Origins
The oldest vestiges of Jamaica are bequeathed by an Amerindian people, who appeared in the Neolithic period. The Arawaks (or Tainos) were skilled potters. Ceramics dating from before 500 B.C. attest to a great aesthetic refinement. These richly decorated pieces show motifs taken from stone engravings of the same period. White, black and ochre paintings adorn everyday objects. Over the centuries, the ceramics became more coarse. Many artifacts are preserved at the Hanover Museum in Lucea, a small town located between Montego Bay and Negril. The NationalMuseum of Jamaica is more extensive and is housed in a sumptuous building in downtown Kingston. The 19,000 items in its collection cover Jamaican Arawak culture, the Spanish and then British colonial period, the two world wars, independence and the Rastafari movement. All the history of Jamaica in this institution is explained during guided tours.
European legacies
In the former capital of Jamaica, in Spanish Town, is one of the few testimonies of the Spanish period. The friezes of the church of Sevilla la Nueva would have been executed by the Tainos to donate to the Spanish settlers. Let's stay in Spanish Town to appreciate its main center of interest, the municipal square. The imposing sculpture by John Bacon (1740-1799) shows the British admiral George Rodney. Bacon was then the most acclaimed sculptor in Britain.
Under the colonial yoke, all references to African culture were banished. Production was exclusively in the hands of Europeans. The latter stayed on the islands and discovered the plantations, which were to become a recurring motif, represented in a European style. Others practiced the art of portraiture, always according to Western codes. One of the few artists to question slavery in the 18th century was the philanthropist William Hogarth (1697-1764). Nevertheless, they all produced watercolors or oil paintings that popularized the exotic beauty of Jamaica. Some of them prolonged their stay and opened studios in Kingston. The decline of the sugar industry marked a decrease in interest on the part of these painters, who only came to Jamaica occasionally to paint classical seascapes. Joseph Batholomew Kidd (1808-1889) settled in 1820 and produced the series Fifty Spectacular Views of Jamaica.Isaac Mendes Belisario, the pioneer
Local production remained in its infancy for a long time. Sunday painters adapted the teachings brought from Europe without really innovating.
The first modern artist born in Jamaica seems to have been Isaac Mendes Belisario (1795-1849). Of Jewish origin, he lived in Kingston. His works document daily life at the time of independence. Trained by the watercolorist Robert Hills, he painted landscapes such as Cacao Walk Estate, exhibited at the National Museum of Jamaica. Belisario responded to all commissions: portraits and genre scenes, oil painting and engraving, nothing frightened him. He went to Europe and collaborated with Anglo-Saxon lithographers, then with Adolphe Duperly, and died in London after having completed his famous series of 12 lithographs, Sketches of character
. Belisario remains an isolated case. Indeed, the Jamaican creation is emancipated only at the turn of the 1920s. In the meantime, John Dunkley pursued a respectable career. Born in 1881 and died in 1947, this barber worked in his store in downtown Kingston. He covered the walls of his shop and his utensils with amazing symbols. An adventurous painter, he traveled through Latin America with the intention of making his fortune. He then turned to painting on canvas; his disturbing, sometimes morbid, symbolic images made Dunkley the most highly rated painter in the country.The intuitive art of Kapo
A current assimilated to the naive, joyful, colorful and folk art takes its rise in the 20th century. At its head, the sculptor and painter Kapo (Mallica Reynolds, 1911-1989), also a religious leader. Self-taught, he began painting around 1940 and gained international recognition in the 1960s. He is considered the great representative of the "intuitive" artistic movement, theorized by the National Gallery to group together the self-taught artists who had been called "Jamaican primitives" until then. Kapo's work is informed by his religious beliefs, as he believes his creation is guided by the will of God. A former revivalist leader, he develops mystical themes, landscapes and visions, and sculpts wood. As an anecdote, one of his paintings entitled Shining the Spring was selected by the Jamaican government as a wedding gift for Lady Diana and Prince Charles.
Edna Manley
On the island's cultural scene, the most influential artist of her generation was undoubtedly Edna Manley, whose popularity was born at the same time as nationalist and anti-colonialist awareness. What is described as the Art Movement dates from 1922, the year Edna Manley (1900-1987) moved to Jamaica with her English neoclassical education. She immediately executed her first sculpture inspired by the local culture. The foundation of the Jamaican School of Art in 1950, where she teaches, marks a turning point in the history of art in the country. Her sculpture Negro Aroused can be seen on the Kingston Waterfront and other works can be seen at the National Gallery. She was also a painter and draughtswoman who worked tirelessly to promote the idea that art was not just a hobby. She is also the mother of former Prime Minister Michael Manley.
Contemporary trends
More than schools, personalities participate in the emergence of a Jamaican scene. Among them, the Rasta painter Allan Zion (born in 1930) was inspired by the traditional life of the countryside
Osmond Watson, born in Kingston in 1934 and died in 2005, author of paintings such as The Laud is my Sheper or Freedom Fighter, knew how to mix cubism and African art to shape a purely Jamaican style. Through his portraits, it is the soul of his people that is honored, through a vivid, powerful and contrasting palette
Albert Artwell, born in 1942, is the great representative of Jamaican popular painting. In a naïve style, based on cheerful colors and symmetrical characters, Artwell has conquered a large audience worldwide. The singing Jamaica, crowned with azure, its exuberant nature and its wooden huts painted in red, green and gold, dominate his creation. Another part of his work is inspired by sacred texts and the Rasta tradition.
Barrington Watson was born in Hanover in 1931. The painter trained in London and then in Paris, before returning to his island in 1961. He quickly established himself as the figurehead of the post-independence movement. He painted scenes of life, portraits and nudes. He created the Contemporary Jamaican Artists' Association (1964-1974) in collaboration with Eugene Hyde and Karl Parboosingh. Among his remarkable works: the frescoes Our Heritage (1974) at the Olympia Gallery and The Garden Party (1975), the installation in collaboration with Cecil Baugh Trust (1975) at the Bank of Jamaica; several official portraits including Martin Luther King (1970) at Spelman College in Atlanta. Some of his works are exhibited at the National Gallery in Kingston including Mother and Child (1959), Washer Women (1966), and Athlete's Nightmare (1966). Barrington Watson, who signed no less than 234 works of art, was honored with the Gold Musgrave Medal of the Institute of Jamaica in 2000. The painter passed away in January 2016. His contribution to the development of the country's artistic and cultural landscape is invaluable.
To get into the swing of things, explore the Art Jamaica virtual gallery(www.art-jamaica.org). At the initiative of this vast exhibition, collector and patron Theresa Roberts wishes to spread the wealth of Jamaican art around the world. Around Edna Manley, "the Mother of the Nation", many Caribbean artists are made accessible to the greatest number. Hats off to them!
Yard Art
We prefer to speak here of Yard Art than street art
. The particularity of these popular open-air artistic manifestations is to be impregnated with the Rasta culture. Its subjects also echo social struggles. For this reason, the political messages of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh occupy a prominent place on the walls of the cities. Among the street painters are intuitive artists trained on the job in the ghettos of Trench Town or Tivoli Gardens. Their large, naive murals depict everyday moments as well as political slogans. They decorate the facades of houses in the working class areas of the capital, the fronts of cafes and stores all over the island. More surprisingly, they are perched on the rocky walls of the mountains, the cliffs, in the caves according to the skill of the pilgrim artists. Back to the city, and more precisely to Kingston. The city has a strong concentration of urban art. The address to remember: Fleet Street, at number 41. This new epicenter of open-air art was once neglected and even, let's face it, unsavory. But the Paint Jamaica initiative has changed all that. The project led by Marianna Farag has gradually involved the entire community. Thanks to local and international artists, the neighborhood is now attractive, as much for its inhabitants as for visitors! Paint Jamaica intends to continue its beautification actions on the whole island with the support of the population. In a land where shopkeepers order their signs from graffiti artists, we can say that art has beautifully entered into the customs.
