Jamaican Art

Manufacturing may be disappearing and financial services now seem moribund, but the fine arts is robust as ever. Art in Jamaica is more vibrant than ever and the body of collectors has grown enormously in the last few years. It is sparking serious interest abroad among collectors and galleries. A more critical and self-defining trend among artists is beginnin to break new intellectual ground. More artists are now working in different styles as concepts of post modernism take root. Many of the younger artists are attracted to neo expressionisml, and the narrative form that long dominated Jamaican art seems to be on the wane.

Jamaican art boomed in the early 1990's, spurred by voracious corporate buyers and an expanding monied class

Prices are climbing, yet today there are more galleries than five years ago. The National Gallery in Kingston acts as a beacon for first-rate curating, with an annual exhibit in December that draws collectors from North America and Europe. The Edna Manley School of Art (EMSA) has been turning out a fine cadre of artists since its founding in 1950. And while art critics there are scarcer than a clean line of lyric in a Buju Banton song, the artists have learned to judge each other. "Art here feeds on art,' says David Boxer, the gallery's chief curator.

Art in Jamaica is abundant, if nothing else. Paintings and sculptures jump out of sidewalks everywhere. Shops of all kinds carry art as a sort of afterthought. These days galleries are filled with visitors and buyers. Corporate Jamaica shows off recognized names in their offices and one conspicuous demonstration of new wealth is a home filled with art. "The 1990s has seen an increase in the volume of art that seems to have been prompted by good prices," says Kim Robinson, who co-authored Jamaican Art (Kingston Publishers) with Petrine Archer Straw.

That bothers some artists. Petrona Morrison, who has exhibited assemblages and installations in Washington, D.C., and New York, believes the market now has too much influencere. It may be easier to sell work, but many artists say sales and marketing have become synonymous with their development. "No one asks, "How is your work coming along'," says Morrison. "They ask, How is your work selling?'" It is a troubling attitude that may derail development of artists who weren't commercially successful. "Galleries churn out shows that are essentially marketing pitches," says Morrison. "So there is a lot of work that lacks integrity."

If the marketplace is not too discriminating, the National Gallery is. Since its opening in 1974, it has taken an aggressive role in the development of Jamaican art. Its annual exhibition in December features dozens of new artists, and is meant to stimulate interest in those who show promise. The Annual Gallery, as the show is called, is also a potent reminder of the skill of the country's acknowledged masters.

Where most national galleries tend to be conservative, the Jamaican institution has been the place to stimulate interest in the avant-garde. In the absence of a cultural tradition, it was the National Gallery that gave the intuitives (untrained artists) unstinted support. "The National Gallery insists on showing new art that may not be commercially viable," says curator Veerle Poupeye Rammelaeere. That means avoiding the ordinary. Landscapes and other narrative art, for instance, are numerous while much of the public seems to reject abstractions. So people like Boxer and Rammelaeere give badly needed moral support to the abstract artists who show talent.

Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be formal art movement in Jamaica as in Haiti, nor is there the institutional and financial support found as in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. Everyone essentially does his own thing. "It's better that way," says Dawn Scott, a critically successful batik artist,"techniques change here all the time." Others, like Hope Brooks, EMSA's Director thinks there is a definable style that is at least Caribbean, if not Jamaican. "The Jamaican art movement has its own style and it can compete with what is happening elsewhere," says collector John Cook. Wallace Campbell, Jamaic's largest collector, thinks many of the country's artists are still developing. "But what we have here is wonderful," says Campbell

That's certainly true of the work of a group of artists who graduated from EMSA in the 1980's. They found a new freedom after the turmoil and self-examination that accompanied the country's flirtation with socialism in the 1970's. Cookhorne has emerged as the high beam in this group, beginning to attract attention from many foreign collectors. He has shown in Brazil, Britain, Canada, Cuba, Switzerland and the United States. Cookehorne relies on texture for impact, and uses raw earthy colors with sharply defined background contrast to create moods. His expressionist vision comes from an African perception, he says, that doesn't need to imitate techniques of art that are imitations of African art traditions. "the view in my work is holistic," he says.

Milton George, a neo-expressionist whose deeply penetrating work is tinged with facetiousness, and who was very much the artist of the 1890's, may have been an influence on these younger artists. He mocks and mimics society with a perverse humor. "I paint what I feel passionate about," says George, "I am a self-portrait of my painting."

Perhaps the only area of art that looks distinctly Jamaican is the work of the intuitive whose color and shapes are faintly similar to the schools of art in Cuba and Haiti. "Foreign curators and galleries seem to appreciate the intuitives more than other Jamaican artists," says Tina Spiro, an American who owns a gallery in Kingston and Negril. The more sophisticated a collector- local or foreign- the more likely that collector will own an intuitive. "Their source of energy is from right here," says Rex Nettleford, who has written extensively on Jamaican culture and is founder of the National Dance Theatre Company. "As a result they have been able to make very powerful statements showing the tension between Europe and Africa and finding an expression in the creolization process." intuitives whose work are cherished include the grand master Mallica "Kapo" Reynolds, John Dunkley, Woody Joseph and Everald Brown.

The Institute of Art was established here since 1879, but it produced mostly landscape artist who mimicked European traditions. The flowering of Jamaican art can be traced to the arrival of Edna Manley in the 1920's. The Institute produced mostly landscape artists. Born to an English father and a Jamaican mother in England, she arrived with very advanced concepts of art. She found in her own words " Nothing that was an expression of the deep rooted hidden pulse of the country,". Her husband, Norman, was part of the movement for independence, and her work quickly assumed a nationalist consciousness.

Manley and several experienced artist began a sort of informal school of art that eventually led in 1950 to the establishment of the Jamaica School of Art , which now bears her name. A few bright stars began to emerge immediately. Among the talents discovered in the 1930's: the celebrated intuitive John Dunkley, the post impressionist Albert Huie, naturalist sculptor Alvin Marriott who is responsible for most of the public monuments, the furniture designer Burnett Webster (the Gallery is doing a retrospective in October of his work), and photographer Dennis Gick. One of the most original of the group, cartoonist Carl Abrahams brought biting wit to the canvas when he switched media.

In the 1940's a group inspired and taught by those artists began to develop. Post impressionists Ralph Campbell and his rich colors; David Pottinger for his startling clarity and empathy for the poor black Jamaican . In the 1950's Karl Parboosing, Barrington Watson, Gloria Escoffery stood out. In the sixties George Rodney offered his own ideas of abstract art while.Osmond Watson's work reflected a Pan African ethos. In the 1970's the collectors noticed the abstract and withdrawn Hope Brooks, abstract illusionist Winston Patrick, the disconcerting images of Milton George and the angst ridden canvases and assemblages of David Boxer .

Today, it could be said that Jamaican art is going in all directions. Younger artists, many of whom have trained abroad, no longer look to the tradition of those who came before them. Instead, buoyed by the powerful images Jamaica has already projected to the world-dreadlocks, Rastafarianism, reggae and dance hall music-they are finding icons to compete with CDROM technology and beyond. and their art is an expression of a vibrant culture that refuses to steop behind the messages from the First World.