R e d w i n g , A c r y l i c o n b o a rd , 1 2 ” x 1 2 ” , © 1 9 8 0
In 1966 the Carnival supplement of the
Queen’s Park Savannah, the breakthrough in
Trinidad Daily Mirror featured on its cover a
kinetic expression that manifested in his mas
photograph of the head of a man playing a
From the Land of the Hummingbird. Clearly,
mas. Shaven clean, the head was painted all
this was an artist not limited to a single art form
over with a mosaic of colours, a stained-glass
or means of creative expression.
window of a head, mask-like and serene.
Peter Minshall became fascinated with this
mas. It is an identification with which he is
image, and saved copies of the newspaper
both comfortable and proud, but it should
for his portfolio of art references.
He was
not be misunderstood as a narrow focus
then twenty-five, about to finish his studies in
or a limitation. Most essentially, Minshall is a
theatre design at the Central School of Art and
contemporary artist.
Design in London. Around the same time, he
he was drawn to the mas, fundamentally,
was designing queen costumes and gowns for
because he believed it held the greatest
Trinidad Jaycees Carnival Queens, fully faithful
possibilities for making contemporary art. His
to the island bourgeois sentiments of glamour
body of work in the carnival has borne out that
and cosquelle beauty. Not long after, upon
conviction.
graduating from the Central, he began working
as a designer for the professional theatre, and
talent, and ambition, it is not surprising that his
within three years his designs were featured in
design work for the mas displays sophisticated
a heralded premiere at Sadler’s Wells Theatre
draughtsmanship and artistry. The work of
in London of the full-length ballet, Beauty and
creating mas involves drawing, sketching,
the Beast. Meanwhile, betwixt and between
collage and construction in the making of
the professional theatre work and the periodic
visual patterns and forms, and these are often
returns to the Trinidad Carnival, Minshall pulled
as valid and viable on the gallery wall as they
from his portfolio of references the head of the
are on the streets during the carnival.
carnival man and began to deploy it in graphic
design projects, and in easel paintings, as a sort
that the contemporary artist continued, over
of surreal mystical Everyman. Within another
the years, to create work across numerous
few years he had experienced, onstage at the
other art forms and various media. The works
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Minshall is best known as an artist of the
As the artist evolved,
Given the artist’s background, training,
At the same time, it is equally unsurprising Black Narcissus D e s i g n f o r J a y c e e s C a r nival Queen evening gown, Trinidad Car nival 1967 C r a y o n , a c r y l ic and lace collage on card 20” x 25” ©1966
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in this exhibition, MINSHALL MISCELLANY, provide a rich sampling of that variety.
The range is wide, but the works are
not disparate.
There is a complex web of
interrelatedness. To borrow from the theme of his 1997 mas, each piece is a thread of the overall Tapestry of the Minshall body of work.
Recurrent
themes
reveal
themselves
across the many media and art forms: duality, life and death, good and evil, humankind’s glorious perfection and man’s inhumanity to man.
The quintessence of celebration and
the mad dance on the brink of oblivion. The dramatic arc of the carnival, beginning with the birth of jouvay, rising out of the earth, to the fully-fledged glory of Carnival Tuesday, waning to the lengthening shadows of las’ lap.
The theatre designs have the vitality
of the mas. Sculpture is in the form of the transformative masque. A mural dances like a mas in the breeze. Painting and collage deploy the meticulous intricacy of headpiece and breastplate. The mas is theatre of the street. And from the surface of drawing and painting, collage and maquette, we are caught in the sidelong gaze of that serene and surreal man of the carnival, our Callaloo, our Everyman. The Bird in the Gilded Cage D e s i g n f o r J a y c e e ’s C a r n i v a l Q u e e n c o s t u m e Acrylic on paper 12.75” x 19.5”
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– Todd Gulick, (11 Oct 2012)
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Man Better Man: Potagee Joe’s Rumshop T h e a t re s e t d e s i g n D a r t m o u t h C o l l e g e , H a n o v e r, N e w H a m p s h i re , U S A C u t o u t c a rd , t a p e a n d g l u e 11” x 21.5” ©1976
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Beauty and the Beast, Act II: Servant Girl 1 Costume design for ballet S c o t t i s h B a l l e t , S a d l e r ’s We l l s T h e a t re , L o n d o n Acrylic on paper 9.5” x 20” ©1969
B e a u t y a nd the Beast: Bavolet, Beauty’s father Costume design for ballet S c o t t i s h Ballet, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London Acr ylic, metal wire on paper 10” x 22” ©1969
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CALLALOO SAY...
(Extracted from Callaloo and The Crab by Peter Minshall)
Callaloo say that man have a spirit. How that
I is everyman.
spirit does come like a circle ‘round man
You is everyman.
head when it uncover...
All of we is one.
Every man have the power to put circle
Then Callaloo say how every man need love.
‘round he head and shine like the man in the
And the circle must have room for every man.
moon. Every man have spirit. It only want to
Nobody must leave out...
uncover. Is so Callaloo speak. Take heart, he say. And Callaloo say how man and beast and
Put heart in a circle, an put all the differences
bird and fish and tree and everything on this
it have amongst man, down to the last little
little piece of Earth all pour from one cup...
piece of difference, put all right there next to heart in that circle, and swizzle it up good,
It only have one cup, Callaloo say. All things
and then taste the sweetness of the callaloo
on this Earth, all pour from one cup. From
of man.
that one cup all does drink. The differences is there to add delight, not to This little piece of Earth is the cup that man
destroy and divide. The callaloo of man more
does drink from. Is with care man have to
sweet than the stew. Don’t let it stand up and
hold that cup. Is with life and love he have
spoil...
to fill it. Is circle that man have to put ‘round man head. Is love man have to love man an
Callaloo say to put away cutlass. Throw all
is lovse man have to love this little piece of
the ammunition in the sea. And if is love man
Earth...
want, and good life man want to live, is hand have to hold on to hand, is circle have to
Just as every man here seeing every man
make, is peace have to put in circle centre,
self in me, so I self seeing myself in every man
and is prosperity then, and happiness for
here. Every man here is every other man
each and every man.
here. Is so Callaloo finish talk. 8
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A Rainbow for Everyman I n k s t a m p and acr ylic on card, mounted on board 62.75” x 12” ©1986
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The Coloured Man Crayon on paper 12” x 12”
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Dry Leaves of Grass A c r y l i c a n d f e r n l e a f o n c a rd 14” x 20” ©1986
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Jouvay: The Rising S u n Design for m u r a l Sagicor Building, Queen’s Park Savannah, Por t of S p a i n Acr ylic on paper, cut out and col l a g e d 10.75” x 2 6 ” ©1991
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Jouvay: The Rising Sun is the design for
To create the design artwork, Minshall
a mural commissioned by Barbados Mutual
went
insurance company, now Sagicor, for their
creating his own range of coloured paper for
Port of Spain headquarters on the western
collage. Since the image was to be executed
edge of the Queens Park Savannah. Minshall
inch by inch, in an array of individual “tiles,”
approached the design for the mural the way
he deployed a paint-splatter technique using
he would approach the design for a king mas:
stiff-bristled toothbrushes to create washes
start with the engineering and the structure,
of colour comprised of tiny dots of paint, each
which then informs the design and the
dot to represent a mosaic square. From this
decoration.
stock of pointillist colours he meticulously cut
Combining references from the art form of
out and collaged the three hummingbirds,
mural design as well as from his own work in
bougainvillea, hibiscus, and foliage, each
the mas, Minshall conceived a mural that would
edged in gold, applied against a joyful palette
use a mosaic technique to display a detailed
of sunrise. With these techniques, the artist
image, but a mosaic that would be light and
packed an extraordinary amount of precise
alive, dancing like a mas, not cemented into
detail into the 11” x 26” artwork. The completed
place. Unlike ceramic tile mosaic, these “tiles”
mural, installed in the building’s atrium, features
would be one-inch squares of translucent
over 140,000 squares of coloured film, each
plastic (the coloured “gel” film used in theatrical
corresponding to a tiny dot of paint in the
lighting),
original artwork.
dangling
from
plastic
fasteners
through
a
painstaking
process
of
(“shot” on with fastener “guns,” used to fasten
tags onto clothing). These tiles would hang
remarkably as fresh as the day it was finished
from a grid of vertical tapes stretched taught
in early 1992. It faces the rising sun in the east.
the entire fifty-two foot height of the building’s
As air currents pass over the surface of the
atrium. (The related piece in this exhibition,
mural, the hanging mosaic tiles rustle gently,
Dancing Mosaic Hummingbird, is a mock-up
giving the mural image a continual shimmer
of the construction technique for the mural.)
and dance.
The
mural
remains
in
place
Dancing Mosaic Hummingbird S t u d y f o r mural design: “Jouvay: The Rising Sun” P o l y e s t e r plastic film, plastic fasteners, cloth tape 36” x 36” ©1991
today,
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Minshall painted the collection of The Cloths of Tantana while at residence at the Yaddo artist’s retreat in upstate New York in 1993. These are artworks for gallery display, by which Minshall converted so-called street art into so-called fine art. They are paintings in acrylic on paper that re-present graphic designs the artist had created in 1990 for the masband Tantana. For that mas, the designs were made into seven-foot squares of appliqued cloth and given to each masplayer as part of the mas costume. Following are excerpts from statements posted in the mascamp and in the newspapers to help convey to the masplayers and the public the essence of the mas. TANTANA TANTANA is Caribbean excitement.
TANTANA gives each masplayer a piece of cloth,
TANTANA is that particular West
a seven-foot square of tailored, appliquéd,
Indian joi de vivre – saucy,
contemporary design.
exuberant, spirited, sharp, witty,
Each square of cloth is a work of art in itself.
sweet, stylish, and sexy.
The masplayer plays the square of cloth.
TANTANA derives, probably, from the
It is the flag without the flagpole.
French “tant”, meaning “enough” or
It is the wing without the cane.
“so much”; “tant-tant” is
It is the cape, the skirt, before they are
“so much – so much”, or “much of a
tailored.
muchness”.
It can be a billowing banner overhead, or a
T h e C l o t h s o f Ta n t a n a : F y z a b a d Acrylic on paper 24” x 24” ©1993
wall of colour. TANTANA is a Caribbean flavour of excess – an excess of the human spirit.
TANTANA is an expression of faith in the creative spirit of each individual
TANTANA is the synthesis, the hybrid.
masplayer.
It is not European, nor African,
The mas is what you make it.
nor Indian, nor Syrian, nor Chinese, nor anything else but CARIBBEAN.
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T h e C l o t h s o f Ta n t a n a : B l a c k R o c k Acrylic on paper 24” x 24” ©1993
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Head Piece A c r y l i c a n d c r a y o n o n c a rd 20” x 30” ©1986
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A n g e l A s t r o n aut A c r y l i c o n t r a n s p a re n t v a c u u m - m o u l d e d P V C p l a stic 2 9 ” x 2 9 ” ( o n b o ard) © 1 987
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F a c e O ff ( t h e a r t i s t s o b e r a n d t h e a r t i s t d r u n k ) Crayon on Paper 28” x 24”
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