(b. 1960, England, arr. Barbados 1998. Education:
Art Foundation, Crosskeys College, Gwent, South
Wales. University L.C.P London Institute, U.K.).
Triptych: Passage/Test/Temple (2002)
Photograph, each 40.5 x 50.5 cm.
Acquired November 02
Eric Belgrave was born to a Barbadian father and an English Mother in
main, from a solid jointed centeredness, optimistic, never static, dynamic,
Lyndhurst, The New Forest, in the south of England on May 18, 1960. He
lines that carry motion, that carry vitality, that speak of the integrity of
grew up in England, Germany, Yemen and Ireland, and came to live in
the human spirit. In the swirl and in the mists does one see primordial or
Barbados in 1998. This black and white triptych Passage/Temple/Test may
apocalyptic? Or both? Life? (HW)
seem initially to be essentially concerned with the notion of decay. But is
there a bit more at work here and does the titling give one the first hint of
it…….life’s journey. Images symbolizing the reality of the cycle(s) of life, the
wear of experience, of conflict, of resistance, of decay, of the essential
transience of even that which appears permanent. But at the same
time they are clearly a celebration of life, reaching to possibilities in the
18
07
Keith Blackett
(b. 1930, Barbados. Education: selftaught, classes with Collis Bailey and
Robert MacLeod)
Rum Shop (1997)
Oil on canvas, 39 x 48.5 cm.
Acquired May 04
Keith Blackett has been a stalwart on the Executive of the Barbados Arts
Barbadian landmark, The John Bull Bar, which no longer exists. It was a
Council for many years. He works in a figurative style on still life’s, usually
popular Bridgetown bar, like the Pink Star, which has been recorded by
of tradition Barbadian objects, and landscapes and cityscapes, such
artists. People from all walks of life frequented this bar. In the scene there
as Rum Shop. Blackett is one of the painters of Barbadian genre scenes;
are foreign sailors as well as a Harbour Policeman and two local men. The
Oscar Walkes, Maurice Drakes, Hubert Brathwaite and Neville Crawford
Harbour Police force in the uniform as seen in the painting no longer exists.
also work in this vein. Blackett, as well as Fielding Babb, taught the young
(JW)
Wayne Branch to whom he is related. Rum Shop is a record of a historic
19
08
Hubert Brathwaite
(b. 1930, Barbados. Education: Bay Street Boys’
School taught by John Rose, classes with Hector
Whistler, Karl Broodhagen and Briggs Clarke,
Barbados)
Tuk Band at Baxters Road (n.d.)
Oil on canvas, 56 x 63 cm.
Acquired March 2006
20
Like Maurice Drakes, Brathwaite’s work consisted of genre scenes of
in their performance, although no real attention is paid to their faces or
everyday, urban Barbadian life of which he was a part. This thematic
expressions. Their joy is conveyed through their movement. Brathwaite’s
interest may also be seen in Barbadian literature in the 1960s when
profound spirituality is seen in his genuine love of humanity as expressed in
groups such as the Writers’ Workshop emerged. The growing nationalism
his joyous paintings. It is a carefully constructed scene with the white square
among working class Black Barbadians resulted in this focus of their
stone entrance framing the band. There is great attention to detail such
creativity. The Tuk Band is performing on Baxters Road,” a street that
as the signs, the brickwork and the galvanized roofs. The location is very
never sleeps” in Bridgetown. One can sense the enjoyment of the players
specific, so that it may be recognized as a record of a familiar event. (JW)
The extensive “Secret Diary” Series, executed
between 2001 and 2004 and first exhibited in London,
U.K., was a landmark in Ras Ishi’s oeuvre. Both in
respect of form and content, these meticulously
executed and often monumental works can be
described as complex dialogues between opposites.
The forum for this dialogue is a thickly encrusted
black or, as here, white background against which
multiple images are carefully arranged. Many of
the images refer to the artist’s own earlier paintings
as well as to works by classical European masters. A
careful negotiation is thus enacted - between this
artist and other artists, detail and whole, painting
and drawing, black and white, Europe and the
Caribbean, history and the present - as if the artist
strives to identify his own artistic and historical locus.
The grid-like, rhythmic composition, underscored by
the furrows near the edges (achieved by removing
string, which was imbedded in the wet paint) and
the methodical composition can be seen as a
“classicistic” tendency, typical of Ras Ishi’s oeuvre.
(TH)
Ras Ishi Butcher
(b. 1960, Barbados. Education: Barbados Community
College, Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana, Cuba)
Diario Secreto Tres (2003)
Mixed media on canvas, 163 x 145 cm.
Acquired April 05
21
Chris Chandler
(b. Barbados. Education: self-taught).
The Other Side, Mural at Parris Hill, St. Joseph (2004)
Relief -carving, paint on limestone/concrete, 400 x 1750 cm.
Co-sponsored mural-project June 03
A series of monumental relief carvings emerges from the cut-rock sides of
converging roads in the parish of St. Joseph. Chandler’s community art
project includes a menagerie of animated images presented in saturated
colour which suggest narratives akin to Grimm’s fairytales or traditional
parables. The incisive and humorous details which emerge from the
heavily cut surfaces provide a rich and immersive experience for the
viewer brave enough to wander through this fantasy jungle. (AT)
22
11
Although Alison Chapman-Andrews’ oeuvre largely
has been dedicated to the Barbadian landscape,
she has, like few others, continued to investigate
new aspects of both subject-matter and material
throughout her oeuvre. Her motifs have ranged
from sweeping panoramic views to almost abstract
close-ups, her style from expressionism to punctilious
realism, her palette from the iciest to the most
blazing. This characteristic alone testifies to what
must be Chapman-Andrews’ most distinguishing trait
– an unfailing sensitivity towards her subject-matter.
Yet, although her initial approach is naturalistic, her
motif somehow begins where objective reality ends.
In Falling Leaves No. 2, Chapman-Andrews has
achieved an astonishing dynamic between upward
and downward movement and between foreground
and background – all of which affords a wide
range of complex and emotive associations: off-set
against an infinity blue background, the falling russet
leaves, still attached to the trunk, become markers
of an arrow, seconding the palm-trunk in its upward
aspiration. Flaky puffs of blue quietly descend
towards the ground behind the tree, obliquely
stressing the cyclical nature of birth, growth, death
and re-birth. (TH)
Alison Chapman-Andrews
(b. 1942, England. Education: Walthamstow School of Art,
London, U.K., Royal College of Art, London, U.K.)
Falling Leaves No. 2 (2004)
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 42.5 x 32.5 cm.
Acquired January 05
23
12
Alison Chapman-Andrews
(b. 1942, England.
Education: Walthamstow
School of Art, London,
U.K., Royal College of Art,
London, U.K.)
Young Palms, Martin’s
Bay (1995)
Drawing, ink-pastel and
charcoal, 60 x 72 cm.
Acquired November 02
This exquisite drawing exemplifies not only the virtuosity of Alison Chapman-
of line as well as the more intimate study of direct mark-making. The
Andrew’s draftsmanship, but more notably, her ability to arrive at a
drawings, like Young Palms, Martin’s Bay, therefore, are distinguished by an
pleasant and convincing result in spite of her disregard for compositional
unembellished sensuality, their drama understated, as it derives exclusively
orthodoxies (no art-teacher would encourage a student to place a large,
from the effects of fractured or filtered light, the interplay of light and
dominating tree at the very centre of the foreground!). While color often
shadow, the inflection and accentuation of the line. (TH)
tends to become a dominant aspect of Chapman-Andrews’ paintings,
and a subject in its own right, the drawings allow for a fuller exploitation
24
13
Albert Chong
(b. 1958 Jamaica. Education: School
of Visual Arts, New York City, USA,
University of California, San Diego,
U.S.A.)
Blessing the Throne (1992)
Photograph, 38 x 47 cm.
Acquired December 04
Albert Chong tells the story, of how as a teenage boy in Jamaica, he
draw. Albert Chong, the artist, focuses on picture making rather than
quite by accident witnessed “a photograph emerging from the developer
on picture taking. For him the theatrical in the moment is important,
like a miraculous vision”. This experience he would later describe as “an
and special attention is given to form, composition, the use of light, and
epiphany and at that moment it struck me that whatever I could dream
the whole business of the originality in concept. Surrealism, Fabrication,
up in my mind I could turn into a photographic image”. And it is just this
Construction are all conceptual frames that can be applied to Chong’s
that he has been doing for the last three decades. The exploration of the
work. (HW)
possibilities offered by the magic of the dream, and of memory, represents
one of the principle sources upon which much of his artistic manifestations
25
Briggs Clarke is one of Barbados’ pioneer artists.
During the period when he was an art student in
London, he devoted more time to Portraiture, which
was to become significant in his work. Maureen
has an air of refinement and restraint, typical of the
Black bourgeois women of the period, with her wellcoiffed hair and indirect gaze. Clarke saw the role of
art as “a creative, civilizing force”. He is concerned
with qualities of light, capturing the varying tones
of brown on her face. He has left a legacy of Black
portraiture similar to Karl Broodhagen. Clarke was
happy to paint anyone who was willing to pose for
him. His legacy is also through his connections to later
artists. He was the uncle of artist Brenda Daniel. He
taught many artists who would later be significant in
the development of Barbadian art, both at Harrison
College and through his classes at the Barbados Arts
Council and the Barbados Museum such as Arthur
Atkinson and Basil Jones. (JW)
Briggs Clarke
14
(b. Barbados 1905 d. 1987. Education: Art classes
with Felix Haynes, worked with Ivan Payne and
Robert MacLeod, Barbados; Byam Shaw School of
Drawing and Painting, UK)
Maureen (1962)
Oil on masonite, 34.5 x 27 cm.
Acquired November 02
26
The image, a view of a section of an avenue in
the vicinity of St. Nicholas abbey, offers a fine
example of the basics of art photography at work.
Relying principally on the interplay of compositional
techniques like contrast, pattern, rhythm, line, shapes
and perspective, the image conjures and conveys a
sense of quiet, of solitude and an interesting feeling
of timelessness. Mahogany Forest is an image of a
tamed, kept, manicured verdant wooded expansive
space, which speaks of privilege, and thus of calm
of the gentry rather than of the majesty of the forest
- here one expects to encounter the serene. The
image also offers some insight into notions of wealth
and the accumulation of capital given the history of
the value of mahogany in the new world. (HW)
15
Thomas Clarke
(b. Guyana 1958, arr. Barbados 1967. Education: Harrison’s
College, Physics and Computer studies UWI. Self-taught
photographer).
Mahogany Forest 2 (2004)
Photograph, 44 x 35.5 cm.
Acquired July 04
27
Kenwyn Crichlow is one of Trinidad’s most wellknown contemporary artists and a painter’s painter.
Although his objective neither is more, nor less, than
a full-fledged immersion in the technical possibilities
and sensuous pleasures of the medium (never the
representation of a material reality), his works afford
many and wide-ranging, yet ever elusive associations
- shadows, flames, fireworks, waves and wispy
leaves. Passages of calm lead on to turbulent seas;
stunningly lucid colors are interspersed with gloomy
areas of darkness; spidery, tentacled creatures
morph into dazzling, dancing bodies. Whether we
think ourselves faced with some infernal, cavernous
melting-pot, the thick undergrowth of a rainforest,
the intestines of some gigantic mammal, a cosmic
explosion, the outer reaches of human consciousness
or something else altogether, Crichlow’s work hardly
leaves any imagination unengaged. Indeed, the
intensity of their colors and the often considerable
scale of the canvases make the viewer’s experience
almost physical. To Crichlow himself, however, the
world he constructs on each canvas is best likened to
a dream-space, a mythical place, a utopia, carefully
negotiated, both through scheme and intuition,
indulgence and restraint. (TH)
Kenwyn Crichlow
(b. 1951, Trinidad. Education: Goldsmith College,
London, U.K.)
Sea Murmurs of a Dream (2004)
Oil and 22 carat gold leaf, 156 x 135 cm.
Acquired December 04
28
17
William Cummins
(b. 1964, Barbados. Education: Harrison’s
College, Williams College, Williamstown,
Massachusetts, U.S.A.)
Rainbow Static 8 (2003)
Pastel on paper, 44 x 52.5 cm.
Acquired January 05
With components resembling shiny, interlocking machine-parts, cog-wheels
can perhaps be likened to a meditation or a “quest” and the oeuvre’s
and levers contributing to perpetual chains of action and reaction; small
essential dynamic, therefore, is not one of clashing energies, but of rushing
electric particles fizzing, spinning, bouncing into other orbits there is, at a
movements halted or compensated for by opposing forces, and thus a
first glance, something almost technical about William Cummins’ drawings.
dialogue of counter-points and balances: as in a Stravinsky symphony,
Cummins’ oeuvre, however, has been an unusually focused and consistent
chaos always lingers, but is always held at bay. (TH)
one, one of almost compulsive repetitions, of certain shapes and formal
constellations frequently revisited, his works have nearly always been
restricted to standard formats, limited colour-ranges. These repetitions
29
In her 1990 exhibition ‘Fusions’, Joyce Daniel
developed the three dimensional possibilities
of silk painting, and fabric painting in general,
beyond what anyone in Barbados, and
possibly the region, was doing at the time. In
this seminal show, we saw the Torsos appear
as a three-dimensional relief for the first time.
She made sculptures from her silks. Was this
Everywoman? Like Venus de Milo, she has no
arms and many of the relief sculptures on the
Parthenon and the Pergamon altar; she has
neither arms, nor head. These works led to the
torsos in the paintings, such as ‘Torso I’ and
‘Torso II’, and impressive mixed media works,
such as Corselette. Corselette is an evocation
of the past: the undergarments worn by the
artist’s mother. It is richly decorated with paint,
laces, ribbons and other assorted objects. (JW)
Joyce Daniel
(b. Barbados. Education: 1967-71 Alberta College
of Art, Canada. 1978-80 University of Iowa, USA).
Corselette (2003)
Mixed media construction, 76 x 56.5 cm.
Acquired August 03
30
19
Ann Dodson’s oeuvre has mainly consisted of stylized
landscapes – fields rendered as patch-works of
colour. Over the years, she has developed a number
of reoccurring symbols and “visual abbreviations”
and, occasionally, Dodson has entered into the
nebulous zone between symbolism and surrealism.
In such works colour seems removed from its
representational function and either has a playfully
decorative or a symbolic significance. In a few
poignant, socially engaged works - forerunners for
Expectations - Dodson has furthermore launched
a caustic critique of the aspirations and pretences
of the middle-classes. Typical for these works is the
suggestion of different realities expressed as separate
picture-planes superimposed over one another.
Also in Expectations, the “red woman”, who is tied
with strings and pegs to the landscape around her,
seems intent on pulling her own “background” away,
reaching up and out of her haunted, if colourful
environment. The configuration of the unknown
sphere, she thus makes way for, remains uncertain.
(TH)
Ann Dodson
(b. 1958, Barbados. Education: BFA.,
Concordia University, Quebec,
Canada; Dip. Education, McGill
University, Montreal, Canada)
Expectations (2004)
Acrylic on canvas, 37 x 29.5 cm.
Acquired January 05
31
Wendy Donawa is one of the artists/teachers who were influential on the
generation of artists who emerged during the 1980s through her innovative
teaching style, her own practice and insightful art reviews. She is best
remembered for woodcuts, which often included children. This particular piece,
Christopher and Wind Chimes, suggests the influence of Japanese prints with its
longitudinal format, arabesques and perfectly proportioned areas of pattern.
However, there is nothing stylized about the mother holding the child on her
shoulder. It is simply that the artist is able to draw to our attention what an
interesting composition they create. (JW)
Wendy Donawa
(b. 1940, Canada; arrived in Barbados:
1963; left Barbados c. 1985; Education:
Canada).
Christopher and Wind Chimes (1969)
Woodcut/ink on paper, 53 x 30 cm.
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02.
32
21
Justin Downey
(b. 1976, Barbados. Education: BFA
Barbados Community College)
Connection/Direction (2004)
Acrylic on canvas, 53 x 62 cm.
Acquired January 05
Connection/Direction was the last piece Justin Downey executed for the
latter looks like a widening gap, luminous like a glowing furnace against
2004 Barbadiana Exhibition. The title, he has explained, hints at the need
the paler surroundings and is filled with outstretched hands. Besides this
to connect with an inner self before one can find a sense of direction
concerted social commentary, the painting also reiterates some of the
through life. The image, however, has a somewhat different scope, since
concerns Downey has expressed in previous works – especially with
Downey at this stage of his oeuvre (in his own words) was expanding into
society’s restriction of the individual and with the requirement to conform
themes of mobility and constriction, especially as pertains to the migration
with various norms – note, for instance, among the four figures on the left,
of Caribbean people. The picture-plane is divided into three segments
the “odd man out”, who is green, while the others are red. (TH)
- two external fields, which hold in check a third and central one. The
33
Maurice Drakes first exhibitions in the 1950s were at
the Barbados Museum and the Annual Agricultural
and Industrial Exhibition in Queen’s Park. He exhibits
regularly with the Barbados Arts Council. His paintings,
such as Christmas Night Choraliers, have largely been
scenes of local, urban working class life. The people
are never individualized; it is the activity which is
important. The nighttime street parade by church
choirs at Christmas is no longer commonplace.
Drakes is one of a number of artists, such as Hubert
Brathwaite, who emerged in the 1960s recording
such events. (JW)
Maurice Drakes
(b: Barbados 1934. Education: Drawing, Painting
and Design with John Rose at Bay Street Boys’
School, classes with Hector Whistler and Karl
Broodhagen, Barbados)
Christmas Night Choraliers (1990)
Acrylic on linen, 67 x 55 cm.
Acquired May 04
34
David Gall has not been a very prolific artist, yet the
small body of work he has created to date varies
greatly, both in style and choice of media. Most of his
works are, however, characterized by their consistent
engagement with political and intellectual issues,
which often seem to form part of larger discourses
to which Gall mainly has contributed as a writer. In
Mahakal, Gall characteristically addresses several
issues at once. The title-figure, drawn from Indian
mythology, is the destroyer of worlds, whose work
must precede the creation of a new order. While this
vision echoes familiar revolutionary calls for a new
and better world-order, the “world” which presently
is being toppled, however, looks unmistakably like
a carnivalesque Caribbean tourist-destination. The
summoning of Mahakal from the tradition of another
culture (also a former British colony) suggests a for
Gall characteristic invitation to third-world alliances.
The painting, therefore, is at once a call for the
Caribbean to re-evaluate its identity, and for formerly
colonized nations to unite. Mahakal, then, essentially
becomes a metaphor, at many levels, for the return
of the oppressed. (TH)
David Gall
(b. 1952, Barbados. Education:
Combermere School, Visva Bharati
University, India).
Mahakal (1988)
Oil on canvas, 144 x 93 cm.
Acquired October 03
35
24
David Gall
(b. 1952, Barbados.
Education: Combermere
School, Visva Bharati
University, India).
Postmodernism Well
Installed (1998)
Lino-print on rice-paper,
15 x 21 cm.
Acquired October 03
With its large, smooth surfaces, this print varies somewhat from David Gall’s
been the sworn enemy of anyone with a progressive mind. Postmodernism
other lino-prints, which tend to be characterized by rich detail and vigorous
is here represented by the leisurely sprawling tourist-woman, comfortably
mark-making. Postmodernism Well Installed is an allegorical mockery
reclining with any “flavor” within reach of her deckchair. Gall thus takes
of the self-indulgent, anything-goes eclecticism, which during the 1980s
a double stab at tourism (another hedonistic form of consumerism) and
and 90s (on the international art-scene) started to displace modernism’s
gratuitous aesthetics in one go. (TH)
fundamental morality. To Gall and others this laissez-faire attitude was a
let-down of art’s utopian horizon, and – in the aesthetic field - an embrace
of the behavior and ideals of the consumerist culture, which hitherto had
36
In tune with her perception of the artist’s
philosophical accountability, Indrani Gall’s
oeuvre has consistently revolved around
social and moral issues. Oh, Civilization III
is an example of her critique of modern
myths – here of the all-too-easy notion of
development as something which must be
pursued at all costs. In this many-layered
“landscape”, several dichotomies are
at work. The upward arrows below the
upper edge are indicators of “progress”
and “future” – concepts intrinsic to the
self-perception of the industrialized world.
Yet these arrows are also reminiscent of
tombstones, and as such mark the end of
the (red and green) domain underneath.
This domain, which is inhabited by masklike figures, may represent the past and/or
spirituality, as well as it may be a reference
to regions of the world less receptive to
the western notion of progress - thereby
establishing a visual duality between
“civilisation” and its “opposite”, past and
present, industrialism and spirituality. (TH)
Indrani Gall
(b. 1953, India. Education: MFA
(printmaking) Visva Bharati University,
India)
Oh Civilization III (1995)
Collograph/woodcut, 80 x 75 cm.
Acquired October 03
37
Target, created specifically for the 4th Biennial of
Caribbean Art in 2002, was a ground-breaking
piece in Indrani Gall’s oeuvre. Although Gall
previously had experimented with mixed media
works, she had never attempted anything on this
scale. Also in respect of subject-matter, Target was,
if not seminal, at least a deviation from the artist’s
habitual perspective, according to which social and
political issues usually were prioritized over personal
ones. In Target, however, Gall seems to speak
more philosophically about the risk of jeopardizing
something in the process of reaching for it. The
red target-mark at the centre of the grid is thus
surrounded by repeated images of butterflies, bottles,
bat-like creatures and a girl, seen by a window-sill
with another “window-opening” above her chest
– each an image of something ephemeral, brittle,
elusive or fragile, and each containing a substance
or essence, which cannot easily be reached - and
certainly not by as singular a means-end strategy as
suggested by the bow and arrow. Gall’s piece can
be read as a metaphor for many different things
– among them progress, self or love. (TH)
Indrani Gall
(b. 1953, India. Education: MFA (printmaking)
Visva Bharati University, India)
Target (2001)
Mixed media assemblage, 200 x 121 cm.
Acquired October 03
38
This painting was exhibited in the Crop-Over
exhibition as part of a special exhibition of Haitian
art to commemorate the bicentenary of the Haitian
Revolution. Sculpture by the artist had previously
been exhibited in the exhibition ‘Urban Sculpture’
which was part of the International AICA Congress,
which took place in Barbados in 2003. He was
originally a craftsman, working in metal, who later
produced metal sculptures made of found materials.
Untitled is a painting reminiscent of the voodoo veve
signs, where symbols in chalk are drawn onto the
ground and on poles as part of the religious rite. The
iconography of the winged figure with feet pointing
upwards would doubtless immediately resonate with
a Haitian audience. (JW)
Patrick “Killy” Ganthier (b. 1966, Haiti;
Education: self-taught)
Untitled 2 (n.d.)
Mixed media, 91.5 x 61 cm.
Acquired November 04
39
28
Joscelyn Gardner
(b. 1961, Barbados. Education: Queen’s
College, B.F.A. (printmaking) and B.A. (film)
Queen’s University, Canada, M.F.A. University
of Western Ontario, Canada)
White Skin, Black Kin: a Creole
Conversation Piece (2003)
Video/multi-track audio-installation (part of the
exhibition titled “White Skin, Black Kin: Speaking
the Unspeakable” staged at the Barbados
Museum in February-March 2004).
Acquired February 05
White Skin, Black Kin: a Creole Conversation Piece was part of what the
voice. In simplified terms, Gardner at once strives to give voice to the
artist described as an “intervention” at the Barbados Museum. It made
“shadows” of history (the servants as well as the white female members of
up the pretext for Gardner’s attempt to re-enact and re-assess aspects
this patriarchal society), and to suggest that both black and white women
of Barbadian history relating to gender and race in the domestic sphere.
of this era were “victims” of male dominance, and that they - though
One of the statements offered through this intervention was the idea that a
in other ways rivals for his attention and protection – were bonded by a
more intimate connection than usually assumed existed between the wives
shared experience of oppression. At the core of this intervention, it seems,
of the white planters and their black servants – connections, which most
thus is an endeavour to move the historical burden of guilt from “the white
historians have chosen to omit. The video-sequence presents the viewer
race” to “the white male”. (TH)
with a 19th century plantation-drawing room, while separate sequences of
sound allow the various figures, whether mistresses or servants, an individual
40
The Emancipation Series consists of nine panels,
which chronicles the history of Barbados, beginning
in Africa and ending with the future after
Independence. It was painted between 1992- 99. This
extremely important series documents the glorious
civilizations of Africa; the capture and transportation
of the Africans into slavery; plantation life; every
major event in Barbados leading to an identification
of our origin and heritage.
Gill may be described as a Pan-Africanist because
of his deep awareness and ongoing research into
African history and its impact on the Diaspora. The
paintings include quotations from persons such as
Kamau Brathwaite and Ali Mazuri. The series might
be described as a culmination of socially conscious
works which Gill has produced in response to
national, regional and international events. His work
as a Graphic Designer impacts on the composition
of these paintings which also serve to convey
information. (JW)
Edmund Gill
(b. 1935, Barbados. Education: selftaught, 1956-69 Worked in England;
1966-72 Caribbean Artists Movement,
UK).
Revolt and Emancipation (from the
Emancipation Series) (1996-99)
Acrylic on canvas, 106.5 x 76 cm.
Acquired February 2006
41
30
Long Time II was one of two commissions given by the
National Art Gallery Committee to commemorate
the 375th anniversary of the city of Bridgetown. In
keeping with the philosophy which has informed
Grace’s other work, he has, in the subtlest manner,
chosen to strike a careful balance between the
suggestion of manmade and natural forms and
textures. The impression, given by the octagonal
outline, of a kite – this Barbadian icon of optimism
and festivity – is reinforced by the undulating lines of
the central field, flowing like the tail of a kite swaying
in the wind. Grace’s combination of glass and clay
and the multiple nuances deriving from their different
reactions to the fire of the kiln, offer associations
of fields and fossils, sand and waves. The piece
can, however, also be perceived as a metaphoric
representation of the island itself – a landscape of
gentle, rhythmic movements - mirroring, contrasting,
complementing each other in perfect unison, all
encircled by the island’s sandy, white shores. (TH)
Bill Grace
(b. 1953, Barbados. Education: Arcadia
University, Canada, Universidad de Valencia,
Spain, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
Apprenticeship with John Reeve, California, in
the Leach-Kenzan tradition).
Long Time II (2004)
Ceramic wall-relief in clay, glass, coral-dust
and white cement mounted on plywood, 132
x 132 cm.
Commissioned 2003
42
No two sculptures by Stanley Greaves are alike, and – unlike his ceramic
works and paintings – they do not generally fall into thematic series. The
sculptures do, however, make up two distinct categories: assembled
(multi media) works and carvings. Birth of Forms No. 1 belongs to the
latter group. Its incorporation of both geometric and recognizable forms
is typical of Greaves and echoes the compositional approach in some
of his early paintings. Even when the emphasis on form is at its strongest,
however, what appears to be purely visual elements in Greaves’ work never
entirely eschews narrative associations, yet the narrative rarely eschews
the ambiguous - like here the odd constellation of the standpipe, the egg,
the disc and the ball. Characteristic of Greaves’ sculpture is, likewise, the
juxtaposition of solidity and lightness, poise and gravity. (TH)
Stanley Greaves
(b. 1934, Guyana, arr. Barbados 1987.
Education: Working People’s Art Class, Guyana;
Dip. Art Ed., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, U.K., M.F.A.,
Howard University, Washington, U.S.A.)
Birth of Forms No. 1 (n.d.)
Wood sculpture, 64 x 19 cm.
Acquired October 2002
43
32
Election Results is one of the fourteen paintings,
which make up the There is a Meeting Here Tonight
Series (executed from 1992-2001) - a commentary
on politics in the Caribbean. In this body of work,
Greaves’ symbolism is predominantly satirical and the
surreal ambience in itself a stab at the political scene
(not, as in the artist’s s.c. “metaphysical works”, a
general emphasis on the irrational per se). The works
are populated by human figures and dogs, each
group alternating in significance, interchangeably
representing “common people” and “politicians”.
Saturated with deliberately ambiguous references to
Christianity and Obeah, to the Caribbean and the
U.S., to the sugarcane-industry and the media, the
series both mimics and critiques the double-entendre
of the political scene as well as the relationship
between the electorate and the elected. In Election
Results an inscrutable figure thus presents an offering
of bread and, more elusively, of fish (this paraphrase
of the feeding of the thousands, suggests the selfproclaimed equivalence between the political figure
and Jesus Christ), yet the promised fish is dangling,
like bait, in a cord suspended from the sky and,
like any other illusion, may disappear at the pull of
invisible, external forces. (TH)
Stanley Greaves
(b. 1934, Guyana, arr. Barbados 1987. Education: Working
People’s Art Class, Guyana; Dip. Art Ed., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
U.K., M.F.A., Howard University, Washington, U.S.A.)
Election Results (1997)
Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 95 cm.
Acquired February 06
44
33
One of his earliest works, but also his
largest and most ambitious painting, A
History of Time holds a unique place within
Francis Griffith’s oeuvre. This work was
painted shortly after his return to a newly
independent Barbados, following an
absence of more than two decades. During
that time he worked as a seaman traveling
to over 75 countries. A series of mystical
experiences in the Middle East became
the subject matter of paintings during the
1960s and 1970s which were signed ‘Son et
Luimere’ (sic), a name he translated as ‘Son
of the Light’. This painting records a banquet
for the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon.
It is an intricate and complex composition in
which biblical events converge with images
of the World War II Allies represented at the
top of the painting. Rows of banquet halls
flank a mandala stage in the center with
multiple representations of the King and
Queen. Mr. Griffith described it as “A vision of
unseen things that you would never believe
possible”. (AT)
Francis Griffith
(1916-2001, Barbados: Education: self-taught)
A History of Time (King Solomon’s Palace) (c.
1966)
Enamel paint on board 109 x 107 cm.
Acquired May 01
45
Guru
(b. 1962, Barbados;
Masters Diploma in
Fine Art, Scranton
University by
distance studies).
Nocturnal Artist
(2002)
Acrylic on canvas, 50
x 76 cm.
Acquired March 2006
Nocturnal Artist was part of Guru’s recent, and first, solo-exhibition, which
and self-indulgent abundance of Nocturnal Artist - the capricious dance
revealed him to be an artist of unusual vision and aptitude - he is perhaps
of the brush-strokes, and the utopian vision of the artist in his moonlit Eden
the first Barbadian painter, whose works most fittingly can be described as
- certainly reflects the energy of Guru’s work in general. (TH)
“gothic”! Characteristic was thus, on the one hand, Guru’s transformation
of the motifs into quirky scenarios or nightmarish hallucinations, and, on the
other, the flighty, whimsical delicacy of his brushwork. Also marked by a
strong romantic flirtation with the grotesque and “the darkest regions of the
soul”, Guru’s work – though never imitating either – seems related in spirit
to both surrealism and mannerism. If not entirely in tune with the uncanny
and sinister character of some of the other works, the overwhelming detail
46
35
Russell Hatcher
(b. 1956, Wales, U.K.
Education: Poole Art College,
UK).
Improvisation (1992)
Mixed media on wood, 122 x
162.5 cm.
Acquired April 05
Improvisation is about surface quality, where numerous, creative
protective wings. There are also coin- like circles in the centre. The “X” is
techniques are used. The “improvisation” at work here is the physical act of
in relief, running off the edge of the work. The “X” is uncompromising, but
covering, re-surfacing, re-touching, erasing, scratching, scraping, drawing,
it is indeed more subtle than the 8% cut, which was taken out of workers’
revealing hidden layers. The atmosphere of the painting is very cluttered.
salaries in Barbados in the early nineties. (JW)
There is a wide span of wings which are stretched from one side at the
top to the other. The richness of the colours is very striking. Certain shapes
are dominant in the painting. There are abstract silhouettes of heads in
the wings, which perhaps suggest that people need guidance under the
47
Oswald Hussein is the leading and senior member of the
Arawak wood-carvers (also referred to as Lokono-artists)
at St. Cuthbert’s Mission station, or Pakuri, in the northeastern region of Guyana. He won the premier national
competition for sculpture in Guyana in 1989 and again in
1993. Kachikabura was part of the Moving Circle-exhibition
at the Queens Park Gallery in 2003, which featured the works
of three Lokono-artists. Curator of the National Gallery of
Guyana, Elfrieda Bissember, wrote in the catalogue: Hussein
and five other St. Cuthbert’s artists (..) called themselves
“Artists of the Environment” (…..). The artists had taken the
decision to return to St. Cuthbert’s, to their physical and
spiritual, familial and tribal roots in the community, and to use
the forms of animal and plant life, the myths and beliefs of
childhood memory, and the activities of daily life and larger
spiritual existence, as the source of their art. In every sense
this reinforced their connection with the natural world, and
the character of their work draws on the power of nature
in all its manifestations and their intense awareness of and
relationship with it”. (TH)
Oswald Hussein
(b. 1954, Guyana. Education: Self-taught)
Kachikabura (Before the Full Moon), 2003
Wood sculpture, 46 x 20 x 20 cm.
Acquired July 03
48
Izebo
(John Brathwaite, b. 1952, Barbados. Education: self-taught)
Garrison Mural (2004)
Acrylic on wood polyptych, 244 x 488 cm
Commissioned for the 2003 AICA World Congress, March 06
Izebo is an urban street artist who finds employment decorating the walls of
panoramic collage of vignettes from the historic Garrison area includes
butcher stalls, rum shops and brothels. But he also documents the histories
images of the Barbados Museum, Garrison school and the Barbados
and experiences of communities in large murals which adorn village
Defense Force. The scene is surveyed by the imposing sphinx, symbolic of
intersections and liming spots. The Garrison Mural was commissioned for
an ancestral empire that inspires the artist’s heroic actions in the face of
the exhibition of popular art, “OPEN” at the Barbados Museum in 2003. This
daily adversity. (AT)
49
Basil Jones
(b. 1930, Barbados.
Education: self-taught,
classes with Briggs Clarke
and Betty Scott, Barbados)
House in the Fields
(n.d.)
Oil on masonite,
35.5 x 46 cm.
Acquired November 02
Basil Jones is a Barbadian icon, who has been active in the organization
Caribbean. It owes a great deal to nineteenth century French painters,
of many activities related to the visual arts and photography in Barbados,
particularly Corot. The quality of light and the varying tones of green in
such as Barbados’ participation in the Sao Paulo Bienal in 1967 and 1969,
an undulating landscape create an atmosphere of perennial calm. The
the first CARIFESTA as well as the administration of the Barbados Arts
solitary house in the distance and the composition conspire to draw us into
Council. As a student of Briggs Clarke, the atmospheric quality in Clarke’s
the world of the painting. (JW)
work influenced his own. This is particularly true of his landscapes. Basil
Jones, in turn, was a teacher of Ras Ishi Butcher. This landscape painting,
House in the Fields, could be in Europe as there is nothing to suggest the
50
Basil Jones
(b. 1930, Barbados.
Education: self-taught,
classes with Briggs
Clarke and Betty Scott,
Barbados)
Suttle Street (n.d.)
Photograph, 27 x 38 cm.
Acquired May 04
In several senses the doyen of the fraternity of photographers in Barbados,
motorized vehicles and of the city at the time. Jones’ image proves a rich
Basil Jones, with trusted camera dangling from his neck, short strapped
resource for the cultural anthropologist and social historian alike. (HW)
bag on his right shoulder, is frequently to be seen quietly negotiating the
busy streets of Bridgetown. The image Suttle Street very much like the man
himself, is quiet and reserved, shy almost, but unmistakably eloquent.
Respectful of the reality of inner city urban life in the early half of the
century, the image is essentially a document of that reality. Framed by
the supports of the over hanging balcony, the image tells us much of the
architecture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the absence of
51
40
Since his return to Barbados in 1992, Winston Kellman’s oeuvre
has been dedicated, some might say almost obsessively,
to the Barbadian landscape. Yet, instead of exhausting this
genre’s possibilities, they seem to multiply with each single
effort. Panoramic landscapes, details of landscapes, closeups of ploughed fields, foliage, potted plants – each motif
revisited at every stage of the annual cycle, in any type of
weather, and in any medium: oil, watercolour, or as here
charcoal-drawings. Kellman’s work can be likened to a diary
of which the theme itself is the passage of time and its visual
manifestation in the landscape. The compulsive nature of
his work (the transformation-series consists of dozens and
dozens of drawings!) may, besides, be understood, almost
contradictorily, as a process of documenting, mapping and
preserving - yet ultimately also of coming to grips with the
land, its beauty and its trauma. Perhaps Kellman’s subjectmatter – transformation, instability and “flux” - is nowhere
more convincingly captured than in these rapidly executed,
confident charcoal-drawings with their remarkable detail and
astonishing drama. (TH)
Winston Kellman
(b. 1952, Barbados. Edu. B.A. (hons.) Fine
Art, Gloucestershire College of Art & Design,
Cheltenham, U.K., Post Graduate Diploma, Chelsea
College of Art, London, U.K.)
Untitled No. 1 (from the Transformation Series)
(2005)
Charcoal on paper, 110 x 77 cm.
Acquired September 2005
52
Brian Kirby came to Barbados in the 1960s to establish
an advertising agency. He was a Graphic Designer
and Painter, who participated in many exhibitions
during the sixties and seventies. Much of his work
was non-representational, often with geometricized
shapes and a strong linear element. Providence
Methodist Church introduces that quality in the grassy
area to the right. The overall conception of the
painting is to draw attention to the linear elements
in the scene: the detailed drawing of the Church;
the delineation of the figures; the arc of the road.
The approach to the scene is very impersonal and
objective, yet the attitudes of the figures and the
expressions on their faces are very familiar. (JW)
Brian Kirby
(b. 1939, England. Education: Hornsey College
of Art, University of London, England. Arrived
Barbados 1968, Left Barbados 1973)
Providence Methodist Church (1972)
Mixed media/watercolour, 48.5 x 32 cm.
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
53
42
Bob Kiss
(b. 1951, U.S.A. Education: attended
university at RIT from 1969 to 1974 and
moved to Barbados permanently in
1993).
Chattel: Bean Plants (2004)
Platinum-palladium print on 100%
cotton paper, 28 x 36 cm.
Commissioned March 03
A fine print, that aptly demonstrates the quality results possible from an
abandonment. But the “ground in cultivation” emphatically signals that life
excellent darkroom technique. Taken from a series that takes the Chattel
triumphant still happens here. (HW)
house as its focus, this, Chattel: Bean Plants is very strongly characterized by
what one in fact does not see - a human presence and a sense of vitality.
The photographer’s choice of locating the physical structure in the frame
seeks to further amplify this suggestion of artefact, a belonging to the past.
The fact that the house is closed in the fashion that it is, almost suggests
54
43
Denyse Ménard-Greenidge
(b. 1946, Quebec, Canada.
Education: L’Ecole des BeauxArts, Montreal, Concordia
University, Canada. Moved to
Barbados: 1976)
Untitled Diptych (n.d.)
Aluminium sheets, 88 x 119 cm.
Acquired April 05
Denyse Ménard-Greenidge has been a champion of a more intellectual
and non-representational approach to Art in her own work, as well as in
her Gallery, Dayrells Art Gallery. The relief Untitled Diptych echoes some
of the imagery of her work on canvas, with the torn canvas and buttons
(in this case the buttons are replaced by nails). Composition and colour
are her strengths. The shadows created by the layering and curving of the
aluminium sheets create points of interest. This relief sculpture is unique in
the artist’s oeuvre. (JW)
55
Reclaiming the large barrels used by West Indians to
import consumer goods from England and the United
States, visionary artist Philip Moore adorns its surface
with sequin-like dabs of paint. Referring to the paltry
compensation handed to slaves at the moment of
Emancipation, Moore’s politically charged object
critiques the capitalist power structures which have
plundered the West Indies for centuries. An interior
light source is intended to emanate from the small
punctured openings in the surface of the barrel. (AT)
Philip Moore
(b. 1921 in British Guyana. Education: selftaught)
Reparation (n.d.)
Paint on cardboard barrel, 103 x 60.
Acquired November 03
56
45
Philip Moore
(b. 1921 in British Guyana. Education: selftaught)
Women Selling Paint at Courts (Sales),
(2004)
Oil on plywood, 122 x 142 cm.
Acquired January 2003
This painting was produced by the Guyanese visionary artist, Philip Moore,
a video filmed by photographer Eric Belgrave. The artist’s meticulous
during his stay in Barbados as artist in residence in November, 2003.
practice of pressing or rolling dots of paint onto the canvas produces
Considered one of the most outstanding Caribbean visual artists, Moore’s
a rich and glimmering surface. Referring to himself as an ancient soul
work fist became known to audiences in Barbados during the hosting
in a modern body, the artist approaches his work with a ritualistic and
of CARIFESTA in 1981. Two decades later, Moore was honoured as an
regulated intensity that seems to evoke his governing philosophy of
outstanding artist by Caricom at CARIFESTA in Surinam during August 2003.
“Godmanliness” which proposes that God is within Man and Man is within
During his residency organized by the National Art Gallery Committee,
God and that through Art, all this is manifested. (AT)
Moore’s intricate and laborious painting process was documented in
57
Gilda Nassief-Thiebaud is an artist and poet, who
worked and exhibited in Barbados during the 1970s
and 80s. She exhibited beautiful, sensitive drawings
and paintings at the Talma Mill and other galleries.
Her lasting legacy is the enamel Stations of the Cross
at St Dominic’s Roman Catholic Church in Barbados.
Her metaphysical interests eventually led her to
Transcendental Meditation. She left Barbados in the
1980s to join her husband, who was also an artist, in
Haiti. (JW)
Gilda Nassief-Thiebaud
(b. Haiti)
Butterfly (n.d)
Print, 17 x 21.5 cm.
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
58
Inner Self No. 1 is part of the Monster Series in the
artist’s oeuvre. The process of creation for the artist
is very immediate without the intervening step of
preparatory sketches. The work is technically very
skilled with sensitivity in the brush strokes. The artist
appears to be on a spiritual journey to confront his
inner demons. This rather Francis Bacon-like figure has
evolved in other works. The majority of Piggott’s work
is large with strong colour and haunting, impactful
images. (JW)
Terrence Piggott
(b. 1967, Barbados. Education:
Barbados Community College)
Inner Self No. 1, (2004)
Acrylic on canvas, 178 x 91.5 cm.
Acquired September 2005
59
Gail Pounder-Speede’s work usually takes its
departure in the artist’s personal experience.
While her approach to subject-matter in many
works at once is very abstract and very literal,
she has developed an idiosyncratic style – a very
painterly form of abstraction combined with a
few fixed, personal symbols, including her use of
colour. The recurring themes in this oeuvre are love,
relationships, yearning, anxiety and despair, and
Pounder-Speede uses the canvas as an emotional
space, where she can re-enact and perhaps renegotiate various traumatic incidents. X-in-Law is
such a space, in which the artist appears to recall a
moment of separation and estrangement. The pink
and blue figures (male and female), which appear
in the upper half of the golden, “sunny” area of the
painting, are seen – presumably after the split-up – in
pale neutral tones at the bottom, dangerously close
to the border between this and the dismally grey
realm on the left. (TH)
Gail Pounder-Speede
(b. Barbados. Education: B.A. Fine Art
(hons.), Barbados Community College)
X-in-Law (2002)
Acrylic and mixed media, 50 x 40.5 cm.
Acquired August 03
60
Ras Akyem Ramsay
(b. 1953, Barbados.
Education: Edna Manley
School of Visual Arts,
Jamaica; Instituto Superior
de Arte, Havana, Cuba)
Art Animal No. 10 (2004)
Acrylic on canvas, 123 x
168 cm.
Acquired November 04
The plight of the artist has been one of the key themes in Ras Akyem’s
oppressed. In Art Animal No. 10 a fundamental duality is established by
oeuvre, almost from its inception. Of course the artist is an auto-
the division of the canvas into a black and a white segment. Apart from
biographical reference, but, more significantly, he is seen as a universal
the more obvious racial connotations of this division, the white section
figure, who sacrifices himself in the service of a higher cause. Ras Akyem’s
thus designates the artist’s present and tangible reality, while the black
idea of the creative act as a way of repelling death, and of the artist as
section represents the great stream of history, which is intangible, but real
a symbolic redeemer transcending otherwise immutable dichotomies, is
nonetheless. Through his creative act, the artist thus reaches out of his
closely related to his steady engagement with Christian iconography and
confinement to the “present” and connects with “eternity”. (TH)
his persistent exposure of the eternal opposition between oppressors and
61
Ann Rudder
(b. Englewood, New
Jersey to Barbadian
parents. Arrived: 1989).
The Indian Bridge
Town, Barbados,
Capital of Cultures
1628-1788 (2006, in
progress)
Mixed media, 122 x 244
cm,
Commissioned 2003
The Indian Bridge Town, Barbados, Capital of Cultures 1628-1788, was
Lokono and Taino zemis or totems. Finally, a collection of wooden shields
one of two commissions issued by the NAGC to commemorate the 375th
are incorporated to illustrate the heraldic coats of arms of several English
anniversary of Bridgetown. The piece, which is still in process, is conceived
personages, such as Governor Francis Lord Willoughby, the Codrington
as a grandiose tribute to what the artist sees as the culture and cultural
Family, John Swan, Charles Pinfold, William Haggatt, whose financial
make-up of Barbados – interweaving symbols of the indigenous Lokono
investments became the mercantile bedrock of Barbados. (TH)
culture with tokens of the island’s British and African presence. Historic
places of interest are depicted on both sides, alongside African dialogue
patterns with inscriptions such as “BIRIBI WO SORO” – an Asante symbol
of empowerment meaning “God, there is something in he heavens, let it
reach me”. Several handmade red clay adornos illustrate various Karifuna,
62
Sargeant
(b. Barbados)
Super Tanker (n.d.)
Mixed media on plywood, 23.5 x 69.5 cm.
Donation by the artist, 2004
Little information is known about this artist whose works began to adorn
epaulettes sewn onto the shoulders of his shirt, eventually abandoned the
the chain-link fence surrounding a utility substation in Bridgetown. Finely
hostile site and has reportedly revived his ephemeral artistic efforts in other
detailed drawings of ships on scraps of cardboard and wood were tied
corners of Bridgetown. (AT)
onto the fence so that eventually its entire surfaces were covered .
When officials unceremoniously removed the drawings from their private
property, the artist, who in his younger days had worked aboard ships
transporting goods along the Atlantic coastline, quietly resumed his quest
to reclaim his environment. But Sargeant, so named because of the plastic
63
Careenage No. 2 is part of a series of paintings focusing on the
Samuel Sealy
transformation of Bridgetown and specifically the Careenage area. This
(b. 1948, Barbados. Education: c. 1973 Art workshop
area was traditionally a popular subject for artists until the 1980s. The
with Hartley Marshall-Alleyne, 1974-76 Erdiston
composition is a symphony in blues. It is not a literal view of the Careenage,
Teachers’ Training College, 1998- 2002 Barbados
but a combination of the boats with the old buildings in the background.
Community College
The entire area seems very crowded with lots of movement. It seems to be
a night or early evening scene. This work is an interesting development from
his ‘The Wreck of the George Fergusson’ which was an award winner in the
Art Collection Foundation Competition of 1985. (JW)
64
The Careenage No. 2 (2003)
Oil on canvas, 64 x 101 cm.
Acquired May 04
53
Campbell Skeete
(b. 1932, Barbados. Harrison’s
College under Briggs Clarke,
private tuition with Karl
Broodhagen 1956-59. Toronto
University (sculpture) 1972-73).
Village Scene (n.d.)
Oil on canvas, 21 x 37 cm.
Acquired March 2006
Campbell Skeete’s Village Scene belongs to a genre in which every
imaginary past to an escapist vision of a self-contained tropical paradise.
work intends to depict a quintessential Barbadian village - this location is
This undoubtedly continues to be the most commercially viable genre in
nowhere in particular, yet familiar to every Barbadian. While the curved
Barbadian painting. (TH)
edges of the picture plane soften the overall impression, and the symmetry
of each house façade serves as a metaphor for the orderliness of this
place, the connotation of “island” is underscored by the one road linking
the houses with the sea, where sailboats gaily plough through the waves.
Paintings like this assimilate a view of the island, which, surprisingly, seems to
resonate in equal measure with visitors and nationals, though the qualities
ascribed to the island by each group may vary from nostalgia for an
65
Stephen Smith
(b. 1961, Barbados.
Education: selftaught).
The Trafalgar Hotel
(2003)
Photograph,
25 x 38 cm.
Acquired May 04
Located on Palmetto Square, The Trafalgar Hotel, from 1907, was housed
from the Barbadian landscape. One may find it interesting to note the
in this three-storied nineteenth century structure until it was demolished in
presence of the lone motorized vehicle, as well as how clear, clean and
1978. Sitting just on the outskirts of the “public buildings” it was discovered
uncluttered the square appears. (HW)
after the site was cleared and test squares excavated and analyzed, that
the site is of some considerable archaeological importance suggesting an
extensive occupation by Suazoid Culture Amerindian population. The hand
pushed Purity Bread carts, which we see in the image, was the principal
vehicle for selling turnovers, rock cakes, heavy sweets, machine loaves and
indeed bread in general, throughout the city and in suburban Barbados.
Though of more recent vintage, these are never the less now also absent
66
55
If the still-life genre, from its origins in Dutch
renaissance-painting, traditionally has been
designated meditations over the transitory existence
of all things, Goldie Spieler can be said to have
taken this concept to the extreme. From the earliest
days of her oeuvre, her line has been marked by a
distinctive and nervous restlessness. Like practically
all her works on paper, Fruits and Leaves is essentially
about the perishable nature of living things, and the
constant metamorphosis of all substance. Barely
ripened, the fruits are already hastening towards
decay – their outlines never firm or fixed, but always
in-between one state and the next. Even the paintbrush, hurriedly on its way to other motifs, other
subject-matters, has only touched the fruits with
flighty dabs of colour, leaving the background as
wispy lines and sprinkles of charcoal dust – the table,
on which the fruit is displayed, is merely suggested.
Only the essential is there, and the essential is the
impermanence itself. (TH)
Goldie Spieler
(b. 1931, Canada. Arr. Barbados: 1966.
Education: Ontario College of Art)
Fruit and Leaves (1967)
Charcoal and watercolor, 63 x 47.5 cm.
Donation by the late Mary Armstrong March 02
67
Though Norma Talma’s preferred medium during
the early years, from which this piece derives,
indeed was painting, her usual approach was one
of abstract colour-field compositions, which seem
obvious forerunners for her present-day collages of
handmade paper. The piece at hand, therefore,
cannot be considered a very representative example
of her work from this era. The Wonder of Kites,
however, does testify to the artist’s early fascination
with colour (which has recently re-emerged with
works such as The Green Flash and In the Beginning)
and – most significantly - with paper, which here,
in addition to the paint, is applied to the kite itself.
This duplication of layers gives the wheel of the kite
a “spin”, which in turn tends to give the upper half
of the painting a more geometric, semi-abstract
character, somewhat contrasting the suggested
realism of the lower half. (TH)
Norma Talma
(b. New York City, U.S.A.; B.A., Sarah Lawrence
College, Bronxville, N.Y.; Graduate studies in art
education, New York University, U.S.A.)
The Wonder of Kites (1969)
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas, 24.5 x 53
cm.
Donation by the late Mary Armstrong March 02
68
57
Myths and stereotypes of race and gender were
the key issues in Alberta Whittle’s recent Fiat Luxexhibition, which included a series of portraits
of female “archetypes” – among them Judith,
Madonna, Pandora and Eve. Whittle’s symbols
are drawn liberally from literary, mythological and
contemporary popular sources, from Europe, Africa
and the Caribbean. While seemingly adhering
to the notion of spirituality, she wittily proposes
the modern Caribbean woman (of colour) as
someone empowered by her embrace of those
very characteristics, for which women in the JudeoChristian tradition have been demonized – most
notably her sexuality. Whittle’s Eve is thus a slender,
young, naked female – half woman, half lioness,
tantalizingly reclined with the serpent slithering down
the tree and under her legs. The erotic innuendo is
almost provocatively obvious with the big red apple
placed in the young woman’s lap, exactly above the
serpent’s head. (TH)
Alberta Whittle
(b. 1980, Barbados. Education: BA (hons)
Tapestry (Fine Art), Edinburgh College of Art,
Edinburgh)
Eve (from the Fiat Lux Series) (2005)
Watercolour, 45 x 37 cm.
Acquired February 2006
69
58
Nick Whittle
(b. 1953, England. Education; B.A. (hons) Fine Arts,
University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, United Kingdom.
Full Fathoms Five I-VI (1996)
Mixed media on paper, 76 x 56 cm each.
Acquired March 2002
70
Nick Whittle’s oeuvre is one of multiple layers, complex subject-matter and
colonizers’ penetration of other lands) (panel 2). Subsequent to his landing
copious references to premises established in earlier works. His themes
on this foreign soil, the Englishman becomes an “other”, both to the
typically link personal issues with more universal ones relating to race,
islanders and to himself (panel 3), finding himself vilified and his embrace
gender and the implications of colonialism. The six images, which make up
of his new environment amputated (panel 4). Subsequently a remarkable
Full Fathoms Five, thus chronicles a metamorphosis of identity as a result of
transformation of colour and gender takes place – as the identity of the
someone’s geographical and cultural relocation – more specifically the
perpetrator (alias male) merges with that of the victim (alias female)
experience of a (white) English-man settling in the Caribbean: the narrative
and both are dissolved (panel 5). At the end, we find an embryonic,
is one of a clear self-image (panel 1), becoming obscured by the colonial
androgynous adult – a person of reborn identity, or a Prospero having
legacy (Whittle has often used the phallic image as a metaphor for the
morphed into a Caliban! (TH)
CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ
71
Armstrong, Mary (1925-2005, b:
Barbados; self-taught, classes with
Karl Broodhagen and Sybil Atteck)
Cats Under a Twisted Willow Tree (etching,
n.d., 43 x 38 cm)
March 02
*Boss Crab (etching, n.d., 36 x 39 cm)
March 02
Caterpillar Border (etching, n.d., 40 x 38 cm)
March 02
Spiders on Clematis (etching, n.d., 41 x 39
cm)
March 02
Tip-toeing In (etching, n.d., 29.5 x 35 cm)
March 02
73
Atkinson, Arthur (b. 1945, Barbados.
Education: self-taught)
Wheels (etching, n.d., 24 x 45 cm)
March 02
*Untitled (Abstract) (mixed media, c. 1960s,
49.5 x 53 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
Untitled with three figures (oil on hardboard,
n.d., 81 x 65 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
74
Emergency (oil on canvas, 1969, 67 x 46 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
The ninth hour (acrylic/mixed media, 1981,
153 x 279 cm)
April 05
*Only When it Rains (acrylic on canvas, 2004,
49.5 x 60 cm)
November 05
Time Capsule (installation, 2005, 26 x 32 x 40.5
cm)
Donation by the artist, 2005
Going Down College Savannah (acrylic on
canvas, 2005, 53.5 x 68.5 cm)
November 05
Atkinson, Ewan (b. 1975, Barbados.
Education: Queen’s College,
Atlanta College of Art, Atlanta, GA,
USA)
Sheep Pen – Glenburnie (acrylic on canvas,
2005, 60 x 77.5 cm)
November 05
The Olde Palmetto Royale (mixed media,
2001, 61 x 92 cm)
May 04
75
76
*To: Factory Re: Storage (mixed media, 2002,
122 x 143 cm)
May 04
Personality Disorder Machine (triptych, mixed
media on paper, 2002, 77 x 57 cm each)
May 04
Mummy Says We May Have Strawberries for
Tea (digital print, 2003, 28 x 37.5 cm)
May 04
Hide! (digital print, 2003, 28 x 37.5 cm)
May 04
When Bill Had Done His Work He Went Out to
Play (mixed media, 2005, 62.5 x 40.5 cm)
March 06
This Belongs to Me (mixed media, 2005, 62.5 x
40.5 cm)
March 06
Many Boys and Girls Live in Flats (mixed
media, 2005, 62.5 x 40.5 cm)
March 06
I Heard the Hunter Blow His Horn (mixed
media, 2005, 62.5 x 40.5 cm)
March 06
Greedy Nan (mixed media, 2005, 62.5 x 40.5
cm)
March 06
*Triptych:
Passage (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm)
November 02
There Was a Crooked Man (mixed media,
2005, 62.5 x 40.5 cm)
March 06
Belgrave, Eric (b. 1960, England.
Education: Art Foundation,
Crosskeys College, Gwent, South
Wales. University L.C.P London
Institute, U.K.)
Test (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm)
November 02
Temple (photograph, 2002, 40.5 x 50.5 cm)
November 02
77
Blackett, Keith (b. 1930, Barbados.
Education: self-taught, classes with
Collis Bailey and Robert MacLeod)
Poison Triptych:
1) Difficult (photograph, 2004, 45.5 x 35.5 cm)
January 05
2) Fellow (photograph, 2004, 35.5 x 45.5 cm)
January 05
*Rum Shop (oil on canvas, 1997, 39 x 48.5
cm) May 04
3) Reply (photograph, 2004, 35.5 x 45.5 cm)
January 05
Brathwaithe, Hubert (b. 1930,
Barbados. Education: Bay Street
Boys’ School taught by John Rose,
classes with Hector Whistler, Karl
Broodhagen and Briggs Clarke,
Barbados)
78
The Old Bus Stand (oil on canvas, n.d., 80 x
93 cm)
November 02
*Tuk Band at Baxter’s Road (oil on canvas,
n.d., 56 x 63 cm)
March 06
Butcher, Ras Ishi (b. 1960, Barbados.
Education: Barbados Community
College, Instituto Superior de Arte,
Havana, Cuba)
Betrayal (mixed media on canvas, 1996, 153
x 122 cm)
March 02
Tribute to a Warrior (mixed media on canvas,
2003, 190 x 190 cm)
April 05
*Diario Secreto Tres (mixed media on canvas,
2003, 163 x 145 cm)
April 05
Procreation (mixed media on canvas, 1996,
153 x 122 cm)
March 02
Chandler, Chris (b. Barbados.
Education: self-taught).
79
Chapman-Andrews, Alison (b. 1942,
England. Education: Walthamstow
School of Art, London, U.K., Royal
College of Art, London, U.K.)
*Young Palms, Martin’s Bay (drawing, mixed
media and ink-pastel, charcoal, 1995, 60 x 72
cm)
November 02
*The Other Side (sculpture, paint on
limestone/concrete, 2004, 400 x 1750 cm).
Co-sponsored mural project, June 03
African Trees (collage and acrylic on canvas,
2001, 91 x 119 cm)
October 02
80
Golden Apple (acrylic and mixed media on
canvas, 2004, 42.5 x 32.5 cm)
January 05
*Falling Leaves 2 (acrylic and mixed media
on canvas, 2004, 42.5 x 32.5 cm)
January 05
Chong, Albert (b. 1958 Jamaica.
Education: School of Visual Arts,
New York City, USA, University of
California, San Diego, U.S.A.)
Pink Leaf and Croton (acrylic and mixed
media on canvas, 2004, 42.5 x 32.5 cm)
January 05
*Blessing the Throne (photograph, 1992, 38 x
47 cm)
December 04
Time-capsule (installation, 2005, 26 x 32 x 40.5
cm)
Donation by the artist, 2005.
Self-portrait with Garvey’s Prison Docket
(photograph, 1995, 38 x 47 cm)
December 04
Clarke, Briggs (b. Barbados 1905,
d. Barbados 1987. Education: Art
classes with Felix Haynes, worked
with Ivan Payne and Robert
MacLeod (Barbados); Byam Shaw
School of Drawing and Painting (UK)
81
Clarke, Thomas (b. Guyana 1958,
arr. Barbados 1967. Education:
Harrison College, Physics and
Computer studies UWI. Self-taught
photographer).
82
Crane Beach (oil on hardboard, n.d., 43 x 54
cm)
November 02
*Maureen (oil on masonite, 1962, 34.5 x 27
cm)
November 02
Japanese Moon (photograph, 2003, 44 x 35.5
cm)
July 04
*Mahogany Forest 2 (photograph, 2004, 44 x
35.5 cm)
July 04
Crichlow, Kenwyn (b. 1951, Trinidad.
Education: Goldsmith College,
London, U.K.)
*Sea Murmurs of a Dream (oil and 22 carat
gold leaf, 2004, 156 x 135 cm)
December 04
Cummins, William (b. 1964,
Barbados. Education: Harrison
College, Williams College,
Williamstown, Massachusetts,
U.S.A.)
Colour for the Adoration of New Life (oil and
22 carat gold leaf, 2004, 125 x 115 cm)
February 05
Fire in Meh Belly No. 2 (oil and 22 carat gold
leaf, 2004, 104 x 94 cm)
December 04
*Rainbow Static 8 (pastel on arches paper,
2003, 52 x 53.5 cm)
January 05
Rainbow Static 9 (pastel on arches paper,
2003, 52 x 53.5 cm)
January 05
83
Daniel, Joyce (b. Barbados.
Education: Alberta College of Art,
University of Iowa)
Inner Riot (pastel on arches paper, 2005,
106.5 x 57 cm)
April 2005.
*Corselette (mixed media construction, 2003,
76 x 56.5 cm)
August 03
84
Survival (mixed media assemblage, 1989, 179
x 115 cm)
March 05
Dodson, Ann (b. 1958, Barbados.
Education: BFA., Concordia
University, Quebec, Canada;
Dip. Education, McGill University,
Montreal, Canada)
Birds Looking At Something (acrylic on
canvas, 2004, 41 x 51 cm)
January 05
Donawa, Wendy (b. 1940, Canada;
arrived in Barbados: 1963;
Education: Canada; left Barbados
c. 1985)
*Expectations (acrylic on canvas, 2004, 37 x
29.5 cm)
January 05
Downey, Justin (b. 1976, Barbados.
Education: BFA Barbados
Community College)
*Christopher and Wind Chimes (woodcut/ink
on paper, 1969, 53 x 30 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong. March 02.
*Connection/Direction (acrylic on canvas,
2004, 53 x 62 cm)
January 05
Drakes, Maurice (b. 1934, Barbados.
Education: Drawing, Painting and
Design with John Rose at Bay Street
Boys’ School, classes with Hector
Whistler and Karl Broodhagen
(Barbados)
85
Croton Plants (acrylic on hardboard, 1979, 50
x 56 cm)
March 03
Kadooment (watercolor, n.d., 24 x 35 cm)
March 06
86
Independence Celebration (watercolor on
card, n.d., 36 x 30 cm)
May 04
Gall, David (b. 1952, Barbados.
Education: Combermere School,
Visva Bharati University, India).
*Christmas Night Choraliers (acrylic on linen,
1990, 67 x 55 cm)
May 04
*Mahakal (oil on canvas, 1988, 144 x 93 cm)
October 03
Reserved (linocut on mulberry, 1998, 20 x 25.5
cm)
October 03
*Postmodernism Well Installed (print on
paper, 1998, 15 x 21 cm)
October 03
Stiltman and Blackbirds (linocut on gazenchi
etchizen, 1998, 29.5 x 17.5 cm)
October 03
Gall, Indrani ( b. 1953, India.
Education: MFA (printmaking) Visva
Bharati University, India)
Kadooment Creature (linocut on nepchi,
1998, 23 x 19.5 cm)
October 03
Feast (lithograph on paper, 1993, 31 x 27 cm)
October 03
87
88
Once (paper and ink/intaglio, 1994, 24.5 x 20
cm)
October 03
Ugh Primitive! (intaglio on paper, 1995, 35 x
49 cm)
October 03
*Oh Civilization III (collograph/woodcut,
1995, 80 x 75 cm)
October 03
Barbie and Pithora (intaglio on paper, 1995,
48.5 x 30.5 cm)
October 03
Oh Civilization I (intaglio on paper, 1995, 34.5
x 30.5 cm)
October 03
Magic Touch (linocut on rice paper, 1998,
20.5 x 28.5 cm)
October 03
Ball Games (linocut on gazenchi etchizen,
1998, 28 x 20 cm)
October 03
Ganthier, Patrick “Killy” (b. 1966,
Haiti. Education: self-taught)
Red Ball (lino on rice paper, 2001, 26 x 20.5
cm)
October 03
*Untitled 2 (mixed media, n.d., 91.5 x 61 cm)
November 04
*Target (mixed media assemblage, 2001, 200
x 121 cm)
October 03
Gardner, Joscelyn (b. 1961,
Barbados. Education: Queen’s
College, B.F.A. (printmaking) and
B.A. (film) Queen’s University,
Canada, M.F.A. University of
Western Ontario, Canada)
89
Gill, Edmund (b. 1935, Barbados.
Education: self-taught, 195669 Worked in England; 1966-72
Caribbean Artists Movement (UK)
Emancipation series: acrylic and mixed
media on canvas, 1996-1999, 106.5 x 76
cm each. The series has been acquired
jointly by the NAGC, the NCF and the
Commission for Pan African Affairs,
February 2006
*Black Skin – White Kin (DVD installation, part
of intervention at the Barbados Museum and
Historical Society, 2003) February 05
Capture
90
Ancestral Images
Middle Passage
Auction
Plantation. NAGC acquisition
Independence
*Revolt and Emancipation. NAGC acquisition
Re-assertion
Riots and Reforms
Grace, Bill (b. 1953, Barbados.
Education: Arcadia University,
Canada, Universidad de Valencia,
Spain, Nova Scotia College of Art
and Design. Apprenticeship with
John Reeves, California, in the
Leach-Kenzan tradition).
91
Greaves, Stanley (b. 1934, Guyana,
arr. Barbados 1987. Edu. Working
People’s Art Class, Guyana; Dip.
Art Ed., Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
U.K., M.F.A., Howard University,
Washington, U.S.A.)
*Long Time II (Ceramic wall-relief: clay, glass,
coral-stone and white cement mounted on
ply, 2004, 132 x 132 cm (point-to-point).
*Birth of Forms (wood sculpture, n.d., 64 x 19
cm)
October 02
92
Persistence and Perseverance (sculpture:
cast stone/ceramic/coral, 2005, 104 x 25.9
cm)
January 06
Plantation Worker (acrylic, 2000, 111 x 85 cm)
March 02
Party Political Broadcast (acrylic on canvas,
1997, 115 x 95 cm)
February 06
Griffith, Francis: (1916-2001,
Barbados. Education: self-taught)
Ballot Boxes (acrylic on canvas, 1997, 122 x
95 cm)
February 06
*Election Results (acrylic on canvas, 1997,
122 x 95 cm)
February 06
Portrait of the Artist’s Wife (oil on canvas
mounted on wood, n.d., 40 x 46.5 cm)
May 01
Text Painting (oil, 1963, 59 x 74 cm)
May 01
Untitled (Snow Scene) (enamel paint on
hardboard, n.d., 64 x 79 cm)
March 02
93
94
Gypsy Moth (enamel paint glued to fabric,
n.d., 59 x 60.5 cm)
May 01
Lady Douglas (enamel paint on plywood,
n.d., 61 x 56 cm)
May 01
Mother (enamel paint on cotton, n.d., 55.5 x
70 cm)
May 01
Gypsy Moth 2 (enamel on plywood, n.d., 54
x 70 cm)
May 01
*A History of Time, a.k.a. King Solomon’s
Palace (enamel paint, 109 x 107 cm)
May 01
Egypt (oil on board, c. 1960, 68.8 x 69.8 cm).
Donation by Government Headquarters.
May 01
Star and Moon 1 (oil paint on wood, 1968,
45.5 x 50 cm)
May 01
Guru (b. 1962, Barbados; Masters
Diploma in Fine Art, Scranton
University)
Star and Moon 2 (oil paint on wood, 1968, 42
x 44.5 cm)
May 01
Star and Moon 3 (oil paint on wood, 1968, 45
x 51,2 cm)
May 01
*Nocturnal Artist (acrylic on canvas, 2002, 50
x 76 cm)
March 06
Nostalgia (mixed media on canvas, 2002, 91
x 122 cm)
March 06
95
Hatcher, Russell (b. 1956 Wales; U.K.
Education: Poole Art College, UK)
Still Life (acrylic on canvas, 2005, 61 x 61 cm)
March 06
*Improvisation (mixed media on wood, 1992,
122 x 162.5 cm)
April 05
96
Ancestral Guardian (acrylic on canvas, 2005,
76 x 50 cm)
March 06
Hussein, Oswald (b. 1954, Guyana.
Education: Self-taught)
*Kachikabura (Before the Full Moon), (wood
sculpture, 2003, 20 x 46 cm)
July 03
“Izebo” Brathwaithe, John (b.
Barbados, education: self-taught)
Jones, Basil (b. 1930, Barbados.
Education: self-taught, classes
with Briggs Clarke and Betty Scott
(Barbados)
*Garrison Mural (acrylic on wood polyptych,
2004, 244 x 488 cm)
Commissioned for the 2003 AICA World
Congress
March 06
*House in the Fields (oil on masonite, n.d.,
35.5 x 46 cm)
November 02
*Suttle Street (photograph, n.d., 27 x 38 cm)
May 04
Kellman, Winston (b. 1952,
Barbados. Edu. B.A. (hons.) Fine
Art, Gloucestershire College of
Art & Design, Cheltenham, U.K.,
Post Graduate Diploma, Chelsea
College of Art, London, U.K.)
97
*Untitled No. 1 (from the Transformation
Series), (charcoal on paper, 2005, 110 x 77
cm)
September 05
Kirby, Brian (c. 1939, England.
Education: Hornsey College of
Art, University of London, England.
Arrived Barbados 1968, Left
Barbados 1973).
98
Untitled No. 2 (from the Transformation
Series), (charcoal on paper, 2005, 105 x 74
cm)
September 05
*Providence Methodist Church (mixed
media/watercolour, 1972, 48.5 x 32 cm).
Donation by Mary Armstrong.
March 02
Star of Bethlehem (from the Transformation
Series), (charcoal on paper, 2005, 75 x 98 cm)
September 05
Kiss, Bob (b. 1951, U.S.A. Education:
attended university at RIT from 1969
to 1974 and moved to Barbados
permanently in 1993).
Ménard-Greenidge, Denyse (b.
1946, Quebec, Canada. Edu.
Education: L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts,
Montreal, Concordia University,
Canada; Moved to Barbados: 1976)
*Chattel: Bean Plants (platinum-palladium
print on 100% cotton paper, 2004, 28 x 36 cm)
Commissioned March 03.
Moore, Philip (b. 1921 in British
Guyana. Education: self-taught)
*Untitled Diptych (aluminum sheets, n.d., 88 x
119 cm)
April 05
One Man Band Obeah Drum No. 2 (mixed
media sculpture, 1992). November 03
*Reparation (mixed media sculpture/barrel,
n.d., 103 x 60). November 03
99
Gilda Nassief-Thiebaud (b: Haiti)
Untitled (oil on plywood, 2003, 102 x 122 cm)
Commenced during the artist’s invitational
residency in Barbados.
January 03
*Butterfly (print, n.d., 17 x 21.5 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
100
*Women Selling Paint at Courts (Sales), (oil on
plywood, 2004, 122 x 142 cm)
Executed for the NAGC during the artist’s
invitational residency in Barbados.
January 03
Piggott, Terrence (b. 1967,
Barbados. Education: Barbados
Community College)
*Inner Self No. 1 (in the Monster Series),
(acrylic on canvas, 2004, 178 x 91.5 cm)
September 05
Pounder-Speede, Gail (b. 1973.
Education: B.A. Fine Art (hons.),
Barbados Community College)
Ramsay, Ras Akyem (b. 1953,
Barbados. Education: Edna Manley
School of Visual Arts, Jamaica;
Instituto Superior de Arte, Havana,
Cuba)
In-Law (acrylic and mixed media, 2002, 50 x
40.5 cm)
August 03
*X-in-Law (acrylic and mixed media, 2002, 50
x 40.5 cm)
August 03
Golgotha (acrylic on canvas, 1989, 122 x 72
cm)
March 02
Ghostships (mixed media on canvas, 1995,
152 x 121 cm)
March 02
101
Rudder, Ann (b. New Jersey, U.S.A.
Education: self-taught)
*Art Animal No. 10 (acrylic on canvas, 2004,
123 x 168 cm)
November 04
*The Indian Bridge Town, Barbados, Capital
of Cultures 1628-1788 (mixed media, in
progress 2006, 122 x 244 cm)
Commissioned 2003.
102
Horsemen and Chariots, diptych, acrylic and
mixed media on canvas, 2004, 168 x 184 cm)
November 04
Sargeant (b. Barbados)
*Super Tanker (mixed media on plywood,
n.d., 23.5 x 69.5 cm)
Donation by the artist, 2003.
Sealy, Samuel (b. 1948, Barbados.
Education: c. 1973 Art workshop
with Hartley Marshall-Alleyne,
1974-76 Erdiston Teachers’ Training
College, 1998- 2002 Barbados
Community College)
Shell Tank (mixed media on plywood, n.d.
23.5 x 62 cm)
Donation by the artist, 2003.
Skeete, Campbell (b. 1932,
Barbados. Harrison College under
Briggs Clarke, private tuition with
Karl Broodhagen 1956-59. Toronto
University (sculpture) 1972-73).
*The Careenage No. 2 (oil on canvas, 2003,
64 x 101 cm)
May 04
*Village Scene (oil on canvas, 2005, 21 x 37
cm)
March 06
Stephen Smith (b. 1961, Barbados.
Education: self-taught).
103
Spieler, Goldie (b. 1931, Canada.
Arr. Barbados: 1966. Education:
Ontario College of Art)
*The Trafalgar Hotel (photograph, 2003, 25 x
38 cm)
May 04
NOT AVAILABLE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY
Series of ink drawings of Barbadian Churches
executed during the 1960s-70s. Awaiting
restoration. Donation by the artist, March 06
104
*Fruit and Leaves (charcoal and watercolor,
1967, 63 x 47.5 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02
Norma Talma (b. New York City,
U.S.A.; B.A., Sarah Lawrence
College, Bronxville, N.Y.; Graduate
studies in art education, New York
University, U.S.A.)
Mirror Dinghies (acrylic on board, 1966, 50 x
75 cm)
Donation by Mrs. Babs Talma, February 06.
*The Wonder of Kites (acrylic and mixed
media on canvas, 1969, 124.5 x 53 cm)
Donation by Mary Armstrong, March 02.
Alberta Whittle (b. 1980, Barbados.
Education: BA (hons) Tapestry (Fine
Art), Edinburgh College of Art,
Edinburgh)
In the Beginning (handmade paper
assemblage, 2003, 25 x 34 cm)
May 04
The Green Flash (handmade paper
assemblage, 2003, 30 x 23 cm)
May 04
*Eve (from the Fiat Lux Series) (watercolor,
2005, 45 x 37 cm)
January 06
Pandora (from the Fiat Lux Series)
(watercolor, 2005, 45 x 37 cm)
January 06
105
Whittle, Nick (b. 1953, England.
Education; B.A. (hons) Fine Arts,
University of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne,
United Kingdom.
*Full Fathoms Five I-VI (mixed media on
paper, 1996, 76 x 56 cm each) March 02
106