Jamaica Exhibition Catalogue by Peter Sheppard

Celebrating 50 years of Independence and Caribbean Partnership Under the patronage of the High Commissioner for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor of The University of the West Indies. The Museum, The Regional Headquarters of The University of The West Indies, Mona, Kingston 7, Jamaica June 07 to June 11, 2012

SEASON OF RENEWAL

Celebrating 50 years of Independence and Caribbean Partnership Published by the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago Corner Jamaica Blvd and St Vincent Ave, Federation Park Trinidad and Tobago Exhibition curator: Andy Jacob Curatorial committee: Clayton De Friettas, Geoffrey MacLean, Tomley Roberts Catalogue editor: Andy Jacob Authors: Geoffrey MacLean, Lawrence Waldron Ph.D Designer: Melanie Archer Photography: Abigail Hadeed, Mervyn Harris, Rodell Warner, Richard Rawlins, Gregory Scott Copyright ÂŠ 2012 ASTT Front cover image: Carlisle Chang, Bongo Dancers (1955) [detail] by kind permission of the estate of Carlisle Chang ISBN 978-976-8242-02-0 Printed and bound by SCRIP-J 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 electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago. http://artsocietytt.org/

CONTENTS MESSAgE frOM ThE PrESiDENT Of ThE rEPubliC Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO H.E. Professor George Maxwell Richards T.C., C.M.T.T., Ph.D.

MESSAgE frOM ThE TriNiDAD AND TObAgO high COMMiSSiONEr TO JAMAiCA Her Excellency Dr. Iva Camille Gloudon

rEMArkS by ThE MiNiSTEr Of PlANNiNg Senator Dr. the Honourable Bhoendradatt Tewarie

MESSAgE frOM ThE ASTT PrESiDENT Gail P. Guy

CurATOr’S NOTE Andy Jacob

PrE-COluMbiAN ArT Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO Dr. Lawrence Waldron

ArTiSTS’ wOrkS

ThE ArT Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO Geoffrey Maclean

ACkNOwlEDgEMENTS

Message

THe PresidenT of THe rePublic of Trinidad and Tobago

All over the Caribbean, there is tangible evidence of the fact that the people of this region can hold their own in the visual Arts among peoples everywhere in the world. It is a fact well known to visitors but perhaps, not as widely known and appreciated among ourselves, particularly those who do not belong to the wide community of artists. This applies in some countries more than in others. I have the sense, however, that change is taking place and the power of the Arts to transform lives is better understood, at this time in our development, in more of our respective countries, than before. It is fortuitous that both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are celebrating their fiftieth Anniversary of Independence this year and so this exhibition is taking place in the context of an important historical evolution - the Golden Jubilee of our two countries. That it is taking place on the campus of the University of the West Indies at Mona, is of significance. It was at Mona, beginning in the 1940s, that many young men and women became West Indians. They began to learn the West Indian way as students who came, from the several British colonial territories in our region, seeking tertiary education, at our fledgling University, the University College of the West Indies. We were strangers then, but the University College, helped us to see our common ground and to build relationships, beyond the myths.

His Excellency Professor George Maxwell Richards TC, CMTT, Ph.d, President of the republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

This people encounter has grown and in our journey, we have discovered our individual and collective potential, not least in The Arts which, in good measure, has been brought to fruition, although the journey and strivings for better continue. UCWI started what UWI is continuing and it is fitting that at Mona, you are viewing, in the new regional Headquarters of The University of the West Indies, the artistic expressions of persons who are equipped and gifted to place before us, in form and colour, a critical part of ourselves. every painting tells a story of some aspect of life in our spaces, a story which may not always be obvious, but one which is representative of the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective which should provoke our interest and discussion. I commend, in particular the contributing Artists for sharing their work. I commend also the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago for the vision to which this exhibition speaks, our High Commissioner in Kingston for her support, the vice Chancellor for his gracious hospitality and all those who gave of their substance and effort towards this tremendous validation, in respect of those who make Art among our West Indian people.

GeorGe MAxWell rICHArdS 4

MESSAgE

high COMMiSSiONEr fOr ThE rEPubliC Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO TO JAMAiCA

FIFTy yEARS of Independence in the life of any country is a most noteworthy milestone. We at the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago High Commission to Jamaica are especially pleased since our host country is also celebrating their golden anniversary of Independence. In light of this, we have undertaken several initiatives throughout 2012 in celebration of both of these landmarks. of special significance is this Art Exhibition which will showcase our national talent over the past fifty years. We embarked on this venture in collaboration with the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago. The University of the West Indies has just completed construction of its regional headquarters which has executive oversight for the entire regional university system. The University of the West Indies has excelled as one of the regional institutions that has successfully assisted in the education and integration of our region. That this Art Exhibition is housed in the Museum within this new regional headquarters is of vital significance and befitting of the celebration of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica in this their fiftieth year of Independence. We wish you happy viewing and we hope that this would encourage, urge, excite and become a catalyst for new Caribbean talent to emerge. Her Excellency Dr. Iva Camille Gloudon High Commissioner for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica.

MESSAGE

MINISTER OF PLANNING ANd ThE EcONOMy

Ideas are Important and we must not underestimate the power of ideas. Ideas are important not only because they have value in their own right but because ideas have a way of generating more ideas and so value is created and recreated and multiplied. Ideas are generated by the human imagination and the human imagination is the source of infinite possibilities. an important function of the human imagination is the act of creation. the creation of art is one of the most powerful expressions of the spirit of independence. the freedom to create on the canvas, with sculpting clay, with a musical instrument, on paper, with paint brush, through the camera lens, all of these media allow human beings as creators to escape the trappings of mundane life as the imagination soars, the mind leaps and the spirit is uplifted. If the creation of art is an act of freedom the experience of art through the work of the artist – is an opportunity for freedom for those who experience it. Because the imagination of the viewer, the reader or audience goes to work as it is stimulated in the encounter with art – through artistic exposure and or immersion. art, therefore, connects people, causes experiences to flow into each other and expands mind space.

Senator Dr. Bhoendradatt Tewarie, minister of planning and the economy Chairman, 50th anniversary of Independence Interministerial Committee

It is fitting that the art society of trinidad and tobago is taking this step to make the experience of this level of freedom possible through this at the art exhibition to display the work of the masters of trinidad and tobago at the cusp of trinidad and tobago’s 50th anniversary of independence. It is also quite fitting that our Jamaican counterparts, who are also celebrating their Golden Jubilee, will experience what some of our best artists have produced. What a wonderful opportunity for sharing and what a beautiful thing to share! I am honored to support our artists and creators and the art society of trinidad and tobago whose leadership has organized this exhibition. I am elated that the High Commission for the republic of trinidad and tobago in Kingston, Jamaica is also supporting not only this venture but has also planned a calendar of events celebrating not only trinidad and tobago’s 50th anniversary of Independence but which also recognises the Golden Jubilee of Jamaica as an independent nation state. In trinidad and tobago, the 50th anniversary Inter-ministerial Committee, of which I am the Chair, is celebrating these five decades with art and culture taking the leadership role. a multicultural exposition held at the national academy for the performing arts in port of spain, featuring some of trinidad and tobago’s best musicians and performers has already begun and this is free to the public; a lecture series involving the master elders of trinidad and tobago’s art forms which include music, fine art, theatre, television, humour and mas is underway; the trinidad and tobago steelpan Festival (steelfestt 2012) is also in progress featuring some trinidad and tobago’s world class steel orchestras playing in tandem with

globally renowned percussionist groups from China, Cuba, India and Brazil. This also includes an Inaugural Conference on the Steelpan within the theme “Pan Globalisation: Progress and Possibilities” which I opened on May 6, 2012 and the Bocas literary Festival which brought writers from across the world including Mervyn Morris from Jamaica. These are but some of the numerous initiatives undertaken by the Government of the republic of Trinidad and Tobago some through Ministries, others through partnerships like this one with the Trinidad and Tobago Art Society. of course, in a wonderfully diverse country such as Trinidad and Tobago, multiculturalism and tapping our variety drive everything. In addition to contributing to the observance of our Golden Jubilee, these activities will contribute to the development of the creative industries not only for the sake of art and endeavour, but also to support creativity and entrepreneurship, to support human imagination and to create a force that will diversify the economic canvas of Trinidad and Tobago. I offer sincere congratulations to the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago. I applaud the High Commission for the republic of Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica under the distinguished leadership of High Commissioner Her excellency dr. Iva Gloudon for supporting this initiative and for making it happen. I wish our brothers and sisters in Jamaica the best for their 50th Anniversary of Independence and I wish all nationals within and outside of Trinidad and Tobago happy memories, Happy Independence and a bright and prosperous future. Continue to move together, create together, celebrate together and move Trinidad and Tobago towards the next 50 years and beyond with ‘Pride in our liberty’. And may Caribbean people always summon the will to support each other to carve out spaces of influence in the world.

MESSAgE

PrESiDENT Of ThE ASTT

THE Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago [ASTT], a Voluntary Non-Governmental organization for the Visual Arts in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is celebrating its sixty-ninth year of continuous operations. The ASTT has pre-dated many national developments such as Internal Self Government, Independence and Republicanism in Trinidad and Tobago. Nevertheless, our pride in our own achievements takes second place, at this juncture, to our pride and esteemed pleasure in celebrating with all nationals of the Republic, fifty years of Independence. In collaborating with the Trinidad and Tobago High Commission in Kingston, Jamaica on this exhibition of the work of Visual Artists from Trinidad and Tobago, we are mindful of the fact that our hosts, the Government and People of Jamaica are also celebrating this golden anniversary and we salute you.

Gail P. Guy President of The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago

We have worked very diligently to produce a worthy display that provokes, excites and provides considerable pleasure for those who visit this exhibition. In so doing, we must acknowledge the support and contribution of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, the corporate sector and our visual artists to the success of this venture. We are honoured to be the first exhibition in this impressive and brand new building. The collaboration between the High Commissioner for Trinidad and Tobago and the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies has also contributed considerably to the success of this venture. This is yet another excellent example of how much more we can achieve when we partner on ventures. We could not have done this alone. The Board of Directors and the membership of the ASTT are exceedingly proud of this exhibition and recommend it to you for your enjoyment and reflection.

CurATOr’S NOTE IT HAS been an honour for me to assemble and present this historic exhibition of the art of Trinidad and Tobago in our sister Caribbean nation of Jamaica. It is historic not only because it marks the 50th anniversary of Independence for both nations but also because these events have been rare occurrences in our history since that independence. Indeed it is perhaps the first time in the post –colonial era that an exhibition of this magnitude has been attempted and the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, the High Commission for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica and the University of the West Indies deserve our heartiest congratulations for their vision.

Andy Jacob Curator Second Vice President Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago

The curatorial mandate for this show sought to mark the 50th anniversary of Trinidad and Tobago’s independence with an art exhibition that would highlight the major artists of the country, in particular those who are currently active, in order to share with the Jamaican public the richness and variety of the art scene in Trinidad and Tobago. It was also important to establish some historical context for the exhibition by tracing the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s art over the years, explaining in a sense how the present art environment would have evolved. This was accomplished by highlighting the work of several key figures who would have influenced the development of Trinidad and Tobago’s art in far reaching ways. To this end, several rare and valuable works have been presented. A brief yet comprehensive history of art in Trinidad and Tobago by art expert, Geoffrey MacLean, and an original essay by Dr Lawrence Waldron on the Pre-Columbian art of the twin island state and the Eastern Caribbean serve to flesh out the historical narrative. There was also a third mandate, more personal than official if you will, and that was to stimulate artists and stakeholders to make this the first of a regular series of exhibition exchanges between our two great Caribbean nations that would mark in the most tangible way our commitment to regionalism and the deep bonds of respect long forged between us. If this were to happen as a result of this exhibition, if every two years a major show of Jamaican art went to Trinidad and Tobago or a major Trinidadian or Tobagonian artist would exhibit in Jamaica, the time and effort spent in the creation of this exhibition would have been rewarded a thousand-fold.

PrE-COluMbiAN ArT Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO

Dr Lawrence Waldron

EARLIEST VISuAL CuLTuRE IN TRINIDAD, TOBAGO AND THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN The Caribbean has been inhabited for more than 8,000 years. one of the oldest known human habitation sites in all the Antilles is in southern Trinidad, at Banwari Trace where ancient skeletal remains and food refuse have been excavated by archaeologists.1 However, it is from many millennia thereafter that we see anything that we might consider “art”—objects with evident expressive content, seemingly made to be visually stimulating in some way. Art production in Trinidad can be traced back some 2,500 years, and in Tobago, at least back to the turn of the Common Era. This is not to say that visual culture was not part of PreColumbian life before that but any earlier art has not survived to this day. Also, the fifth century BCE marks the arrival in these islands of an intensive art-making culture from South America known as the Saladoid. These were likely an early group of Arawaks2 and their settlement would seem to be the beginning of Trinidad and Tobago art history. yet, even when we guess their ethno-linguistic identity and note the time of their cultural ascendance, we are still hard pressed to fill in key parts of their history. In reconstructing Amerindian history, and art history, archaeological excavations give us important clues as to who the ancient Antilleans were culturally, politically, and aesthetically. Linguistic studies that link the ancient Antilleans through common language and terms to adjacent mainland peoples still living, especially the mainland Arawaks also shed light on these early art-makers. Ethnographic analogies between living Amerindian cultures and the ancient Antilleans can be quite helpful as well, if used with the usual caveats in mind regarding the cultural shifts that may have occurred over time and space. The ancient people of the Caribbean were not even identical with their contemporaneous relatives on the mainland, so we have to allow for differences with the related traditional Amerindian cultures of today. Still, we can learn much by comparing today’s living Amerindian

art traditions in South America with the vestiges of the ancient Antilleans. And to complete our triangulation, we might also consult the few living descendants of the ancient Antilleans who live among us. Rumours of the extinction of the Amerindians in the Caribbean are greatly exaggerated. The Kalinagos of Dominica and St. Vincent, Taínos of the Greater Antilles, and Caribs and Waraos of Trinidad are often shocked to find out that they no longer exist! Ample archaeological evidence indicates that around the sixth or fifth century BCE, a ceramic-making culture from north-eastern Venezuela and the Guianas began to arrive in the Antilles. The reasons for their departure from the mainland remain mysterious. They may have been explorers, exiles, founders of a new religion, or all of these. From their arrival first in Trinidad, people of the Saladoid ceramic culture selectively settled islands from there to Hispaniola within a millennium, eventually settling into most of the islands in between.3 As expert canoeists, the Pre-Columbian people of the Eastern Caribbean and eastern Greater Antilles crossed between islands a lot more easily than we do today, so that a coastal village on one island might have had closer allies on another island than on the other side of their own. In this way, Trinidad and Tobago were definitely thought of as islands but they might not have been conceived of as politically separate from, say, Grenada or Carriacou. The Saladoid Caribbean was characterized by maritime interaction spheres, discernible even in artistic styles, encompassing several islands at a time. In the Pre-Columbian Antilles, the sea often united people rather than divided them. The Saladoid cultures that developed in the islands after the migration from South America have left us with a greater amount of visual culture than any subsequent Amerindian group in the eastern islands. The Saladoid era, from roughly the fifth century BCE to the seventh century of the Common Era, was a watershed period in Pre-Columbian Caribbean art. During this period thousands of ceramic vessels, shell and stone adornments, and perhaps hundreds of wood sculptures

Opposite page figure 1 Duck-shaped vessel with four-legged zoomorph, Mayaro, Trinidad, Saladoid. Ceramic, 11 cm. longer diameter. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. Photograph by author.

figure 2 Trigonal zemi, Mt. Irvine, Tobago, Saladoid. Stone, 5 cm. width. Tobago Museum, Tobago. Photograph by author.

figure 3 White-on-red bottle with incised designs and modelled (turtle flipper) tabs, Mayaro, Trinidad. Saladoid. Ceramic with white and red slip, 14 cm. diameter. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. Photograph by author.

were made in Trinidad, Tobago and other islands, many of them with figural and abstract adornments carrying deep cultural significance. We can infer the importance of these symbols from the similar motifs found among related groups of people in South America who can attest to their traditional symbolism; from Conquestera and even today’s oral accounts of Amerindian lore and cosmology that, again, confirm the importance of certain symbols; and from the ritual contexts in which these kinds of artefacts have been found, such as graves and sacred caves (figure 1). Most of the objects that we might appreciate as art, from some two millennia ago, are made of resilient materials such as ceramic, shell, and stone. Archaeologists have also recovered rare objects in wood but we can only guess what the other arts, such as textiles, basketry, featherwork, and body art might have looked like and how important they might have been. The moisture and chemical composition of Caribbean soils, and the incessant activities of invertebrates have left us with only a small part of a range of ancient artforms. STylE Given its mainland origins, ancient Antillean art could be surprising in its occasional departures from mainland traditions. Quite a lot of cultural evolution took place in the Caribbean once people had settled in there. While people in Trinidad had always maintained close relations with their mainland counterparts in nearby Venezuela and Guyana, Tobago and the other islands

of the Caribbean developed into culturally distinct entities, often with unique art styles. They even produced unique classes of artefacts not found on the mainland. The trigonal icons (zemis), for which the fourteenth century Taíno artists of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola are famous among Pre-Columbian scholars, had smaller, simpler precursors in the eastern islands from Tobago to Antigua (figure 2). The Taíno, a later Arawak group in the more northern islands, were partially descended from Saladoid Antilleans.4 The triangular or conical zemis, whose Arawak name seems to be the root of the Trin-bagonian word “zepie” (meaning ‘secret charm, spell, or power’) might represent the silhouette of ‘the island’ as glanced on the horizon upon approach by canoe. But while their use in propitiatory rituals to make the crops grow was noted by Conquest era Spaniards,5 their exact meaning remains mysterious. As a trade hub Trinidad seems to have made itself strongly felt in the arts and economics throughout the Caribbean islands, both of which are evidenced in the ceramic record. The style of painted and modelled adornments on early Caribbean pottery, from Venezuela to Puerto Rico, is called “Cedrosan Saladoid.” This pottery is named after the early, representative ‘typesite’ of Saladero on Venezuela’s Lower orinoco, and the Cedros type-site on the south-western coast of Trinidad where archaeologists first found diagnostic examples of an important modification to the main Saladoid style. Before the Cedrosan modification, Saladoid pottery was characterized by bold and clever painted designs in white and red (figure 3). These designs had been

developed by Venezuelan potters and, over a period spanning almost two millennia before the Common Era, had decorated ceremonial vessels at important sites along the Middle and Lower orinoco River. They show a deep interest in figure-ground reversals wherein it is difficult to decipher whether the white slip-paint1 lines and motifs atop the reddish ceramic are the positive or negative (i.e. background) space; the complementarities equal sized areas of white and red; and a kind of staggered symmetry whereby a motif painted on one side of a vessel is repeated on the other side but somehow modified, such as pointed or curling in the opposite direction, possessing some internal reversal or numerical difference. By the time of expansion into the islands, this design scheme was a fine art, and examples of this kind of painted pottery can be found from the Middle orinoco to The Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (figure 4). Many of the most beautifully painted examples hail from Caribbean islands such as Antigua rather than the orinoco homeland, and this style seems to have persisted throughout the Saladoid sphere at least halfway into the first millennium CE. Slip paints were made by watering down clay to a soupy consistency and coloured with mineral and other pigments, then painted on after the vessel was fired.

In the early centuries of the Common Era, this “whiteon-red” Saladoid decorative program was joined by a style that incorporated sculpted adornments into the painting scheme. Modelled adornments were more typical of an unpainted but very sculptural pottery tradition called the Barrancoid, which often appeared alongside the painted Saladoid styles on the orinoco. When the Barrancoid modelled and Saladoid painted adornments finally combined, it was in the Lower orinoco, and in southern Trinidad at settlements in Cedros and Erin along the southwest coast of the island. The new “Cedrosan Saladoid” was almost as widespread throughout the Caribbean as the earlier, purely painted, style, and it appeared in much greater numbers at some sites. Some truly impressive and innovative examples of this pottery have been found in Trinidad, Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Martinique and Guadeloupe (figure 5). But fine examples can be found as far north as the important PreColumbian sites on the island of Vieques off the east coast of Puerto Rico. In the Cedrosan Saladoid style of Trinidad and Tobago, there was a strong adhesion to the Saladoid use of only red and white, whereas in, say, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, other colours could be used. In most islands, coloured slips were used to accentuate the lines, planes, and volumes of the modelled details. This complementary use of painting and sculpture on vessels signalled a mature synthesis of what had been

figure 4 Everted white-on-red bowl with superficially similar but internally varied cartouches on opposite sides of the vessel (note the different positions of the horizontal tripleline motifs inside the cartouches), unknown site, St. Croix, Saladoid. Ceramic, with red and white slips, 35.5 cm. diameter. yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Anthropology Department, New Haven, Connecticut. Photographs by author. figure 5 Effigy pot and stopper with modelled, incised and polychrome adornments, Erin, Trinidad, Cedrosan Saladoid. Ceramic with coloured slips, 19 cm. diameter. National Museum and Art Gallery, Portof-Spain, Trinidad. Photograph by author.

figure 6 (a) trigonal/conical shell zemi with incised flexed frog motif on bottom register, unknown site, Montserrat, Saladoid, 5 cm. diameter (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.); (b) incised bowl with circular, flexed-frog labyrinth motif on underside, Land’s End, Barbados, Saladoid, ceramic, approximately 17.8 cm. diameter (Barbados Museum, Barbados); (c) incised and drilled frog labyrinth motif, unknown site, St. Kitts, Saladoid, shell, 9 cm. width (yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Anthropology Department, New Haven, Connecticut). Photographs by author.

two discreet and highly developed pottery traditions on the Middle and Lower orinoco in previous centuries. Some important inferences can be made from the use of symmetry and figure ground-reversals in Saladoid pottery. Symbolic motifs that equal but oppose each other on the vessel surface imply categorical oppositions as between natural or spiritual forces, genders, families, clans or other polities. Mythical and cosmological themes also manifest in the quadripartite motifs appearing on Eastern Caribbean Saladoid and Greater Antillean Taíno pottery. Very often painted or modelled and painted motifs appear in twos, fours or two sets of two. As discussed below, the number four was charged with multiple orders of symbolism in Antillean thought. ICONOGRAPHy Among the symbols appearing on early ceramics and amulets in Trinidad and Tobago certain animals (i.e., zoomorphs] and birds (i.e., aviforms) are most common. Human representations (i.e., anthropomorphs) appear with great regularity as well, often wearing special headgear or ear ornaments. Most modelled representations take the form of “adornos” (i.e., modelled adornments). They appear on the handles of vessels, right where the vessel’s owner would grasp it to access or agitate its contents, thereby marking the nexus between the vessel’s user, the contents of the vessel, and the symbolic cache represented by the animal, bird or anthropomorphic symbol on the adorno. Some of the most obviously symbolic representations

are transformational images in which people take on the aspects of other animals or vice versa or have secondary—usually zoomorphic—characters emerging out of their heads. These emergent secondary figures have been identified by archaeologists such as Peter Harris and Arie Boomert as “alter egos.”6 They might have represented the zoic spirit guides of religious leaders and ritual specialists (i.e., shamans). Rituals, and religiously charged narratives involving sacred animals as tutelary spirits, clan emblems, zoomorphised members of other ethnicities, and spirit guides have enjoyed a prominent place in the world view of animist cultures throughout the Americas. In cultures from the Andes to the Amazon most things have living energies, and every act might have significance reflecting upon and witnessed by revered, even deified ancestors.7 Most common among the animal symbols on Trinidad and Tobago pottery and other arts were turtles and frogs. However, in Trinidad, a large number of mammals native to that island and the mainland are also represented, especially anteaters, but also armadillos, opossums, dogs, bats, and monkeys. Bird symbols also feature prominently in the iconography of Trinidad and Tobago, especially vultures and parrots but remarkably, while owls are important symbols in the iconography of ceramics in Trinidad, Tobago and indeed most of the islands of the Caribbean, they do not seem to have been of any importance to the ceramicists in Saladoid Venezuela. This night bird, and its nightjar and oilbird doppelgangers seem to have been regarded as messengers from the afterlife, carrying not only visions of pending mortality, like our vestigial Amerindian belief

so their appearance in iconography there may be evidence of (1) human introductions of some of these species into those other islands; (2) an indication of a strong cultural connection with Trinidad; (3) indication of a lingering connection with the South American mainland; or (4) some or all of these possibilities.

in the “jumbie bird,” but also good portents such as the birth of babies.8 However, like the Venezuelan Saladoid potters, ceramicists in Trinidad, Tobago and only a few other islands, such as Carriacou chose to represent the heads of crocodilians (i.e., caimans) on their vessels. Unfortunately, when ancient pots fell and shattered often all that survived were the modelled handles with adornos. So Caribbean museums abound in expertly sculpted handles and adornos, now detached from their original vessels. Since most of the animal and bird species appearing in ceramics, amulets and other arts were endemic to Trinidad, their presence in the zoomorphic iconography of this island is not surprising. But species like caimans, the oilbird, monkeys, armadillos, opossums and vultures are not endemic to most of the Saladoid islands (i.e., the Eastern Caribbean and Puerto Rico),

In a popular emblem that appears across some 2,000 years of Pre-Columbian Caribbean visual culture, from Trinidad to Cuba, a stylized frog is seen from above with flexed legs. In many of the islands beyond Trinidad and Tobago, its body makes a labyrinth of scrolling lines that divide the emblem into four parts. This frog labyrinth appears not only on Pre-Columbian pottery but on shell and stone arts as well (figure 6). However frog imagery from Trinidad and Tobago retains a higher degree of naturalism, like their Venezuelan counterparts, and unlike those found from Saladoid St. Vincent and Barbados to the Taíno Greater Antilles (figure 7). Frogs, particularly piping frogs, were important symbols of fertility. Their night song signalled the true beginning of the rainy season, the time to plant and the time in which women often got pregnant, due to the increased leisure time right after planting was complete. The flexed position of the frog was also visually reminiscent of the squatting position women likely took to give birth. The Taíno mother goddess Atabey was often depicted in the Greater Antilles with frog-like limbs, in a flexed position (figure 8).

figure 7 Figure 7. (a) conch shell frog amulet, St. Joseph, Trinidad, Saladoid, 1.5 cm. height; (b) vessel fragment with modelled frog, Mt. Irvine, Tobago, Saladoid, ceramic, approximately. 7.6 cm. height (Tobago Museum, Tobago). Photographs by author. figure 8 Figure 8. Petroglyph of fertility deity Atabey (centre) in flexed frog pose on a monolith at the Caguana batey (ballcourt), Puerto Rico, Taíno, approx. 1 m. height. Photograph by author.

Turtles were another maternal symbol, appearing as an emblem on stone and shell amulets in Tobago and most islands north of it; on the pottery of most islands from Trinidad to Cuba; and in the cave art of many islands. The turtle’s body was treated much like that of 15

figure 9 (a) turtle effigy pot stand, Guayaguayare, Trinidad, late Cedrosan Saladoid, approx. 20 cm. diameter (PointeĂ -Pierre Wildfowl Trust: Peter Harris Collection, Trinidad); (b) turtle bowl with modelled back-swept flippers on rim (and broken head), Saladero, Venezuela, Saladoid, approx. 28 cm. wider diameter (yale Peabody Museum of Natural History Anthropology Department, New Haven, Connecticut). Photographs by author. figure 10 Vessel with bat face adorno recovered from burial at Atagual, Trinidad, Saladoid, approx. 25 cm. diameter. Pointe-Ă -Pierre Wildfowl Trust: Peter Harris Collection, Trinidad. Photograph by author.

12a

12b

figure 11 Bowl with tar residue, Mayaro, Trinidad, Saladoid. Ceramic, 25.5 cm. diameter. Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C. Photograph by author.

the frog—in aerial view with a great measure of stylization, and sometimes, outright abstraction. But its round body with four projecting legs was usually distinguishable from frog emblems by the backward sweep of its flippers, a tail, and occasional a raised head (compare figures 6, 7 and 9). Taíno lore confirms that the sea turtle was symbolically an ancestral mother from whom the Antillean people descended, when Turtle Woman became the wife of four primordial brothers, including the defiant folk hero Deminán Caracaracol. The birth of baby turtles from the beach sand and their mass exodus to the sea, echoing the exodus (or exile) to the Caribbean islands that commenced in the fifth century BCE, was perhaps one of the inspirations for choosing the sea turtle as symbolic mother of the Antilleans. Night flying creatures such as bats and owls seem to have been symbols of, and messengers from, the afterlife for the ancient Antilleans. Taíno mythology accords this afterlife symbolism to bats at least, seeing leafnosed fruit bats as the returned souls of the dead come at night to partake of the sweetness of life, particularly its succulent fruits such as ripened guavas.9 Long before the powerful Taíno chiefdoms and kingdoms of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico used bat symbols as ancestral and shamanic emblems, people in Trinidad, Tobago and the southern Lesser Antilles were glorifying the same leaf-nosed fruit bats in their ceramics arts, and perhaps for the same reason (figure 10). Beside frogs, turtles, bats, and owls, water birds such as pelicans and herons were also quite common in the modelled and painted iconography on ceramics. As the largest predatory birds of the maritime Caribbean pelicans were probably a chief masculine symbol, especially given their tendency to fly in a straight line in groups of four or more, close to the water’s surface, their wings beating in militaristic unison like the disciplined paddling of warriors in a canoe. There is evidence in South American mythology, and Taíno rock art and cosmology suggesting that herons, ibises and other long-beaked stilt-legged birds were symbols of the lightning and thunder in storms,10 but the appearance of these would-be Caribbean “thunderbirds” on ceramics and other artefacts remains enigmatic. The parrots appearing on vessels would appear to be solar symbols as they often are in South America,11 the sun’s role in the agricultural cycle being a natural partner of the rain represented by frogs. As for the anteaters, armadillos, opossums, dogs, and vultures space constraints make it impossible

to explore their possible symbolism here. It is worth pointing out that only some of the birds referenced in Saladoid and later iconography are day creatures and that most of the other animal species represented are active at twilight or night time, and that for all the vibrant colour of the Caribbean, the most common symbolic creatures are the dark-coloured ones. This speaks to the mystery religions of the ancient Antilleans, and their concerns with the spirit realm, which only became visible at night (or in the murky watery depths) where the veil of blinding sunlight was lifted and mundane powers of sight were replaced by shamanic vision.12 Trinidad’s intellectual impact on Pre-Columbian Caribbean ceramics, in the form of the Cedrosan Saladoid style, is perhaps equalled by that island’s presence in inter-island commerce. The black paint on many first millennium CE ceramics throughout the Eastern Caribbean is actually tar from the Pitch Lake (figure 11). A small sculpture found in Montserrat is also carved from hardened bitumous material from Pitch Lake, indicating that pitch was used not only to paint vessels, and probably to caulk canoes, but was also used as a sculpture material. The tiny anthropomorphic head is carved in a sub-style of the Cedrosan Saladoid known as the Palo Seco phase, characterized by heavy brow ridges, under which are pendant eyes and encircled, pursed mouths (figure 12). This one little object suggests cultural and mercantile commerce between the Trinidadian sites of Pitch Lake, Cedros, Palo Seco among others, and the far-away island of Montserrat. If we consider that Montserrat is highly volcanic, and Trinidad is not, the commodities Trinidadian Amerindians might have sought in exchanges with Montserratian trade partners were semi precious stones for jewellery making or perhaps pumice for tempering pottery and smoothening wood sculptures and canoes.

figure 12 (a) rattling adorno, unknown site, Guadeloupe, Saladoid, ceramic with coloured slips and pitch, 4 cm. height (Musée Edgar Clerc, Guadeloupe); (b) anthropomorphic sculpture, unknown site, Montserrat, Saladoid (Palo Seco phase), hardened pitch, 2 cm. height (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.). Photographs by author.

The depiction of people in the Pre-Columbian art of Trinidad and Tobago is highly symbolic in that it is often combined with the aforementioned symbolically charged animal symbols. The facial expressions on anthropomorphic images like the Palo Seco ‘pitch man’ are often lacking, and difficult to interpret when they do appear. The slit-like eyes that appear on many faces do not necessarily represent closed eyes. Mouths stretched wide or bearing teeth may be the grimaces of inebriated shamans as they suffer the pangs and nausea of the hallucinogens they administer to themselves in ritual discourse with the noumenon. An interesting 17

The Caribbean Amerindians bore the full and initial brunt of the Conquest, its cruelty, greed, and contagions. They were the first to be misnamed “Indians” by the errant Spanish mariners searching for a route to the East Indies, and they were the first American peoples to grapple with the knowledge that there was a whole world beyond that eastern horizon. But they were also the first to instruct Spaniards in key terms, concepts, foods and technologies of the Americas.

figure 13 (a) bottle spout depicting shaman (hands propping up the chin are broken off) with avian alter ego emerging from forehead, Lagon Doux, Trinidad, Cedrosan Saladoid (Palo Seco phase), ceramic with white and red slip, 9.5 cm. height (Tobago Museum, Tobago); (b) anthropomorphic adorno on bowl, Mayaro, Trinidad, Saladoid, ceramic with red slip, 4 cm. tall (adorno only) (Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.). Photographs by author.

convention emerged in the Cedrosan Saladoid that involved one figure emerging out of the head of another. In anthropomorphic representations, the secondary, smaller figure is usually a zoomorph of some kind, oftentimes a bird (figure 13). These secondary ‘alter ego’ figures seem to push through the identity of the primary anthropomorph as he/she takes flight to the spirit realm. LEGACy When Spaniards first arrived in Trinidad and Tobago in 1498, these islands were already a diverse cultural interaction zone, boasting over ten distinct Amerindian groups, including the Warao, Aruaca, Igneri, Shebaio (Suppoya), Nepoio (Nepuyo), Carina (Kalina), Carinepagoto, and yao, among others.13 These groups operated in various modes of coexistence within the islands and traded throughout the Eastern Caribbean and beyond. Some had arrived in Trinidad and the other eastern islands only centuries earlier. others, like the Warao had already lived in Trinidad for millennia. At the time of the Conquest, as busy as Trinidad and Tobago seem to have been, the golden age of adorned ceramics had long passed and the peoples of these islands seem to have been concentrating on more utilitarian ceramic wares, and perhaps more ephemeral arts. After the Saladoid, major art production in pottery, stone and shell seems to have diminished considerably and eventually shifted to the Greater Antilles. For all we know, Lesser Antillean art-making may have continued in materials considered more precious but also less permanent than pottery, such as feather-work.

Here on the leeward side of the catastrophe that befell them in the 1490s and thereafter, and with only a few written accounts of their culture from the Conquest and early colonial era, we might be inclined towards the common sentiment that the period before Columbus is so much opaque “pre-history.” But as we have seen, there are many sources from which we can gain a glimpse of the Pre-Columbian Antilleans, not least of which is their visual culture. In fact we are still living with Pre-Columbian art, language and culture today—not only in the countless place names from Caroni to Nariva, Guayaguayare to Chacachacare, not only in the ‘bush medicines’ of our West Indian apothecary (for if our “old World” ancestors had never seen, say, a soursop until the fifteenth century, how could they know the medicinal properties of its leaves?); but also in our ajoupa-style architecture, which lifts the house off the ground to allow cooling air underneath (a Carib architectural contribution); the chac-chac (i.e., maraca) in our music; the numberless Native recipes in our culinary arts; the numerous characters in our folklore (not just the jumbie bird but Mama D’Leau and douens, with their backward feet, all have roots in Amerindian mythology); and no small part of the flamboyance in our feathered mas at Carnival. With only a few sweeping, perfunctory paragraphs on the Amerindians in our schoolbooks we have often been misled into believing that these creative, clever forbears have left us with relatively little. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

SOuRCES

NOTES

Bercht, Fatima, ed. Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean. New york: El Museo del Barrio/Monacelli Press, 1997. Boomert, Arie. Trinidad, Tobago and the Lower orinoco Interaction Sphere: An Archaeological/ Ethnohistorical Study. Alkmaar, Netherlands: Cairi Publications, 2000. García Arévalo, Manuel A. “The Bat and the owl: Nocturnal Images of Death.” In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Bercht, 112-123. New york: El Museo del Barrio/ Monacelli Press, 1997. Harris, Peter o’Brien. “Nabarima: A Warao Sacred Place in South Trinidad.” In Proceedings of the xxI Congress of the International Association for Caribbean Archaeology, 486-499. Port-of-Spain, Trinidad: International Association for Caribbean Archaeology, 2005. Heckenberger, Michael J. “Rethinking the Arawakan Diaspora: Hierarchy, Regionality and the Amazonian Formative.” In Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area, edited by Jonathan D. Hill, and Fernando Santos-Granero, 99-122. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Hill, Jonathan D., and Fernando Santos-Granero, eds. Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Translated by Anthony Pagden. New york: Penguin Classics, 1999. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Raw and the Cooked. Translated by John Weightman and Doreen Weightman. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. Lévi-Strauss, Claude. From Honey to Ashes. Translated by John Weightman and Doreen Weightman. New york: Harper and Row, 1973. McGinnis, Shirley. “Zemi Three-Pointer Stones.” In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Bercht, 92-105. New york: El Museo del Barrio/Monacelli Press, 1997. Pané, Ramón. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Edited by José Juan Arrom and translated by Susan Griswold. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. Ralegh, Sir Walter. The Discovery of Guiana: And Related Documents. Edited by Benjamin Schmidt. 1595. Reprint, Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008. Roth, Walter E. “An Inquiry into the Animism and Folk-Lore of the Guiana Indians.” In Thirtieth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1908-1909, 103-386. Washington D.C.: Bureau of American Ethnology, 1915. Rouse, Irving. The Taínos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: yale, 1992. Siegel, Peter. “Ancestor Worship and Cosmology Among the Taíno.” In Taíno: Pre-Columbian Art and Culture from the Caribbean, edited by Fatima Bercht. New york: El Museo del Barrio/Monacelli Press, 1997. Waldron, Lawrence. “Like Turtles, Islands Float Away: Emergent Distinctions in the Zoomorphic Iconography of Saladoid Ceramics of the Lesser Antilles, 250 BCE to 650 CE.” Ph.D. diss., City University of New york, Graduate School and University Center, New york, 2010. Wilson, Samuel M. The Archaeology of the Caribbean. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Zucchi, Alberta. “A New Model of the Northern Arawakan Expansion.” In Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area, edited by Jonathan D. Hill and Fernando Santos-Granero, 201-222. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Wilson 39-43. Heckenberger 102-109; Rouse 37-42; Wilson 62. Wilson 67-88. Rouse 37; Wilson 104-105. McGinnis 92-105. Boomert 164, 463-464. See Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked and From Honey to Ashes. Roth 274. Pané, 18; García Arévalo, 112. Waldron 213-216. Ibid 230-231. Siegel 106-111. Ralegh 47.

ArTiSTS’ wOrkS 36

AL ALEXANDER Nsa (2010) oil on canvas, 36 x 36 inches

TESSA ALEXANDER Jouvert Mornin’ (2010) Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 inches

DEAN ARLEN Buy One, Get One Free (2010) Mixed Media 61 x 81 inches

SyBIL ATTECk Seated Lady (c. 1950) oil on canvas, 36 x 26 inches

EMHEyO BAHABBA Monument II (2009) Mixed Media, 53 x 68 x 10 inches Well Said (2011) Mixed Media, 30 x 10 x 10 inches Well Spoken (2011) Mixed Media, 30 x 10 x 10 inches

SARAH BuRROWS Gauntlet (2012) Graphite on paper 21 x 21 inches

CARLISLE CHANG Bongo Dancers (1955) oil on canvas, 36 x 28 inches

LEROy CLARkE An Ancient Sun (2002) oil on paper, 25 x 37 inches Eye keeper of Dreams (2002) oil on paper, 69 x 105 inches We Are With you Always (2002) oil on paper, 25 x 37 inches

CHRISTOPHER COZIER Made in China (2010) Installation, Dimensions variable Relic (from Conversations With a Shirt Jac) (1992); Shirt Jac, hanger; 26 x 22 inches

kENWyN CRICHLOW Memory: A Concept of Fire (2007-10) oil on canvas, 60 x 54 inches Stardust Watered by Rain (2011) oil on canvas, 54 x 72 inches

PAT BISHOP yes We Can . . . We Had Better (2009) Mixed Media, 24 x 18 inches ISAIAH BOODHOO The Veiled Face of Maria Concepción (1982) oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches

44 41

EDWARD BOWEN Electric Palm (2012) Mixed Media, 33 x 23 inches The Wizard’s House (2012) Mixed Media, 48 x 36 inches

PAT FARRELL-FREDERICk It Does Not Rain . . . (2011) Fabric collage, 19 x 19 inches MARLON GRIFFITH Powder Box (Schoolgirl series) (2008) 3 digital photographs, Dimensions variable SHEVI HADAWAy The Hunter (2007) Acrylic, 21 x 17 inches

ABIGAIL HADEED Mighty Shadow (1994) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned, 12 x 34 inches Exodus (1992) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned 32 x 12 inches Spiritual Mother, Panyard (1992) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned 10 x 32 inches

CARLISLE HARRIS Sacred Pulse (2010) Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 50 inches To See the Light (2010) Acrylic on canvas, 51 x 50 inches

JACkIE HINkSON The Averted Head (2008) Cedar, 54 x 18 inches Lambeau Descent (2004) Watercolour, 10 x 14 inches Overgrowth (2012) Watercolour, 12 x 16 inches Savannah Space (1985) Watercolour, 20 x 26 inches

BOSCOE HOLDER Beverly (2004) oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches

MICHELLE ISAVA Morena Memory (2009) Video, Dimensions variable

HABIB JAHOOR Antarctica (2011) Samaan, 30 x 12 inches Anahata (2011) Teak, 22 x 12 inches

TRACEy JOHNSON Graffiti is Lots of Funk (2011) oil on canvas, 12 x 17 inches Guru Plaster Dome (1985) oil on canvas, 17 x 12 inches Hello Mr Tikoloche (2011) oil on canvas, 17 x 12 inches It’s Alright to Relaxing (2011) oil on canvas, 12 x 17 inches MAkEMBA kuNLE Whe-Whe Chart (1990) Mixed Media, 60 x 24 inches CHE LOVELACE Tiled (2011) oil on Board, 50 x 60 inches Truck (2011) oil on Board, 90 x 60 inches SHASTRI MAHARAJ untitled (2008) Acrylic on canvas, 13 x 25 inches Portrait (2011) Acrylic on canvas, 22 x 33 inches WENDELL MCSHINE Prosper (2008) Installation, Dimensions variable

WILCOX MORRIS The Gate keeper (2006) oil on canvas with mixed media, 20 x 16 inches Surrender (2006) Acrylic on canvas, 33 x 25 inches

WENDy NANAN The Bounce (2011) Papier Maché, 28 x 34 x 8 inches Queen Head (2011) Papier Maché, 16 x 16 x 16 inches

BuNTy O’CONNOR Messenger (2012) Ceramic, 8 x 10 inches

SHALINI SEEREERAM The key (2012) Mixed media, 14 x 10 inches

LISA O’CONNOR Going to the Reef, Store Bay (2011) oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

ANNA SERRAO Passing Cloud (1982) Assemblage, 24 x 12 x 12 inches

IRENEE SHAW Ingestion and Expulsion (2004) Acrylic on paper, 96 x 30 inches (two panels)

PETER SHEPPARD Stand pipe (2009) Acrylic on canvas, 2 x 2 inches Standing (2011) Acrylic on canvas, 3 x 4 inches Washing (2011) Acrylic on canvas, 2 x 2 inches

Queen Head (2011) Papier Maché, 17 x 10 x 12 inches 58

STEVE OuDITT BLuR BS (2006) oil pastel on paper, 87 x 38 inches

SHAWN PETERS A Diamond in the Dust (2003) Mahogany, 9 x 12 inches

GARVIN PIERRE untitled (2012) Acrylic on wood, 12 x 10 inches

RICHARD RAWLINS Chinese Workers (2012) Installation, 96 x 36 x 36 inches

kEITH SWANSTON Nexus (2010) Wood, 17 x 9 inches

RODELL WARNER Worker Portrait (2009) Digital photograph, 36 x 24 inches

ADAM WILLIAMS untitled (2010) Ceramic, 11 x 7 inches Egg (2010) Ceramic, 12 x 8 inches

RACHEL ROCHFORD Bakery Attendant, La Romain (2008) Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16 inches Think It Over, Man (2008) Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16 inches “To leave a company in charge of holding evidence to be used against it is just absurd”, Point Fortin (2008) Acrylic on canvas, 16 x 16 inches GLENN ROOPCHAND Crossroad (2009) Mixed media, 59 x 45 inches Dougla Rhapsody (2009) Mixed media, 48 x 60 inches

Sybil ATTECk Seated lady (c. 1950) oil on canvas 36 x 26 inches

SyBIL ATTECK was born in Rio Claro, Trinidad on February 3rd, 1911. When she was in her early teens, the Atteck family moved to Port of Spain where, encouraged by their grandmother, they became involved in many different art forms: music, crochet, embroidery, flower arranging and designing Carnival costumes. The family members even formed a small orchestra, with Sybil playing the Hawaiian guitar. Sybil and her six sisters were also encouraged to be intellectually independent. Atteck joined the Botanical Department of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1928, using her drawing skills to produce botanical renderings. Some of these were shown at an exhibition organized by the Society of Trinidad Independents in 1930. In 1934, Atteck went to London where she studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic. In 1943, Atteck attended the School of Fine Arts, Washington University, St Louis, Missouri, where she was a student of the German Expressionist painter, Max Beckmann Polytechnic. In 1948 she continued her studies in Lima, Peru, at the Escuela de Belles Artes, where she took an interest in Inca pottery. Atteck’s images and style form the nucleus of Trinidad’s first recognizable school which prevailed throughout the 1950’s and ‘60’s. Those influenced by Atteck were, among others, Carlisle Chang, Willi Chen, Leo Glasgow and Nina Squires. Through her expressionist images, Atteck celebrated the birth of a new nation and the hopes and aspirations of Independence, portraying Trinidad’s landscape, birds, dances and festivals as the new symbols of national identity. Atteck was the major force behind the formation of the Art Society in 1943.

CArliSlE ChANg bongo Dancers (1955) oil on canvas 36 x 28 inches

CARLISLE CHANG was born on the 21st of April 1921 near the Croisee, the bustling cross roads in San Juan, Trinidad. His early art education included a correspondence course from the Washington School of Art, a two year study program under Amy Leong-Pang and a Master’s certificate from the New york Institute of Photography. A British Council Scholarship in 1950 enabled him to study poetry, painting and mural painting at the L.C.C. Central School of Arts and Crafts, London where he received the diploma in 1953 and won an Italian Government Scholarship to the Instituto Statale d’Arte for Ceramics in Faenza. Chang returned to Trinidad in 1954 and opened his painting studio in Port of Spain the following year. The ensuing two decades were his most productive with more than ten murals in a variety of media, costume and sets for theatre and ballet, concepts and design for more than twelve years of Carnival and easel painting in water-colours and oils. His paintings were sought by collectors, both local and overseas and selected by curators for showings in Europe, the United States and South America. He holds the citation from the Press Club of Lausanne and is the first West Indian artist to have received a medal at the Biennale de Sao Paulo, Brazil. The artist however suffered a major tragedy in 1977 when his greatest mural,”The Inherent Nobility of Man”, was destroyed, leading him to abandon painting for many potentially productive years. Chang served as President of the Trinidad Art Society for several years and was responsible for ushering in a new era of vibrancy and achievement in that organization. Leading up to Trinidad and Tobago’s Independence, Chang was a central figure in the design of Trinidad and Tobago’s National Flag and Coat of Arms. He died in 2001.

bOSCOE hOlDEr beverly (2004) oil on canvas 16 x 20 inches

BoSCoE HoLDER was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in the early 1920s. He died on 21st April 2007 at his residence in Newtown, Port of Spain. He was already painting when he was five years old and was an accomplished pianist at a very early age as well, playing for the wealthy French Creole, Chinese and Portuguese at their functions by the time he was nine. In his late teens, he formed his own dance company. In his dance he used traditional Afro-Caribbean interpretations: shango, bongo and bĂŠlĂŠ. He frequently used his dancers as models for his paintings. In 1950 Boscoe Holder moved to London, England where he danced and performed on the piano at all the well-known theatres and clubs. By that time, he was married to Sheila Clarke who was his lead dancer in his own dance company and also became his favourite model for his paintings. He has staged many one man exhibitions in Trinidad and exhibited also in New york, Helsinki, Stockholm, ostende and England. At the end of the 1960s he returned to his native land where he soon established himself as one of the top painters, not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but throughout the Caribbean. Boscoe Holder has exhibited frequently in most of the Caribbean islands and his paintings can be found in many collections around the world.

iSAiAh bOODhOO The Veiled face of Maria Concepción (1982) oil on canvas 24 x 36 inches

Isaiah James Boodhoo was born in 1932 in Sangre Grande, Trinidad. Boodhoo received a Trinidad Government Department Scholarship in 1958 to study fine art at the Brighton College of Art, England. There, he said he learned technique in the disciplined British way. By the time he returned to Trinidad in 1964, he was painting in the typical non-objective style of Europe of the period. In 1968 he felt that his art had become too predictable and, with the opportunity to study at Central Washington University and Indiana University, left for the United States. It was an exciting time to be there, in the age of Aquarius and the action painters and Abstract Expressionists, De Kooning and Deibenkom. This was the time of disillusionment with the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon. Boodhoo brought the idea of social and political commentary through art back with him when he returned to Trinidad. Boodhoo’s first exhibition at the National Gallery in Port of Spain in 1970 was strong social and political comment in the light of Trinidad and Tobago’s own revolutionary turmoil. Following this exhibition, Boodhoo exhibited in 1982, with themes from poems by Derek Walcott and again in 1992 his Caroni series. The contrasts of Trinidad’s landscape always fascinated Boodhoo, particularly the sugar cane fields . . . a place without trees, with rolling hills, manicured green, or terra cotta furrowed fields. Caroni, where the sugar industry of Trinidad was based and where cane fields seemingly stretched forever in all directions. He used the landscape and figurative elements of the cane cutters as in the theme for Caroni. Critic Christopher Cozier described Boodhoo’s work as...hovering between being pictorial and being Abstract Expressionism. The balance of landscape and figurative elements in Boodhoo’s paintings was developed in his later series where he also used aspects of Hinduism as the main element. Boodhoo’s palette is brilliant. This, he further enriched with skilfully placed colour complements, his compositions becoming vivid interpretations of the contrasts of hot, clear light and cool, dense shade of Trinidad landscape. He died in 2004.

lErOy ClArkE we Are with you Always (2002) oil on paper 25 x 37 inches

Eye keeper of Dreams (2002) oil on paper 69 x 105 inches

An Ancient Sun (2002) oil on paper 25 x 37 inches

LERoy CLARKE was born in Belmont, Port of Spain on 7th November, 1938. Considered to be one of Trinidad and Tobago’s finest contemporary artists, he was the first to be conferred the title, Master Artist by The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago in 1998 In 2003, he was acclaimed a National Icon, presented by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago. Also in 2003, he was a distinguished guest of The President of The Republic of Suriname for Carifesta VIII. He was further garlanded, by N.A.E.A.P, The National Association for the Empowerment of African People, with the Achievement of Excellence Award. However, the crowning event came when he was awarded a “Staff of Eldership” and Chieftaincy title in the orisha community in 2005; the title reads: Chief Ifa’ oje’ Won yomi Abiodun of Trinidad and Tobago. Also in that year he was made an Honorary Fellow of the University of Trinidad and Tobago. In 2008, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Art by the UTT. During his stay in the United States from 1967- 1980, Clarke was the first Artist-In-Residence at the Studio Museum of Harlem 1972-1974. A prolific writer, he has contributed many essays on issues of national importance and is the author and publisher of four books of poems: a publication of Drawings from 1965 to 2008 and in 2010, Smouldering Coal was published. In 2011, LeRoy at 70, a publication of essays and commentaries on Clarke’s life and work, sponsored by UNESCo (Trinidad and Tobago) was released. His life experiences quite evidence the substance that has shaped and informed his philosophy –oBEAH. Fearlessly unorthodox, he continues to be serious about the role art plays in the critical aspects of developing a society and about “His Calling” to be a “Pointerman, pointing the way to o-be-ah-man-ness!” He strives to his “El Tucuchean ideal” all the while uttering: “Who will rechart the ruin, Who will piece it together In its beginning Who will utter the cipher? …A new Poet, one who claims neither name nor roof, Who will sacrifice child or field Who will utter words like nails, Stripped from his own fingers… Eye press on, hard on myself alone!”

kENwyN CriChlOw Memory: A Concept of fire (2007-10) oil on canvas 60 x 54 inches Stardust watered by rain (2011) oil on canvas 54 x 72 inches

KENWyN CRICHLoW has created several exhibitions of his paintings in Trinidad, in the Caribbean, in North America and London. From his first show at the Icon Gallery after his return from Goldsmith’s College of Art in London, Crichlow has been quite a definite though not always quite defined presence in the art of Trinidad and Tobago. He has been featured in several exhibitions of Caribbean Art. In his most recent exhibitions of paintings, he has shown with painters Carlisle Harris and Glenn Roopchand at the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port of Spain, at the Royal Commonwealth Society in London The october Gallery in London and at the y Gallery in Port of Spain. He asserts “colour is pure emotion and painting is a process of manipulating its power to convey ideas, induce reverie, evoke feelings”. one commentator has said that although”(he is) as devoted to colour as his mentor Isaiah Boodhoo, Kenwyn Crichlow avoids the representational element present in Boodhoo’s work in favour of an abstract style evocative of forest and ocean”. He is the founding Lecturer and past Coordinator of the Visual Arts programme (1987 -2008) in the Department of Creative and Festival Arts of the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies at St Augustine campus. During this period, he chaired the Caribbean Examinations Council Subject Committee for Art and Design at Advanced Proficiency Level. He is currently interested in the regard of colour, scale, texture and interactions between technique, style and the history of Art in the Caribbean.

ChriSTOPhEr COZiEr Made in China (2010) Installation Dimensions variable relic (from Conversations With a Shirt Jac) (1992) Shirt Jac, hanger 26 x 22 inches

CHRISToPHER CoZIER is an artist and writer living and working in Trinidad. He is a member of the editorial collective of Small Axe, A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, distributed by Duke University Press. He also edits the on-line “sxspace” of the journal which looks at visual production. He was an editorial adviser to BoMB Magazine for their Americas issues (Winters, 2003 – 2005) and was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2004. His work has consisted of multimedia projects and drawings. He has exhibited in the 7th Havana Biennial, “ Infinite Island,” at The Brooklyn Museum in 2007, “Equatorial Rhythms” at The Stenersen Museum in oslo 2007, “HereThereEverywhere” at the Chicago Cultural Centre 2008 and in the Trienal Poli/Gráfica de San Juan: América Latina y el Caribe in 2009. Works were on display in the Biennial of Cuenca, Ecuador, “Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art,” in 2009 and AFRo MoDERN, Journeys through the Black Atlantic at the TATE, Liverpool 2010. A documentary produced by Canadian video artist and writer, Richard Fung entitled “ Uncomfortable: the Art of Christopher Cozier” was launched in Toronto in January 2006. Cozier was Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth College during the Fall of 2007. and was co-curator of Paramaribo Span as well as co-editor of its blog and book, which opened in January 2010, A co-director of Alice yard, a Senior Research Fellow at the Academy of The University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT), the artist was an adviser and joint curator of “about changes” for The World Bank Art Program and “Wrestling with the image” at the oAS Museum in 2011. Recent Print editions by the artist were produced and exhibited by David Krut Projects in New york and in Johannesburg. The artist has just completed a residency and exhibition at the The Substation at University of Witwatersrand as part of the conference Utopias and Dystopias in the Global South in November 2011. Work from this project is currently on show in “ into the mix “ at KMAC, Louisville, Kentucky. Limited editions of the artists work are available through David Krut ProjectsNy & Johannesburg.

Al AlEXANDEr Nsa (2010) oil on canvas 36 x 36 inches

AL ALExANDER was born in Quarry Village, Siparia in March, 1978. His mother, Lydia Waldrop, recognizing his artistic talent, encouraged him and at the age of sixteen, Al received a silver medal from the Shankar’s International Children’s Art competition. Al’s work has been influenced by

Hilma Smith Barnes, Ronald Smith and the late Boscoe Holder who all gave him advice on improving his technique. Alexander has an Associate Degree in Visual Communication and works as a graphic designer.

TESSA AlEXANDEr Jouvert Morninâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; (2010) Acrylic on canvas 30 x 24 inches

BoRN IN Trinidad, Tessa studied Fashion Design and Merchandising at the International Academy of Design and Technology and worked in that field, winning several awards. In 1998, she decided to put her creative expression into painting having her first solo exhibition in 2004. Since then she has held 5 solo exhibitions and participated in several group exhibitions. She has attended residencies in India and Nigeria and her work can be found in collections in Germany, Canada, the US and regionally. She remains committed to art education for children.

DEAN ArlEN buy One, get One free (2010) Mixed Media 61 x 81 inches

DEAN ARLEN attended ontario College of Art and Design, on a Commonwealth Fellowship.This augmented his jewellery studies, done at John Donaldson Technical Institute in Trinidad and his visual arts diploma completed at the University of the West Indies. His projects are extensions of his

studio practice, creating an urban philosophical art and design language.Among them are the UWI sculptural project and the AlterEgo Project.

EMhEyO bAhAbbA EMBAH had his first solo exhibition in1976 and can be described as Trinidad and Tobago’s foremost intuitive artist. He has had seventeen solo exhibitions in twenty-six years and has also taken part in a number of group shows, among them the Trinidad Art Society’s Annual November shows and Caribbean Focus in 1986 in England. His

work can be found in many private collections in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad. Recently, his work has been featured at White Columns art gallery in New york,attracting critical attention. He says, ”My artwork enables me to present controversial statements, especially those related to culture without adding to the ungainly bulk of rhetoric”.

well Said (2011) Mixed Media 30 x 10 x 10 inches well Spoken (2011) Mixed Media 30 x 10 x 10 inches Monument ii (2009) Mixed Media 53 x 68 x 10 inches

PAT biShOP yes we Can . . . we had better (2009) Mixed Media 24 x 18 inches

A RECIPIENT of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s highest National Award, at that time, the Trinity Cross, Pat Bishop (1942-2011) continued to paint throughout her life, all the while succeeding at being choir mistress, lecturer, civil servant Carnival institute Director and several other quite extraordinary personages. Her non-objective style centers around themes drawn from literature, music and the physical environment and invites deep philosophical speculation. She studied at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

EDwArD bOwEN Born in 1963, Eddie, as he is known, lives and is working in studios at Sans Souci and Port of Spain, Trinidad.

He has been working on a continuously evolving series of work entitled, “The Architect of Impossible Physics”, since 1987.

Electric Palm (2012) Mixed Media 33 x 23 inches The wizard’s house (2012) Mixed Media 48 x 36 inches

SArAh burrOwS gauntlet (2012) Graphite on paper 21 x 21 inches

SARAH BEGAN drawing at a very young age. However when she was 15, she entered and won her first art competition. It was then she decided that art would be something she would do for the rest of her life. Her media of choice are pencils and fabric paints. She has participated in

several of the Art Society’s group exhibitions and held her first solo exhibition in January 2012. She is also the official fabric artist for “The Art of Wear”.

PAT fArrEll-frEDEriCk PAT WAS born in Trinidad & Tobago, After high school , she pursued a degree in Clothing and Textiles and was introduced to weaving. She now has two floor looms and a variety of other looms. She taught Textile Science and Applied Art at John Donaldson Technical Institute for 29 years. She has exhibited at Art

Society exhibitions and has had several one-woman exhibitions. Pat combines her love of fabric and paper with weaving and found objects to produce mixed media collages. She has been encouraged and inspired by local artists, Pat Chu Foon, Kenwyn Crichlow, Carlisle Harris and Elsa Clarke.

it Does Not rain . . . (2011) Fabric collage 19 x 19 inches

MArlON griffiTh Powder box (Schoolgirl series) (2008) 3 digital photographs Dimensions variable

MARLoN GRIFFITH b.1976,started his artistic practice as a Carnival designer—a “mas’ man,” as Trinidadians would call him. This background deeply shapes his work as a contemporary visual artist, which has performative, participatory, and ephemeral characteristics. Griffith has

been an artist in residence in Johannesburg (2004) Japan (2005); Kingston, Jamaica (2007); and New york (2011). In 2010, Marlon was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and of a Commonwealth Award. He has been residing and working in Nagoya, Japan since 2009.

ShEVi hADAwAy The hunter (2007) Acrylic 21 x 17 inches

SHEVI HADAWAy is a graphic designer, fine artist and fashion designer who has always enjoyed art and boldly states the best part of being an artist is that it is challenging all the time. â&#x20AC;&#x153;I can remember spending most of my childhood just drawing and being inspired to make and design anything and everything! My graphic design and fashion line Shevi La Ville has done very well under my creative direction since opening in 2007â&#x20AC;?.

AbigAil hADEED Mighty Shadow (1994) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned 12 x 34 inches Exodus (1992) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned 32 x 12 inches Spiritual Mother, Panyard (1992) Gelatin silver print, selenium toned 10 x 32 inches

ABIGAIL HADEED lives in Trinidad and has produced substantial archives of artwork spanning more than two decades. Her photographs possess documentary and historical qualities yet are simultaneously personalised and humanitarian. Her archives include extensive documentation in traditional carnival, steel band, and theatre.

Hadeed represented Trinidad at the 1998 Sao Paulo Biennale and the 2006 Havana Biennale, Cuba. In 2011 she was part of a group exhibition About Change â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wrestling With the Image, at The Museum of the Americas. Most recently, her work features in Pictures from Paradise (2012), a book on Contemporary Caribbean Photography.

CArliSlE hArriS CARLISLE HARRISâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; career spans a period of well over twenty five (25) years during which time he has shown regularly both in solo and group exhibitions locally and internationally. His works are done in acrylic and mixed media.

In 1998, he took early retirement from his job as Vice Principal of a Technical Institute so that he could focus on his studio practice which he maintains to the present time.

To See the light (2010) Acrylic on canvas 51 x 50 inches Sacred Pulse (2010) Acrylic on canvas 51 x 50 inches

JACkiE hiNkSON

The Averted head (2008) Cedar 54 x 18 inches

Savannah Space (1985) Watercolour 20 x 26 inches

lambeau Descent (2004) Watercolour 10 x 14 inches

Overgrowth (2012) Watercolour 12 x 16 inches

“I can pay Hinkson no deeper compliment than to summon the same admiration and technical astonishment for him as I do for Winslow Homer.” – Derek Walcott Jackie Hinkson, born in Port of Spain in 1942, is Trinidad’s leading watercolorist, an art that he has sought to perfect to capture the light and forms of the

Caribbean. His range includes oils and murals that explore the contemporary social and urban landscape. For over 12 years, Jackie has created figurative sculpture. For his lifelong dedication to his work , Hinkson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of the West Indies in 2011.

MiChEllE iSAVA MICHELLE ISAVA (b.1985) is of Trinidadian / Venezuelan Citizenship. She attained her B.A. Visual Arts at the University of the West Indies. Isava is a conceptual artist who straddles different media and genres to place the priority on message and experience. She experiments with

drawing, painting, installation and video. Her primary interest is the body as an object and what it has the potential to reveal about the subject. Most recently in 2011 she performed during the Choreographers Collective (Co Co) Dance Festival.

Morena Memory (2009) Video Dimensions variable

hAbib JAhOOr Antarctica (2011) Samaan 30 x 12 inches Anahata (2011) Teak 22 x 12 inches

HABIB JAHooR was born in 1939 in San Fernando, Trinidad. He taught art at secondary school for many years. In 1968, he was granted an art scholarship and graduated from California College of Arts with his masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in 1972.

Habib has worked on drawings, and mural size oil paintings. His main interest, however, is in sculpture, having worked in stone, concrete and bronze.

TrACEy JOhNSON TRAINED IN Canada, artist Tracey Johnson has attracted attention for her photorealist work. Johnson started her craft in portraiture, and then moved to colourful, dancing, illustrative pop art, and now to black and white realistic paintings of extracted photography. She has had several

solo exhibitions in Trinidad, her latest at Soft Box studios featuring images associated with social ills in the society.

guru Plaster Dome (1985) oil on canvas 17 x 12 inches

graffiti is lots of funk (2011) oil on canvas 12 x 17 inches

hello Mr Tikoloche (2011) oil on canvas 17 x 12 inches

itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alright to relaxing (2011) oil on canvas 12 x 17 inches

MAkEMbA kuNlE whe-whe Chart (1990) Mixed Media 60 x 24 inches

WITH A career spanning over two decades, Makemba has not only created outstanding works of fine art but he has also made it his duty to create avenues of opportunity for generations of young artists to come. He has also developed educational and training programmes geared specifically for young artists in the country. Makemba has represented Trinidad and Tobago as both administrator and artist at a number of international symposia. Makemba, the artist, first showed his work in 1973 at the Art Societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Annual Exhibition. Since then, he has exhibited on innumerable occasions in solo and collaborative projects throughout the country and internationally.

ChE lOVElACE CHE LoVELACE studied fine art at Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Ecole Regionale des Beaux Arts de la Martinique.

methodology, yet interconnected by way of subject and conceptual associations.

Tiled (2011) oil on Board 50 x 60 inches

Characteristically, his attitude has been marked by a need to see his cultural environment through a wide lens. He formalizes his experience via cycles of art production that are diverse in materials, approach and

The last several years have seen him develop a body of work that cultivates an exchange between performance and painting. He lives and works in Port of Spain.

Truck (2011) oil on Board 90 x 60 inches

ShASTri MAhArAJ untitled (2008) Acrylic on canvas 13 x 25 inches Portrait (2011) Acrylic on canvas 22 x 33 inches

Shastri Maharaj was born on the 24th of January, 1953. He was educated at Naparima College, San Fernando and later gained his teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diploma at the Valsayn Teacherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College. In 1982 he entered the University of Manitoba, School of Art, majoring in painting and received his BFA in 1985. He obtained his Master of Education (M. Ed) from UWI in 1990. His artwork reflects a cross section of themes, which are presented in different artistic mannerisms. His exhibitions deal with his exploration in the language of paint and his paintings vary from a highly representational or formal approach to a crude, unpretentious or elementary manner. Maharaj is Curriculum Coordinator for Visual and Performing Arts at the Ministry of Education, Trinidad and Tobago.

wENDEll MCShiNE WENDELL MCSHINE is a multimedia artist, resident in Mexico, whose production encompasses video, painting, drawing and mural painting. His work also explores popular forms like T shirts, hats, bags and other items.

He recently completed a large mural along with the students of Success Laventille Secondary School in Laventille, Trinidad. His work is said to represent â&#x20AC;&#x153;a lucid cross pollination expressed through stunning iconographyâ&#x20AC;?.

Prosper (2008) Installation Dimensions variable

wilCOX MOrriS Surrender (2006) Acrylic on canvas 33 x 25 inches The gate keeper (2006) oil on canvas with mixed media 20 x 16 inches

AFTER GRADUATIoN from Howard University’s College of Fine Art, Tobagonian artist Wilcox Morris spent three years in Germany. Inspiration came from visiting the Louvre, Van Gogh Museum, the Vatican Museum (Rome) and other art museums and galleries. one of his paintings featured in this exhibition, “Surrender” was censored in

1990 at an exhibition at the oAS in Washington, DC. Many of his works depict local themes such as folklore, music, and carnival. He has been featured on several television stations in Trinidad, the USA and Germany and his work has been reviewed in The Washington Post, in Germany and in France.

wENDy NANAN WENDy NANAN was born in 1955, into an Indo- Trinidadian family. She trained in Britain as a painter. Since her return to Port of Spain in 1979, she has worked mainly in painting and sculpture. Early involvement in constructing traditional carnival costumes is evident in her

many sided craftsmanship, her ‘connectedness to materials’. In recent years, Nanan has made increased use of eastern iconography while continuing to forge links with Creole Trinidadian forms.

The bounce (2011) Papier Maché 28 x 34 x 8 inches Queen head (2011) Papier Maché 16 x 16 x 16 inches Queen head (2011) Papier Maché 17 x 10 x 12 inches

buNTy O’CONNOr Messenger (2012) Ceramic 8 x 10 inches

BUNTy WAS educated in Trinidad. She learned the art of pottery making from Holly Guyadeen at the University of the West Indies, Extra Mural Department. From the age of eighteen, she has been experimenting with locally found clays and materials which can be used in both glazes and bodies. She has attended workshops in the U.K. and France and travelled

extensively looking at the pottery of other cultures. From 1986 to the present, she has given art classes every year in the art of raku. In 1987 she launched a small pottery business “Ajoupa Pottery” with Husband Rory. Since 1985 she has participated in several group exhibitions and has held several one-woman exhibitions. Her newest work involves the addition of bagasse (sugar cane waste) to local clay. In 2012 she completed the Stations of the Cross for the Anglican Church in Black Rock, Tobago.

liSA Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;CONNOr LISA oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;CoNNoR was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1965 and moved with her family to Trinidad in 1977. She attended the Art Institute of Boston and the Massachusetts College of Art from where she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine

Arts Degree (Honours) in 1988. Her medium has been oils on canvas and she paints employing an impasto technique in the impressionist tradition. She has exhibited widely in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and in the United States.

going to the reef, Store bay (2011) oil on canvas 20 x 20 inches

STEVE OuDiTT blur bS (2006) oil pastel on paper 87 x 38 inches

STEVE oUDITT has exhibited his installations in Cuba, China, New york, London, Iceland, Dominican Republic, Kassel, Guadeloupe and Trinidad. ouditt was Curator of Research and Education at inIVA, London. He taught for two years at the School of Architecture in Kingston, Jamaica and at the

Universidad Nacional in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. ouditt studied at the School of Visual Arts in New york City, Goldsmiths College in London and the Jan van Eyck Academy in Holland. He has been lecturing at The UWI, St. Augustine, since 2003.

ShAwN PETErS IN 1973, Shawn Peters was born into an artistic family where he would often sit and observe his father sculpting while they spoke. After meeting Makemba Kunle, Shawn began exploring his ability to paint. However, he credits Leroy Clarke as the one who really helped him to

understand the possibilities of art. Shawn continues to develop a complex system of mixed media sculptural expressions. Shawn has been exhibiting in Trinidad and has taken part in numerous exhibitions abroad for the last thirteen years.

A Diamond in the Dust (2003) Mahogany 9 x 12 inches

gArViN PiErrE untitled (2012) Acrylic on wood 12 x 10 inches

BoRN IN 1954, Garvin Pierre studied Graphic Design at the John Donaldson Technical institute in Trinidad before spending several years at advertising agencies. He had begun painting as a member of the Workshop group that met at the National Museum and

Art gallery and continued to be prolific with group and solo exhibitions at regular intervals. over the years he has had several health challenges but has continued to produce, recently moving towards the incorporation of three-dimensional elements into his work.

riChArD rAwliNS RICHARD RAWLINS is a graphic designer and contemporary artist living and working in Trinidad and Tobago. Rawlins is the publisher of the online magazine Draconian Switch (www.artzpub.com), a cofounder of Trinidad and Tobagoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Erotic Art Week exhibition, and collaborator in the Alice yard

contemporary art-space initiative. Rawlins has designed numerous art catalogues and has exhibited his work at the Museum of Art and Design in New york, USA. In october 2012, Rawlins will be a resident artist at Vermont Studio Center in the USA.

Chinese workers (2012) Installation 96 x 36 x 36 inches

rAChEl rOChfOrD bakery Attendant, la romain (2008) Acrylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches “To leave a company in charge of holding evidence to be used against it is just absurd”, Point fortin (2008) Acrylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches Think it Over, Man (2008) Acrylic on canvas 16 x 16 inches

BoRN IN Trinidad in 1978, Rachel Amy Rochford is a graduate of The University of Reading, UK with a Bachelor’s Degree (First Class Honours), Fine Art. Since 2001 she has exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions. She is currently a Lecturer in Ceramics at UWI, St. Augustine, Trinidad.

The three heads in this exhibition highlight the ever-changing condition of the Trinbagonian, a local mask from the faces of our people. Everyone who sees these paintings recalls someone that they know, who claims the essence of the being that has been created.

glENN rOOPChAND Crossroad (2009) Mixed media 59 x 45 inches Dougla rhapsody (2009) Mixed media 48 x 60 inches

GLENN’S CAREER began as an apprentice to renowned artist, Carlisle Chang, with whom he worked in the areas of painting, mural, costume and stage designs. Through the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy competition, Glenn was awarded a scholarship to study art at Pratt Institute, N.y. and the Art Students League, N.y., returning to Trinidad in the late 1970s. Now resident in Montclair, New Jersey, Glenn had the honor of recreating his mentor Carlisle Chang’s great mural, “The Inherent Nobility of Man” in 2008 for the National Museum and Art Gallery, Port of Spain.

ShAliNi SEErEErAM The key (2012) Mixed media 14 x 10 inches

BoRN IN Trinidad in January 1972, Shaliniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings emphasize characteristic postures derived from East Indian dance and culture. Shalini uses acrylics, nail polish, collage and metal in her pieces, perhaps derived from her years of study in Graphics and Jewelry, at times making use of discarded window frames. She has exhibited locally and also in the United States at the organization of American States (oAS) Headquarters hosted by the Embassy of the Rep. of Trinidad and Tobago, Washington D.C.

ANNA SErrAO Passing Cloud (1982) Assemblage 24 x 12 x 12 inches

ANNA SERRAo is an artist, designer and teacher. She studied sculpture and drawing in the UK. During this time, Anna traveled extensively where she was able to observe and study first-hand many fine examples of Art and Design in Europe and North America. Anna has maintained a varied career in the Visual Arts, producing and exhibiting both Fine Art and Design work. She is currently a Lecturer in Visual Arts at the UWI, St Augustine and the University of Trinidad and Tobago and a designer of lights and chandeliers for public and private buildings, which she produces in her design workshop.

irENEE ShAw ingestion and Expulsion (2004) Acrylic on paper 96 x 30 inches (two panels)

BoRN: 1963, Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago. Irénée Shaw is a practising artist’ living and working in Trinidad. She is a figurative painter. She has shown her work locally and internationally since her return from study in the United States in 1988. The artist has done numerous commissions in the Caribbean and in Germany, most notably the CLICo “Pioneers of the Caribbean” Calendar series in 1995. The artist was a resident at the Vermont Artists Studios in 2002.

PETEr ShEPPArD Stand pipe (2009) Acrylic on canvas 2 x 2 inches washing (2011) Acrylic on canvas 2 x 2 inches Standing (2011) Acrylic on canvas 3 x 4 inches

BoRN IN Trinidad in 1967, Peter has developed his own signature of stylized realism, appearing typical of our environment. He studied Communication Design at The International Fine Arts College in Miami in the early 80â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Currently, he is the 1st Vice President of The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago and a member of the Barbados Arts Council and The Hilliard Society of Miniature Painters in the U.K. and has had solo exhibitions annually in Trinidad and Tobago since 1994.

kEiTh SwANSTON Nexus (2010) Wood 17 x 9 inches

KEITH SWANSToN works with wood, stone and concrete. He is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University, USA with a BFA Degree. At Piarco international Airport his large wood sculpture ‘’Iere” is displayed. His most recent showing was a joint exhibition with the works of the venerated Boscoe Holder. Keith is a retired Visual Arts Teacher having taught since 1973 and his sculpture and paintings can be found in private collections in Trinidad and Tobago and abroad.

rODEll wArNEr worker Portrait (2009) Digital photograph 36 x 24 inches

RoDELL WARNER (b. 1986) is a Trinidadian graphic designer and photographer. In 2012, Rodell made the exhibition “Common Room - observations and comments on public-public communication” in Johannesburg using a variety of disciplines including photography and performance, and, in 2011, showed in group exhibitions in London, New york, Washington and Maracaibo. Rodell is a recipient of the 2011 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency and curates the often-updated toomucheyes.com, ‘A version of Trinidad’.

ADAM williAMS untitled (2010) Ceramic 11 x 7 inches Egg (2010) Ceramic 12 x 8 inches

untitled (2010) Ceramic 11 x 6 inches

ADAM WILLIAMS was born in Trinidad in 1982 and grew up here and in Barbados. He attended the ontario College of Art and Design (oCAD) in Toronto from 2000 to 2004, and the Creative Arts Centre, UWI, St Augustine.

He currently works out of his home, where he has a ceramic and painting studio. He also teaches ceramics and piano.

ThE ArT Of TriNiDAD AND TObAgO

Geoffrey Maclean

INTRODuCTION The people of Trinidad and Tobago are among the most ethnically and culturally mixed in the world. From this mix, there has developed a high degree of artistic freedom, embracing not only painting and sculpture, but also music through the development of pan, and calypso with its cynical social commentary. In Trinidad and Tobago, the annual festival of Carnival is an expression of theatre and dance in which large numbers of people participate. Recognised internationally for their independent creative interpretations, artists in Trinidad and Tobago express themselves in literature, sculpture, pottery, mas’ and pan, religious and other festivals and in the design of jewelry, fashion and wearable art on t-shirts. NINETEENTH CENTuRy There are few known examples of art prior to the nineteenth century other than the decorative sculpture and ceramics of the pre-Columbians. In the nineteenth century we see the work of Richard (Hicks) Bridgens (b.1785-d.1846), a sculptor, designer and architect. In 1825, he moved to Trinidad where his wife had inherited a sugar plantation. In 1836, he printed West India Scenery, with Illustrations of Negro Character, the process of making sugar, etc. from sketches taken during a voyage to, and residence in, the island of Trinidad. Bridgens’ work is an early record of life in Trinidad. Michel-Jean Cazabon (b.1813 d.1888) is Trinidad and Tobago’s first recognised painter. He studied art in Paris. It is not known what school Cazabon attended, but family legend is that he attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and that he was a student of Paul Delaroche (b.1797 d.1856). In Trinidad, Cazabon described himself as a landscape painter, and his style followed closely that of the French Landscape School. His love of watercolour as a medium is a development of that philosophical training.

Known students of Cazabon include James Lushington Wildman (b.1826 d.1878), Secretary to Lord Harris, Margaret McLeod Mann (b.1827 d.1905), wife of a military officer attached to the Harris administration, and the German-Trinidadian, Vincent Leon Wehekind (b.1856 d.1907) Apart from the work of Cazabon’s students, there are few examples of Trinidadian art from the end of the nineteenth century. Theodora Walter (b.1869 d.1959), daughter of a Trinidadian mother and grand-daughter of the English watercolourist, Theodore Walter (b.1832 d.1914), was a skilled botanical painter. She produced several studies of the Trinidadian landscape, of which Nudes at Macqueripe Bay is possibly the best known. TWENTIETH CENTuRy (TO 1955) Anglophone West Indian nationalism which began to be politically vocal with the labour riots of the 1930’s, was matched by similar activities in the arts. The growing movement away from European standards was formalised with the emergence in 1929 of a group called The Society of Trinidad Independents. The Independents gathered in private homes, painted and discussed the arts and developed their ideas. Amy Leong Pang (b.1908 d.1989) was one of the founding members and under her guidance the artists grouped themselves into an informal alliance which can be said to have become the first School of Trinidadian painting. Included in this group was Hugh Stollmeyer (b.1813 d.1981), to whom Leong Pang was particularly close. The Independents published their own paper, The Beacon, intended for the enlightenment of the society’s conservative attitudes. This established important linkages with the literary and progressive political movements of the time. Their ideas were considered outrageous and immoral - their exhibitions of nudes were considered to be highly improper - and the Independents survived only until 1938. But the influence of this small but courageous group was far

Opposite page Mulatto girl (c.1850) Michel-Jean Cazabon (b.1813 d.1888) Watercolour

fish Market (1939) Amy Leong Pang (b.1908 d.1989) Watercolour

Still life with fruit Sybil Atteck (b.1911 d.1945)

reaching. The individual nature of Trinidad’s contemporary art is ascribed to these roots. Boscoe Holder (b.1921 d.2007), a student and friend of Leong Pang’s, benefited from the freedom encouraged by the Independents. A musician, dancer and painter, Holder developed original concepts for each of his artistic disciplines, strongly influenced by a black consciousness. This was manifested in his paintings of beautiful black figures - graceful, elongated forms, articulate and exotic in their representation. In the 1940’s, it can be said that intellectual independence came of age and in the arts there was great freedom of expression. Art began to mirror Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural and ethnic diversity. In addition, the new consciousness of a rich pre-Columbian heritage was added to an already cosmopolitan mix. This is best expressed by Boscoe Holder, Sybil Atteck (1911-1975) and M.P. Alladin (1919 -1970). Sybil Atteck started her artistic career in the early 1930’s, making scientific drawings and watercolour renderings of insect life and flora for the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture. In 1938, she attended the Regent Street Polytechnic in London, where she studied fine art for a year and later visited Italy.

Returning to Trinidad, she became active in the promotion of the arts, assisting in the formation of the Trinidad Art Society. Atteck studied Inca pottery when she visited Peru and in 1948 studied under the German Expressionist painter, Max Beckmann, at St. Louis University, Missouri, in the United States. Atteck’s return to Trinidad and Tobago in the latter part of 1948 heralded a new movement in art. Throughout the 1950’s and into the early 1960’s, her Trinidadian Expressionism influenced the younger artists: Nina Lamming (Squires), Carlisle Chang, Leo Glasgow (b.1931) and generally the members of the Trinidad Art Society. The strong geometric forms of their compositions and the use of symbols of national identity as the subjects of their expressions, reflect the increased self-awareness and national pride brought about by Trinidad and Tobago’s move toward political independence. In 1955, Atteck’s Still Life with Fruit was accepted for the Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy in London. The Trinidad Art Society was founded on 8th September 1943. The Society has played a major role in the development and appreciation of art and has acted as a catalyst for criticism and comment.

Membership to the Trinidad Art Society, up until the late 1950’s, had been considered to be exclusive, due in part to the support and patronage of those who represented the colonial administration. In 1960, however, after the Backyard Exhibition in Argyll Lane in Lower Laventille, showing the work of Ken Morris (b.1924 d.1990), Leo Glasgow (b.1926 d.2009), Pat Chu Foon (b.1931 d.1998) and the sculptors, Raphael Samuel and Babba Holder, membership became more open. Supported by Sir Hugh Wooding and Drs. Ralph and Wilma Hoyte among others, members of this group were admitted into the Trinidad Art Society and were able to establish acceptance for the intuitive artist. Prominent among the intuitives of that time was Leo Basso (1901-1982). Although self-taught, Basso was strongly influenced by his mentor, the neo-impressionist French painter, Pierre Lelong, then living in Trinidad and who once described Basso as the only artist in Trinidad with a sense of colour. Alfred Codallo (b.1913d.1971) with his watercolours, illustrations and renderings, created indelible imagery of Trinidad and Tobago’s folklore characters. These included Trinidad Folklore (1958), one of the seminal works of the soon to be independent nation. Dominic Isaac (b.1920) and Marcelio Hovell (b.1924) also developed distinctive intuitive styles.

Associated with the Trinidad Art Society was the Southern Trinidad Art Society and the Pointe-aPierre Arts and Crafts Society which flourished in the 1950’s with the energetic support of both Bro. Fergus Griffin (b.1916 d.1981) of Presentation College and the English teacher/artist Leslie Melton. Members included Patricia Guppy-Widdup, Gerald Daly (b.1909 d.1988), Knolly Greenidge (b.1937 d.1998) and Jesse Packer (b.1878 d.1968). Bro. Fergus Griffin was also a member of the Art Society and a critic at their exhibitions. Leslie Melton won the first prize in the Texaco competition for the opening of their new offices in 1959 Knolly Greenidge (b.1937 d.2003) was a self-taught artist. He began painting seriously in 1967 when he joined the Pointe-a-Pierre Arts and Crafts Society and became a student of Br. Griffin. Working mainly in watercolour, Greenidge’s paintings were, until late on in his life, monochromatic. The subject of his paintings is the landscape of southern Trinidad, painted in a nonobjective manner. In 1961, with the formation of the Tobago Art Group, art activity in Tobago was formalised under Edward Hernandez (b.1935). Hernandez was very active in various aspects of art including painting, sculpture and the graphic arts. The TAG in those days included artists like Enola Arnold and Alfred James. The Division of Culture and the Trinidad Art Society supported the Tobago Art Group which conducted workshops and exhibitions involving both adults and children.

Mask (c. 1980) Ken Morris (b.1926 d.1990) Copper repoussé with rhinestones 46 x 34.5 inches Save the ridge (2011) Earl Manswell oil on canvas 18 x 20 inches

ERA OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE Trinidad and Tobago became politically independent in 1962. Artistic expression was encouraged at the highest political level and public collections were estab77

lished with the participation of virtually every Ministry and Authority of Government. Sybil Atteck was commissioned to design two murals for the reception lobby at a new hotel on Belmont Hill owned by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and leased to Hilton International. The terracotta murals executed in Atteck’s earlier more classical style, are constructed of individual but interlocking ceramic panels and portray, in relief, life in Trinidad and Tobago. Carlisle Chang completed the designs and execution for two murals - on the themes of the Scarlet Ibis and the Blue Emperor butterfly - for two of the reception rooms at the same hotel and with Ken Morris produced a copper mural for the Carnival Room. The art collections of the Trinidad Hilton Hotel and The Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago are among the finest from this period.. Carlisle Chang’s Inherent Nobility of Man, designed for Trinidad’s new Piarco International Airport in 1962, his mural Conquerabia for the new Port of Spain City Hall and Cosmic Event on the facade for the new Textel building in Port of Spain, established him as Trinidad and Tobago’s leading national artist of the time. The later destruction of the Inherent Nobility of Man to make way for the extension of the Airport buildings in 1977, coincided with the end of Chang’s painting career. He resumed painting towards the latter part of his life but by then the years had taken their toll.. Chang’s influence on the artists of this period is particularly strong in the work of Leo Glasgow (b.1926 d.2010),

Study for inherent Nobility of Man (1962) Carlisle Chang (b.1921 d. 2001)

Willi Chen (b.1938) and Audley Sue Wing (b.1939). Sue Wing’s New Dawn was a prize winner- together with George Lynch’s Planting the Chaconia: the Birth of a Nation – of a competition sponsored by the National Independence Committee in 1962. Dominic Isaac won the prize for naïve painting. Academic training was evident in the work of Isaiah James Boodhoo (1932 -2004), Ralph Baney (1929) and Sonnylal Rambissoon (1926 -1995). They had British Council scholarships to study Fine Art in England at the Brighton College of Art, where they had specialized in Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking respectively. All three returned to Trinidad in 1964. By 1968 Boodhoo felt that his art had become too predictable and he left for the United States where he was exposed to the contemporary art scene of America: the action painters and abstract expressionists. Boodhoo brought the idea of social and political commentary with him when he returned to Trinidad and Tobago, later expressed in his commentaries on the Black Power Revolution of 1970. Ralph Baney and his wife Vera (b.1930 d.2008)” exhibited their work in Trinidad on a regular basis between 1966 and 1971. Pursuing sculpture and ceramics, the Baneys pioneered the use of local materials for clay and glazes. Ralph Baney works in bronze, wood and stone. Vera Baney worked in fired clay.

Another scholarship winner, this time an open academic scholarship, was Pat Bishop (1942-2011) who taught at the Jamaica Art School after leaving Durham University in England. She returned to Trinidad in the late 1960’s.

later in Edmonton, Canada, preferred plein-air watercolour as the medium best suited to capturing the unique light of the tropics. His style, though objective, remained conscious of abstract elements which made up his over-all composition.

The late 1960’s witnessed a period of relative indifference in the arts. However, following the Black Power disturbances of 1970, a new beginning emerged, manifested in the work of Boodhoo and LeRoy Clarke (b.1938).

A new dimension was added to landscape painting by the presence of Don R. Eckelberry (b.1921 d.2001), the American ornithologist and wild-life artist, at the Asa Wright Nature Centre near Arima, who encouraged artists in studies of wild life. These included Larry Mosca (b.1953) and Edward Rooks (b.1958), both well known for their meticulously crafted ornithological paintings. Neil Massy (b.1959) also studied at the Asa Wright Nature Centre.

THE NINETEEN SEVENTIES The introduction of large public sculpture to Trinidad and Tobago was the work of Pat Chu Foon. Chu Foon learned the fundamentals of sculpting while apprenticed to a manufacturer of handmade toys in the late 1940’s. Through Sybil Atteck and the “boys behind the bridge” (an economically challenged area); Ken Morris with his copper reliefs and Raphael Samuel with his naïve wood carvings, Chu Foon was able to develop his skills and in 1963 attended the University of the Americas where he studied Fine Art; and in 1967 the Universidad National de Mexico, Academia San Carlos, where he studied sculpture. In Trinidad and Tobago, there was a renewed awareness of African heritage, manifested through the paintings and poetry of LeRoy Clarke and Carlisle Harris (b.1945). Fuelled by the philosophy of the Black Power Movement in the United States where he lived in the early 1970’s, Clarke sought to provide visual form to the strong cultural, political and social associations between Trinidad and Tobago and Africa, through his powerful images. Clarke’s work, reminiscent in style and iconography to Cuba’s Wifredo Lam (b.1902 d.1992), established him as one of the great contemporary artistic forces in Trinidad and Tobago. Carlisle Harris first showed his work on his return from Howard University in the United States in 1973 and has continued, in numerous one-person and group exhibitions, to identify ” the lofty and enobling” aspects of the African experience. The unrest of the early seventies also reawakened the traditions of landscape particularly in watercolour painting. Noel Vaucrosson (b.1935-d.1996) and Jackie Hinkson (b.1942) best represent this period. Hinkson, who was trained at the Academie Julien in Paris and

The work of Lisa Henry-Chu Foon (b.1947-d.1997) was first seen in Trinidad and Tobago in the early 1970’s. Henry-Chu Foon was born in Stockholm, Sweden and educated at St. Martin’s College in London. She came to Trinidad in 1971. Henry-Chu Foon was active in the Trinidad Art Society, teaching CxC and A-level students as well as holding classes for adults. Throughout the sixties, Carnival bandleaders like Harold Saldenah, George Bailey and others had brought greater focus to the artistic qualities of the Trinidad Carnival. Indeed, the artist Carlisle Chang had brought his considerable talents to bear in bands like “China: the Forbidden City “and “Kabuki”. In 1974, Peter Minshall (b.1941) presented at Trinidad and Tobago’s annual Carnival, an individual costume that marked a new era in Carnival design. Worn by his sister, Cherry-Ann Coelho, Hummingbird stunned viewers at a Carnival costume competition in the Savannah when she opened her folded wings in an explosion of colour and movement. Later, Minshall’s robotic ManCrab, from his band River in 1983, disturbed his audience by creating the effect of bleeding from the extremities of the crab’s claws, onto a pristine white canopy. In his presentation, ManCrab was the symbol of the destructive technology of our society in contrast to the traditional purity of Washerwoman. By 1980, mas’, long regarded as the distant poor relation of “real art” had come of age. THE NINETEEN EIGHTIES In the 1980’s Trinidad and Tobago experienced an economic upswing and consumer spending was 79

high. Some critics have argued that the largesse of this period resulted in a period of over-patronage and mediocrity in the arts. This development was reversed in the mid-1980’s with the onset of economic recession in the wake of a collapse in oil prices. The downturn brought about a period of introspection in the arts and provided a new freedom to the expression of a new generation of serious artists.

Caribbean basin (1982) John Stollmeyer (b.1962) Enamelled basin and chewing gum 15 x 3 inches

In 1986 an exhibition of work from the region was shown at the Commonwealth Institute, in London. Caribbean Art Now was the first serious exhibition of Caribbean artists to be mounted in Europe and despite the institutional image of the venue, the exhibition created considerable interest. Emheyo Bahabba (b.1938) or Embah as he is known, Kenwyn Crichlow (b.1951) and Francisco Cabral (b.1949) from Trinidad and Tobago were the artists who most impressed the critics. Embah’s intuitive work was both mystical and nostalgic, weaving symbols of Trinidad and Tobago’s Amerindian and African heritage into his paintings, as well as themes of a narrative nature of social and traditional interest. Crichlow’s work was described in the words of Waldemar Januszczak in the exhibition catalogue for the show: Those gorgeous abstractions of Crichlow¹s were like a wish, a hope…An Africa of the heart he called it. For others, it has been a Shangri-la, Arcadia, Heaven, the Japanese flower garden at the bottom of the garden built for himself by Crichlow¹s beloved Monet, somewhere peaceful, somewhere better. Crichlow had trained at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, but his greatest influence was Isaiah James Boodhoo, with whom he maintained a close relationship until Boodhoo’s death in 2004. There had probably never been as much controversy about the work of any artist in the Caribbean as there was about the work of Francisco Cabral. The disturbing juxtaposition of everyday and familiar objects which Cabral used in his sculpture, irritated the sensibilities of Trinidad and Tobago’s normally conservative or indifferent public. Cabral emerged as the angry young man of the Commonwealth Institute exhibition. His chairs were poignant reminders of a world gone wrong. Art critic Christopher Cozier says:

Just as we invented the steelpan transforming the oil drum (the discard of a multinational presence) into a musical instrument, the onslaught of technology and information is transformed by Cabral into signals of warning to its disseminators ... As Larry Mosca did in the seventies a young artist breathed new life into the age-old landscape tradition. Lisa o’Connor (b.1965) became well known for her impressionistic renderings, impasto technique and careful observation of light. o’Connor delighted in the details of Trinidad and Tobago’s historic architecture, in particular the play of ornate detailing with strong direct sunlight and the resulting intricate, yet playful, shadows. Also alongside the development of traditional painting and sculpture was the work influenced by graphic design and illustration techniques. This was perhaps best represented by Stuart Hahn (b.1949) and Steve ouditt (b.1961), two artists of widely differing approaches. Influenced by the style of Art Nouveau and initially by the work of Aubrey Beardsley, Hahn’s favourite medium was crayon. His drawings, of which the most important element was the human form, were mainly erotic or religious-erotic in content, the latter subtly and inextricably combined. In those early days, ouditt used erotic symbolism for his black and white poster designs and eye catching distortions to attract attention. Single colours were used only to titillate intended interpretations. ouditt was also one of the few artists from this period who experimented with the design of household objects and furniture, eventually moving toward conceptual and media based art. ouditt became well known for his “Fertility Man” an outdoor sculptural piece done for Carifesta V that created controversy based on its erotic content.

a policy of showing the avant garde, academically trained and criticallyengaged artist, in many cases newly returned from abroad, was openly articulated. These younger artists set about questioning the notion of art-in-service-to-the-nation that had prevailed since before independence.

THE NINETEEN NINETIES The attempted political coup of 1990 brought about a new period of introspection. The best example of this is in the work of Richard Ramsaran (b.1965) or Ashraph as he is more popularly known. Ashraph expressed his profound shock at the events of August 1990, in an exhibition of work dedicated entirely to this period of social and political turmoil. Christopher Cozier’s Fragment, made from a clay block, a relic of one of the buildings destroyed during the days following the attempted coup, is a poignant reminder of those events. From 1986 to 1997, Geoffrey MacLean’s Aquarela Galleries promoted Trinidad and Tobago’s avant-garde artists with regular exhibitions of work. Aquarela could be seen as a turning point in the evolution of the art gallery in the Trinidad and Tobago context. From its earliest beginnings in 1961 with Nina Squires, the commercial art gallery had been evolving. In the 1970’s, Kacal’s gallery at the Hilton partnered with William Gordon to produce serious exhibitions and to promote artists such as Embah and Wendy Nanan. From 1978, Art Creators, an art gallery located in St Anns, provided space for artists like Jackie Hinkson, Noel Vaucrosson, Sarah Beckett and Nobel Prize winner, Derek Walcott among many others before its closure in 2007, while 1234 Gallery, and the Ikon, beginning in the 1980’s, catered for an increasingly affluent clientele. The Ikon in particular dominated the early eighties with Boodhoo’s seminal treatise on Walcott’s work ”The Star Apple Kingdom”, Ken Crichlow’s first showings and a now-legendary exhibition by John Stollmeyer which featured the satirical piece, ”Caribbean Basin”. While there were some commonalities among the artists shown at these galleries, it was at Aquarela that

Abstract and experimental work had set the stage over the years with artists like Glean Chase, Shastri Maharaj, Glenn Roopchand and in particular Francisco Cabral being significant in this regard but Aquarela provided a space for work that questioned assumptions of race, class and ethnicity, mocked the high seriousness of the art establishment and created an increasingly learned debate about the role of art in the evolution of the Nation that has continued to the present day. Among the artists who set the stage for the expanded approaches that prevailed at the beginning of the new century, Christopher Cozier’s paintings, prints, performances and installations explored his generation’s relationship to traditional society, exposing the hypocrisy of Trinidad and Tobago’s independence from a colonial past and the subtle and sometimes not so subtle, social and racial divisions within the national community.

it Came from Japan (c.1985) Francisco Cabral (b.1949) Car parts

Wendy Nanan explored the irony of Trinidad and Tobago’s culture through her inter-religious hybrid explorations while Anna Serrao used sculptural forms derived from indigenous images and materials. Serrao used compressed newspaper as the medium for many of her sculptures, making them identifiable in time and place. Edward Bowen, through his popular studio classes, did much to awaken the curiosity of students to the many facets of artistic expression. His surreal narratives and bold abstractions explored humour, generally absent in art till then and reveled in freedom of expression. A brilliant draftsman, Bowen’s work epitomized the revival of anti-art expression and contempt for the perceived conservatism of Trinidadian artistic appreciation. Irénée Shaw was a figurative painter whose approach evolved from her involvement with perceptual painting. The narrative of her autobiographical compositions was derived from her experience as a woman in the society. Shaw explored feminist and religious issues, often through the extreme realism of her sometimes disarming self-portraits. 81

birth of CCA7, a sprawling industrial space supported by international funding that facilitated exhibits, residencies and workshops …. the necessity for CCA7 was [rooted in] the fact that we wanted links with the region and the world.” CCA7 introduced a Residency program which allowed local artists the opportunity for dialogue with visiting artists. These included Starry Mwaba of Zambia, Sane Wadu of Kenya and Gigi Scaria of India. In 2002, internationally acclaimed artist Peter Doig set up his studio at CCA7 followed in 2005 by Chris ofili.

fragment (1990) Christopher Cozier (b.1959) Acrylic on clay block

younger artists who made use of options available at CCA7 were Ché Lovelace (b.1969) who had studied Fine Art at l’Ecole Regional d’Arts Plastiques in Martinique and has become one of the most prodigious of Trinidad and Tobago’s young artists and Dean Arlen (b.1966) who examined social themes based on family experiences, often through simple and apparently mundane domestic or religious traditions. He studied at the John Donaldson Institute and later at the Creative Arts Centre, UWI.

other artists who attracted attention as part of an increased interest in alternative narratives as the century closed, were Parmanan and Prabhudath Singh, twin brothers who sometimes worked on the same canvas and were influenced by their mentor, Shastri Maharaj’s interest in East Indian traditions and iconography. In sculpture, two artists, Guy Beckles a maker of fascinating kinetic sculpture and Parker Nicholas using recycled objects in imaginative ways, added to that expanded range of sculpture already charted by the work of Anna Serrao and Wendy Nanan. TWENTy-FIRST CENTuRy EXPRESSION In the early twenty-first century a renewed emphasis on the training and development of local artists emerged. CCA7 in the Fernandes Industrial Centre opened in 2000 under the direction of Charlotte Elias. It closed in August 2007. Artist Christopher Cozier remarked that: “The contemporary conversation around the visual arts really began in the early eighties with people like Ken Crichlow, Wendy Nanan, Francisco Cabral. And in 2000 that conversation expanded exponentially with the 82

Sponsored by the Ministry of Human Development, youth and Culture, Studio 66 launched a Visual Arts and Apprenticeship Training Programme in 2002, aimed at the preparation of young people for a career in art related fields. Studio 66 curated a National Exhibition of Sculpture at Gallery 1234, an exhibition of Elder Artists at the National Museum and Art Gallery, an exhibition of art featuring calypsonians and an exhibition of Carnival Arts at the National Carnival Commission’s Club House. Art in Tobago had continued to develop over the years since Independence especially with the formation in 1985 of the Tobago Art Committee to replace the defunct Tobago Art Group. The Tobago Fine Art Centre was established which hosted several exhibitions including some from Trinidad. Wilcox Morris headed the group of artists responsible for these developments. This growth has continued and art in Tobago in recent times has been rapidly developing. Led by Tomley Roberts, the Tobago Visual Artists Association has been formalized and has its own gallery which represents artists like Earl Manswell, Jason Nedd , Kajah Moses, Nazim Baksh and Avion orr among many others. A recent showing of several of these artists at the National Museum and Art Gallery reflects the increased importance of Tobagonian art in the national landscape.

Perhaps the best known of contemporary artists living in Tobago is Luise Kimme (1939-). Kimme originally from Germany moved to Tobago in 1979 and works from her studio in Bethel. Kimme carves elongated human forms, inspired mainly by local folkloric characters: calypsonians, dancers, Papa Bois, La Diablesse and Soucouyants. Her pieces are generally lifesize and larger but more recently, she has begun to work in bronze using the lost wax process at a much smaller scale. Self-taught Trinidadian artist Martin Superville also lives in Tobago. He began painting professionally in 1988. His medium of choice is oils and his paintings include a wide variety of commissioned portraits, steelband and traditional dancers. THE NEW CONTEMPORARIES Entering the 21st century, younger artists are looking outward, preferring to identify themselves with the mainstream of contemporary regional and international expression rather than simply the older values of national, cultural and ethnic identity exclusively. In 2006, Sean Leonard, Nicholas Laughlin and Christopher Cozier made Alice Yard available as an experimental space or lab in the backyard of 80 Roberts Street in Woodbrook, Port of Spain. Alice Yard encouraged a series of Friday-night “Conversations”, bringing musicians, artists, writers and audiences together for informal performances and interactions. It was conceived as a modest space where artists could experiment with ideas and works not normally feasible in a commercial art gallery. It would be responsive, providing space, both physical and intellectual, for new forms like video, performance, installation and a wide range of digital media applications. It has been a space that has initiated creative projects or dialogues rather than being an exhibition space. These twenty-first century artistic expressions by young contemporaries included multi-media experimentation by many artists and featured the installations and prints of Nikolai Noel, Marlon Griffith and the video work of Jamie Lee Loy as well as performance art pieces by Akuzuru and Dave Williams.

Young to find a place outside of the traditional gallery system (which so far has been notoriously unresponsive to anything other than painting of the most traditional type), to create their work. The photographer, Rodell Warner, has also presented there. Several very specific characteristics identify these young contemporaries, according to Christopher Cozier. He affirms that these young artists are showing and winning awards and participating in residencies internationally. While they remain unknown and tend not to be able to show in Trinidad and Tobago, there is a lively on-line dialogue between them and their audiences. Indeed they can be said to operate in the “critical space”, an emerging construct used to discuss those dialogues that take place beyond concepts of “nation” and “nationality” and that embrace more fully the concept of diaspora. These are artists who, though Trinidadian, live, like Marlon Griffith in Japan or like Wendell McShine in Mexico, and create amalgams with forms found in their new environments. Griffith’s participation in an international show, the Gwangju Biennale with a procession form that blended Trinidad Carnival’s artistic processes and historical events of the 1860’s, and the commemoration of Korea’s transformative Spring Riots of 1981, is an example of the kind of success achievable in the “critical space’. In recent years graffiti has become a form of popular contemporary expression, particularly in Port of Spain, making strong political and social statements, signed mainly by LOUSE and MANF. Several of the young contemporaries have roots in graffiti and subversive wallposter making. Unfortunately space does not allow for the inclusion of many of Trinidad and Tobago’s artists and their work, or issues related to art education, the art market and the analysis of Trinidad and Tobago’s diverse artistic expression. This diversity will continue to provoke debate and controversy very much as it did throughout the last century. But, by the same token, this diversity will continue to stimulate the artists and ensure fascination and interest at all levels of universal appeal.

Acknowledgments Andy Jacob Christopher Cozier Tomley Roberts The estate of Carlisle Chang Central Bank of Trinidad & Tobago Belmont Trust

The fact that a lot of the new work is less self conscious about its relationship with design has allowed artists like Marlon Darbeau, Richard Rawlins and Robert 83

ACkNOwlEDgEMENTS

High Commission for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Kingston, Jamaica; The Ministry of Planning and The Economy; The Ministry of The Arts and Multiculturalism;

office of the Vice Chancellor, The University of the West Indies

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