New Publication – Art in the Caribbean: An Introduction

Anne Walmsley and Stanley Greaves
ART IN THE CARIBBEAN: AN INTRODUCTION
New Beacon Books, London, 2010

The Caribbean’s defining characteristic of fragmentation – geographical and historical – continues to obstruct cultural understanding and exchanges within the region. A forum such as the Caribbean Artists Movement was possible amongst writers and artists only while resident in Britain. Caribbean literature travels more easily than art, if dependent on translation. With no such language barriers Caribbean art, in reproduction at least, is potentially accessible region-wide. The internet ‘revolution’, especially, now enables wide access to reproduction of artworks and information about art and artists. Yet opportunities for a broad sense of the region’s art inheritance and details of contemporary practice are minimal. Our book aims to provide such opportunities, for students and for all with an interest in the region’s art.

ART IN THE CARIBBEAN: AN INTRODUCTION is centred on a virtual Gallery, a selection of forty artworks made in the region since the 1940s, reproduced full-page with accompanying text. Here, for example, are works which reflect both the deep-rooted cultural traditions of Haiti’s black majority (a painting based on vodoun practices, an oil-drum cut-out sculpture of a carnival figure) and another in which its contemporary artists’ embrace of international media is evident (an installation of television monitors showing street scenes and newspaper reports). Here, too, is a painting which reflects the Afro-Cuban cultural inheritance of Wifredo Lam, foremost Caribbean artist, made in Cuba after his enforced return home during WW2; a poster from the early days of the Cuban Revolution; an installation of small, flimsy boats from the 1990s. A sculptural work from Suriname incorporates Maroon art traditions of the Ndjuka; an installation from Martinique suggests the island’s continuing colonial, sugar-based status. Works from Anglophone countries – the majority, given the book’s main Caribbean readership – span cultures of the Maya and Garifuna (Black Carib) of Belize and the East Indians and Lokono (Arawak) Amerindians of Guyana, by way of portrait sculpture in Barbados, the festival arts of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago, and much more.

Artworks in the Gallery are further contextualised in the book’s other main section, Historical Background. This serves as an outline of art-making in all parts of the Caribbean region, in all periods: Pre-Columbian, Colonial and Early Independence, divided into areas colonized by the Spanish, French, British and Dutch; Modern and Contemporary, divided by country or group of countries. This part, too, is fully illustrated, with smaller images. A Time Line sets out the main historical events and art developments, again by period and area. A Glossary of Art Terms, a Select Bibliography and a listing of Illustrations complete the book.

The Authors
Anne Walmsley is a British-born researcher and writer, specializing in Caribbean arts, with experience of secondary school teaching and educational publishing in the region.

Stanley Greaves is a Guyanese-born artist and art teacher whose art educational posts have ranged from secondary school to art college and university, in Guyana and Barbados.



Book specifications

Publication 15 October 2010

192 pp, 21 x 21 cm, colour images throughout

ISBN 9781873201220

price £20.00

Individual and trade orders to:
New Beacon Books
76 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EN, UK
Tel. +44 (0) 20 7272 4889 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7281 4662
Email: newbeaconbooks@btconnect.com
Website: www.newbeaconbooks.co.uk

Rest in Peace: Virginia Pérez-Ratton (1950-2010)

The Idol: Virginia Perez Ratton, photo from Perfil magazine.

Virginia Pérez-Ratton, senior scholar and curator of the visual arts in Central America, passed away on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at the age of 60. Virginia Pérez-Ratton devoted the majority of her life to the development and support of the visual arts and artists of the Central American region. In the mid-nineties, she organized a series of unique exhibitions on Central American art as director of San José’s Museum of Contemporary Art and Design. Since then, she had become a consistent and driving force behind many initiatives. She was the founder and director of TEOR/éTica, an independent non-profit in San José dedicated to the research and diffusion of contemporary artistic practice throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and internationally. She was also known for having organized a number of international exhibitions, workshops, conferences and for producing a series of excellent publications. Her professional work served to underscore the significance of contemporary Central American and Caribbean art. Last year, she was awarded the Magón Prize, a lifetime achievement award for work in the field of culture, given by the government of Costa Rica. Virginia was also a member of our Caribbean Crossroads curatorial team. Her expertise will be sorely missed.



Cultural Fusion Through a Camera

Cultural Fusion Through a Camera

by Polibio Diaz

You, the viewer, the unhurried passerby, see an open door. Inside, flora, fauna, and gimcracks jump out, a crowded and colorful interior. It arouses the neighbor’s envy, and if all that isn’t enough its inhabitants call attention to themselves even more, by playing the stereo as loud as possible (Bachata or Reggaeton), so it’s impossible for them to go unnoticed. It’s no coincidence we’ve been declared the second happiest country in the world, though we don’t have a nickel to our names.

I present my Dominican interiors as polyptychs, multi-layered single shots which may then be broken apart and reconstructed. It’s as if the shot itself is composed of puzzle pieces. The result resembles a collage. I like to refer to these photographs as my sancocho, a Dominican dish that mixes elements of the Spanish and Caribbean cultures.

While studying photography and civil engineering in the United States, I learned about the art of several masters—Eadweard Muybridge’s motion capture, Edward Weston’s soft focus, Cartier Bresson’s eye, Walter Evans’s humanity, Eugène Atget’s intense vision—that have formed the foundation of my sancocho. When I returned to Santo Domingo and began taking photographs, I employed the works of these individuals in developing my own style, which combines American Expressionism with a variety of European Caribbean influences.
The mark America made on me was not at all academic. Quite the contrary. Without my American training, I would never have acquired the ingredients I needed to develop a unique and honest sancocho. When I click the shutter or assemble my polyptychs, I simply let the objects around me inspire me.

For decades, Caribbean artists have been fighting to be heard, read and seen through their music, literature and art. As a people, Caribbean islanders long to take their place within the contemporary art scene. The stamp of new voices from the Caribbean has intensified recently, and broken down the “border” that demarcated today’s art, blurring it and widening it, without delving into the artist’s place of origin so much as responding to a global discourse. I think that this discourse has allowed my Interiors exhibition to take part in international events like the Venice Biennale and Kreyol Factory in the Parc de La Villette in Paris.

Caribbean art is the product of our ancestors’ efforts, who paved the way for new generations of artists to explore their roots within a modern setting. Without forgoing the memories of centuries of civilization and barbarism, as a new generation of artists, we have begun to walk in the path of our predecessors. We concentrate on the present, expanding the borders that once limited us, allowing the pre-established canons of contemporary art to widen and alight in the Caribbean, enabling us to influence a broad panorama of culture abroad. We derive inspiration from the interior of humble shacks in the islands of the Caribbean, shacks that are always dressed in their Sunday best, where the sun shines in anticipation of the eye of another artist who will click the shutter and celebrate life, even in the face of misfortune.

Translated by Hoyt Rogers

Polibio Diaz is a photographer from Barahona, Dominican Republic. His work has been featured in the Venice Biennale and the Brooklyn Museum. Diaz also serves as Cultural Adviser for the Dominican Minister of Foreign Affairs. His art, he says, is “oriented first and foremost toward my fellow Dominicans.” Three of his photographs were recently selected to join the Unit Works of Art and Special Projects at the UNESCO in Paris.

Photos by Polibio Diaz

Studio Visits in Puerto Rico

On October 31 and November 1, 2009 Caribbean Crossroads spent time on the Isla del Encanto, visiting with a few local artists and some venerable institutuions. Together with curator Rebeca Noriega-Costas, our first stop was at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Puerto Rico to see the new solo exhibition of work by Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Azul. This show features a number of large-scale works and few drawings from earlier periods. Focusing on the figure, Roche has created his own legacy based on personal narrative and the history of art. We were led through the exhibition by Mr. Roche himself, which was an enlightening treat.

Following a quick batido of mixed fruits and an empanadilla de pollo at the Mercado, we stopped at the spare, design-conscious home of Quintin Rivera Toro. The artist presented us with a few works from 2002 to 2009, including a series inspired by films and other that explores language, space and the human presence.

Around the corner from Quintin is the home/studio of Chemi Rosado Seijo, who discussed his most recent construction from found materials, a skate bowl-cum-swimming pool in the La Perla district of San Juan. The bowl has been featured in a number of magazines around the world and is a popular site for San Juan's skaters and for neighbors looking for a cool place to relax on the weekends, when the bowl is filled with water.

Finally, we visited with Melvin Martinez. The artist showed us a number of newer paintings, one of which he has re-started for the third time, having first covered it with pages from Artforum, then layered it with black paint and text and, finally, with a think impasto of silica gel, acrylic paint and glitter. The inscrutable canvases are a departure from his measured images of wallpaper-like desisgns but are just as palatable. A set of shelves in the back held an assortment of small sculptures of animals, toys, and other objects covered in thick layers of colorful paint and glitter--practically lickable.

At the very end, a visit to the Museo de Arte de Ponce, which has a branch at the local commercial behemoth, Plaza Las Americas. This was a fabulous collection of works, mostly paintings and a few scuptures, that ranged in date from the colonial period through the end of the 20th century. Next year, we will be making the trip to Ponce to see the striking Edward Durrell Stone building after its renovations and all of its fabulous contents.

Studio Visits in Puerto Rico

Last week, July 7-9, 2010, Caribbean Crossroads again spent a few days on La Isla del Encanto and visited with some superfly artists, including Carlos Ruiz Valarino, Omar Obdulio Pena Forty, Aaron Salabarrias, and Jesus Bubu Negron. One of the pleasures of studio visists is getting to know the personalities behind the works that we already admire. These visits are part of the continued research and development of the larger Caribbean Crossroads project. Future visits will include Karlo Andrei Ibarra and Isabel Ramirez Pagan. Check out the links!

Caribbean Crossroads in Colombia

In February, the Caribbean Crossroads group made its fourth research trip to the Caribbean coast of Colombia. We stopped in Barranquilla to observe Carnival celebrations. This photograph features one of the floats in the fabmous Batalla de Flores parade. We also stayed some time in Barranquilla and Bogota. Among the institutions visited were the Observatorio del Caribe, Museo San Pedro Claver, Parque Cultural del Caribe, Museo del Oro, Museo del Caribe, Museo de Arte Moderno de Barranquilla, Museo de Arte Moderno de Cartagena, MAMBogota, Musseo Nacional de Colombia, and Bilbioteca Luis Angel Arango/Museo del Banco de la Republica, among many others. We visited with numerous artists including Johanna Calle, Oscar Leone, Alvaro Barrios, Delcy Morelos, Clemenia Echeverri, Rafael Ortiz and the collective Mal de Ojo, Alberto Baraya, Beatriz Gonzalez, Lilana Angulo, Jose Alejandro Restrepo, Juan Manuel Echeverria, and Domingo Izuierdo, among others. If you are interested in knowing more about our trip and research there, please email us.