National Gallery of Jamaica

THE LARGEST AND OLDEST PUBLIC ART MUSEUM IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING CARIBBEAN

By LAURA TANNA

Whether it’s touring The Culture Yard or walking the streets of downtown to view the colourful murals Kingston Creative has painted, especially on Water Lane, in the past few years to emphasise the positive in Kingston’s port city, the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ), the largest and oldest public art museum in the English-speaking Caribbean, has welcomed visitors since it opened its doors on November 22, 1974.

The i nitial collection of 237 paintings and drawings, w ith 25 sculptures, were d isplayed at Devon House near New K ingston i n t he Georgian mansion built i n 1881 by Jamaica’s fi rst black m illionaire, George Steibel. Now a National Heritage Trust Monument, Devon House and its courtyard shops are open for v isitors, but i n 1982 t he NGJ moved to t he Roy West Building by t he waterfront. With businessman Maurice Facey as its fi rst Chairman and i n 1975 artist David Boxer as its fi rst Curator, t he NGJ has g rown to more t han 2000 artworks i n a t wo-storey building w ith a series of renowned collections. It’s just the right size to enjoy the whole spectrum of Jamaican art, from h istoric i ndigenous works r ight t hrough representational paintings to totally abstract works, all well-presented i n a spacious setting, sadly no elevator for t hose unable to climb stairs.

At t he top of t he w ide meandering stairs, one enters t he Larry Worth Collection of 17 paintings and 48 sculptures covering t he early 1950s to m id-1970s by Mallica Reynolds O.D. (1911-1989). A Zion Revivalist leader k nown to a ll as K apo, a leader i n t he “intuitive” self-taught genre of art which was celebrated by Edward Seaga who, as a Harvard-trained sociologist long before he became Prime M inister, had become a devotee of Revival customs and art. In a room i nterior to t hat resides t he more erotic Kapo paintings in the John Pringle Collection of 23 paintings presented to t he NGJ i n 2011 from t he estate of Jamaica’s first Director of Tourism.

TAcross to the other side of the second-floor gallery, one has a splendid v iew of Edna Manley’s sculpture “Hills of Papine” 1949, a fitting entry to t he A.D. Scott Collection as t hat was t he fi rst artwork he acquired i n what g rew to be some 600 pieces i n t he m id-1970s i ncluding post-independence works by Jamaica’s famed Carl Abrahams, A lbert Huie, David Pottinger, R alph Campbell, K arl Parboosingh, Barrington Watson, Eugene Hyde and more, 62 of which Scott donated to t he NGJ. Off to one side is my favourite small room of Jamaica’s fi rst self-taught artist of renown, John Dunkley (1891-1947), whose haunting landscapes w ith suggestive u ndertones l inger i n one’s m ind as h is 1946 “ Banana Plantation” does in mine.

The Historical Galleries at the other end of the floor take us right back to the Jamaican Taino 1000 A D-1600 with artefacts, carvings and information on the island’s original inhabitants. Spanish Jamaica starts in 1494-1655 with a column from New Seville on the North Coast while British Jamaica 1655-1900 includes maps, works by Agostino Brunias, and George Robertson’s aquatints and 1773 oil painting of the “Rio Cobre”. Joseph B. K idd (1808-1889) l ithographs and paintings are displayed from his 1835 and 1838 visits, while Isaac M. Belisario’s (1793-1849) 1840 oils are st unning i n v ividly capturing scenes of plantation l ife. H is “Sketches of Character” of Set Girls have been widely reproduced.

Some of these early works came from the Institute of Jamaica (IOJ), the Caribbean’s oldest centre of learning, founded in 1879 long before the University of the West Indies (UWI) was established in 1948. The National Library became independent from the IOJ as did the Cultural Training Centre, now a tertiary-level institution named The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA). But the Institute of Jamaica Act (1978) made the NGJ a statutory organisation under the Ministry of Culture, now the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.

Other early works came through the donation of 218 works at the time of Hon. Aaron Matalon O.J.’s 80th birthday in 1999. As the third Chairman of the NGJ, appointed in 1992, his involvement in both the NGJ and the Institute of Jamaica, of which he was Deputy Chairman from 1985-1989, provided serious support to both institutions. He was instrumental in establishing the Edna Manley Foundation after her death in 1987 and with the NGJ created the Edna Manley Memorial Collection. The Edna Manley Galleries opened in March 2000 and now form a substantial portion of the NGJ’s second floor. From her The Early Years 1920-1934 with her first ink drawing in 1920 through to her The Later Years 1965-1987 wooden and bronze sculptures and finally her paintings in 1985, the mother of Jamaican art and the co-founder in 1950 of the Jamaica School of Art (now part of the EMCVPA) can be truly appreciated.

T he David Boxer Collection of her protégé flows across the wall outside the Historical Galleries entrance. NGJ Director/Curator from 1975 and Chief Curator from 1993 until Dr. Boxer’s retirement in 2013, both art historian with degrees from Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University and an artist in his own right, David Boxer spent 37 years of his life creating a National Gallery of which Jamaica is justifiably proud. The Guy McIntosh Collection came about when Boxer persuaded the owner of The Frame Centre in 2011 to donate some 80 paintings from the 1980s and 1990s, adding to the non-representational works including those by Milton George to increase abstract and expressionist art in the NGJ.

At one point in 2004 there was a movement to separate the NGJ from the government and Dr. Jonathan Greenland was named Executive Director to work with the Chief Curator. Greenland sought to make the gallery more inclusive, bringing in more people and artists, but by 2008 he left to join the National Heritage Trust and then became Director of the National Museum Jamaica, also downtown, another statutory organisation under the Ministry of Culture and definitely worth a visit in its own right at 10 East Street, Kingston. The post of Executive Director at NGJ was filled in 2009 by Veerle Poupeye who left in 2019. Since the NGJ never separated from the IOJ, it made no sense to have the Executive Director of the NGJ report to the Executive Director of the IOJ. Thus, the administrative post at NGJ is now called Senior Director, filled by Roxanne Bucknor. With Boxer’s departure another highly qualified academic and artist rose through the ranks of the NGJ to become Chief Curator. O’Neil Lawrence obtained his first degree in English Literature and Sociology from UWI in

2000, took a year off to work and then did another degree at the EMCVPA in Visual Communications where he honed his skills in photography. He joined the NGJ in 2008 as an Outreach Officer, then full-time in 2009 as a Curatorial Assistant, Assistant Curator, and Senior Curator until his appointment in 2014 as Chief Curator, obtaining a Masters in Cultural Studies in 2015.

The actual mandate of the NGJ “is to collect, research, document and preserve Jamaican and other Caribbean art and related material which promotes our artistic heritage for the benefit of present and future generations.” So it was of value when an American couple’s lives were changed in 1985 by a magazine article in the Jamaica Journal, “Intuitives of Harmony Hall”. The Wayne and Myrene Cox

Collection came about after this couple from Minnesota bought a home in Jamaica and with the help of the NGJ Deputy Director David Muir, began visiting self-taught artists in the interior, buying directly from them but also i nterviewing and documenting the artists with audiotape, videotapes, and photographs. Finally in 2017 Wayne Cox co-curated “Spiritual Yards” at the NGJ and donated 50 pieces, among them some by his favourite artists Everald Brown, Albert Artwell, and William “Woody” Joseph.

T he Kingston Biennial which ended December 2022 faced rescheduling because of Covid, so its title “Pressure” was quite appropriate. Highlighting 24 local and diaspora artists, O’Neil Lawrence indicated that the title referred not only to the pandemic, but to the ramifications of

Black Lives Matter, and the lack of opportunities and violence plaguing inner city communities. Above all the NGJ believes that “Art space is a safe space.” In addition to the superb permanent collection, the National Gallery Jamaica holds at least three temporary exhibits annually and supports National Gallery West in Montego Bay.

Located at 12 Ocean Boulevard, Kingston with a parking lot adjacent, NGJ is open Tuesday-Thursday 10-4:30, Friday 10-4:00 and Saturday 10-3:00. Also check out the small collection in the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank (ACIJ/JMB) in the back of the NGJ building. Nearby on the waterfront find the ROK Hotel, managed by Tapestry Collection Hilton. |