A primer on art in the Caribbean

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BallOil
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DURING the short-lived West Indies Federation, a “gallery of contemporary art of the Caribbean” was proposed. The co-authors of Art in the Caribbean, British-born writer Anne Walmsley and Guyanese-born artist Stanley Greaves, note that to date this gallery is yet to materialise.

“Our initial concept for this book remains its main feature: a visual anthology, a virtual art gallery, enabling a selection of artworks made in the region to be widely seen and studied,” they note in the book’s preface.

This is the daunting challenge of Art in the Caribbean: An Introduction which is an important and useful primer for anyone interesting in learning about the region’s contemporary art.

The book presents the work of artists made in the Caribbean from the 1940s to the 2000s. About 80 pages are devoted to a gallery featuring the work of 40 artists from all over the Caribbean. Each entry features an image alongside text which places the work in context and provides a preliminary critique.

Among the local artists featured are: Carlise Chang; Isaiah James Boodhoo; Leroy Clarke; Peter Minshall; Francisco Cabral; Wendy Nanan and Christopher Cozier (who is credited as a collaborator for the book). Artists from the Bahamas (John Cox), Barbados (Annalee Davis), Belize (Pen Cayetano), Cuba (Wilfredo Lam), Dominican Republic, Guyana (Aubrey Williams), Haiti (Wilson Bigaud), Jamaica (David Boxer) and Puerto Rico (Erick Bermudez) are also included, among others.

The gallery is followed by a longer section which attempts to present a historical overview of the arts within each Caribbean country. This is followed by a time-line.
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soulberry
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Thanks for the link. The idea sounds appealing. I look forward to seeing an online version of the gallery someday.
mapoui
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I would like to know Bally what is your motivation for posting this info and link!

I am keen because by now you know, even if only by my promptings, that the westindian elites are not of any frame of mind consistent with the conception and development of anything westindian.... especially anything artisitic that may fie the nationalist spirit, any nationalist development that could have a salient and positive effect on the people, encourage them to look for more, and to expand such national need and resultant into general proclivities into social movement that might threaten the status quo.

for this reason there could have been and will never be any westindian art gallery of the kind in mind here in the region, as long as he current status quo remains in place there will be no such development in the region.

but the authors appear to have the wider caibbean in mind as well when they speak of a caribbean art gallery. Cuba is the ony national situation in the region that may be disposed positively on such a project. here is prolly a Cuban nationalist gallery long in place...I dont know.

every other nationalist entity in the region, Frend, English and Spainsh are constrained politically by the state of social relations both nternally and in combination with external forces.

the westindian english section is as we see it, in the strangle-hold of a local elite that has sold its sould to ole Marse and look outwards, not inside for the means to maintian their control. that means the literal shut down of all and every nationalist impulses in the people.

the French islands are merely departments of France ...and in the case of Haiti a horribly mutilated experience at the hands of most western countries chief of which is the USA.

and of course the Dominican Republic is an american lap dog.

only when the people overthrow this srotten regional state of affairs can the impulse to create such as national art and housing to display them can find concrete expression
mapoui
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of course there is a national art already existing. artist have done art all along and continue to do art.

but it is not framed as it should be, as national and so deos not do for the people such art is supposed to do, to identify the nation, the people and all is parts, differences and commonalities.

the naming it national, framing it and housing it that displayes it in all its fullness and nationalist pomp to the people, so that it segues into every national nook and cranny and interact with the people resulting in the positive national identity that is crucial for the people in their serach for security, survival indefinetly

it is such an identity that girds the people for battle when a fight is required of them and from them. it is such that helps the people know who they are, memorises them of their character and strenght, their history. it is waht girds them and prompts them when it is necessary, ultimately that it is time to revolt, to revolutionise their society , re-energise it in times of decay and in face of the need for qualitative social reform.

so the evil status quo qill never gather this art in one place and call it national. they will leave it separate and lost all over the place, denigrate it, call it it dog art, inferior, and in its place substitute forrin art as examples of what art actually is
mapoui
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in trinidad de authorities used to lock-up steelbandsmen, confiscate their pans and destroy them. deh used to terrorise calypsonians. going to calypso tents was not a socially acceptable activity.

the church..the catholic church... made singing and playing calypsoes in the lenten season a sin... to sing a calypso on ash wednesday was a sin and yu had to confess dat to the priest. you had to hold yuh breath an' yuh voice fuh 40 days and nights until easter saturday/sunday to sing clypso and dance again.

my relatives used to live in east port of spain, the bad side of that city, and one ash wednesday I was sent to my sisters place as a small boy and I was stunned by the juke boxes in the pubs blaring out calypsos. I was shocked to say the least..a boy not too far from the city but far enoug...to have never seen or heard that before, to have been backward enough to have been consumed by the bullsit colonialist/religious propaganda that made sure we took all that sinful nonsense seriously.

then some years later a Titty, the Hon Anthony Pantin, became catholic archbishop of the islands and immediately he pointed out that it was fine to sing and play calypsoes in lent. and suddenly what was once a terrible sin, marking the singers as unruly and low class, was a sin no longer, and all the rebels who sang, played and danced in lent anyway were absolved, sinners no longer...without confession no less!

take a look Bally at the class of people who sell out their nation and people. we have been talking about the westindian variety. take a look at the american variant:

http://blackagendareport.com/?q=content ... r-petition" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"
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