Part 1 — Caribbean art history

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LIST OF CONTENTS

© The Goodwill Art Service LtdSeries 6, Set 51

LIST OF CONTENTSThis set explores Caribbean culture and its arresting visual art

IntroductionMap of the CaribbeanTime-line

PART 1Caribbean art historyColonial Cuba Cuban art since1902 Colonial Saint-Domingue Haitian art since 1811 Dutch West-Indian colonies British West Indies English-speaking Caribbean: Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, Caribbean-born artists in Britain

PART 2Suggested classroom activities PoemsFurther reading

PART 3 Looking at the picturesUnknown Taino Artist, Jamaica, Avian FigureIsaac Mendes Belisario, Jamaica, House John CanoeGeorges Liautaud, Haiti, Le Major JoncAnnalee Davis, Barbados, This Land of Mine: Past, Present and FutureJohn Dunkley, Jamaica, Banana PlantationWifredo Lam, Cuba, The ChairRaul Martinez, Cuba, CubaEdna Manley, England/Jamaica, The VoiceUnknown Djuka Artist, Suriname, Apinti DrumEverald Brown, Jamaica, Instrument for Four PeopleAubrey Williams, Guyana/England, Shostakovich 3rd SymphonyCecil Baugh, Jamaica, Global Vase with Egyptian blue running glazeStephanie Correia, Guyana, Tuma 1Philip Moore, Guyana, Bat and Ball FantasyRonald Moody, Jamaica/England, Midonz (Goddess of Transmutation)Stanley Greaves, Guyana/Barbados, Caribbean Man No. 2Wilson Bigaud, Haiti, ZombiesRas Aykem-i Ramsay, Barbados, MosesPen Cayetano, Belize, A Belizean History: Triumph of UnityWendy Nanan, Trinidad, Idyllic MarriageMichel-Jean Cabazon, Trinidad, French Negress in Gala DressMilton George, Jamaica, Afternoon with FriendsDenzil Forrester, Grenada/England, The Burial of Winston RoseFrancisco Cabral, Trinidad, Man from LaventillePeter Minshall, Guyana/Trinidad, Mancrab from River

Stanley Greaves Caribbean Man No. 2

ART OF THE CARIBBEAN‘A wonderful set of images which helps to re-define the boundaries of the Caribbean for a British onlooker.

The visual art is supported by concise and effective background material, both historical and textual’.Dr. Paul Dash, Department of Education, Goldsmith’s College.

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GOODWILL TEACHING GUIDE — the essential teaching resource for craft, design and culture

Part 1 — Caribbean art history

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LIST OF CONTENTS

© The Goodwill Art Service LtdSeries 6, Set 51

The Caribbean region is distinguished by the fragmentation of its lands and islands, by its long and diverse history of colonisation, by the mix of its peoples, and by the vitality and outreach of its culture — not least its visual art. Yet Caribbean paintings and sculpture, pots, prints and posters are little known compared with the region’s other arts, from Jamaican reggae music and Trinidad Carnival and steelband, to fiction by V.S. Naipaul and poetry by Derek Walcott and Linton Kwesi Johnson. This teaching guide aims to put the record straight.

Languages spoken in the region today reflect its colonial history: Spanish in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico; French in Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe and Guyane; English in Jamaica, Barbados,Trinidad and many smaller islands, in Guyana and Belize; Dutch in a few small islands, and Suriname. Most Caribbean people are descendants of colonisers and — predominantly — of labourers brought from Africa, India and China, plus every possible mix.

These ‘outsiders’, like the early Amerindians of the region — now very few save on the mainland — brought and developed their own art traditions. Although European-style painting and sculpture predominated under colonialism, all traditions have now become creolised, that is, localised and mixed.

The images show the range of visual work made by artists of the Caribbean, especially over the past century, with a focus on the English-speaking countries. The accompanying text provides a brief introduction to Caribbean art history (Part 1), suggests ways in which the images can be used in the classroom (Part 2), backed up by a detailed note on each work of art (Part 3).

INTRODUCTION

The Caribbean lies between North and South America, and surrounds a sea named after the Caribs, early inhabitants. Islands to the north and east border the Caribbean Sea. The Greater Antilles are the largest: Cuba, Hispaniola (divided between Haiti and Santo Domingo), Puerto Rico and Jamaica. The Lesser Antilles are much smaller — only Trinidad, in the far south, is an island of any size. Mainland South and Central America border the sea to its south and west, but only the Guianas — Guyana, Suriname and Guyane — and Belize count as Caribbean (see map).

Unknown Djuka Artist, Suriname, Apinti Drum

Part 1 — Caribbean art history

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LIST OF CONTENTS

© The Goodwill Art Service LtdSeries 6, Set 51

Caribbean art historyFrom 1200 BC Central America was home to

the great Mayan civilisation. A wealth of Mayan ceremonial and domestic sites, carvings in jade and stone, and pottery, is still to be seen there. PEN CAYETANO features Mayan people and artefacts in his depiction of the history of Belize, his homeland.

By the time of Columbus, the Taino — Amerindians, formerly known as Island Arawaks — had settled in the Greater Antilles and evolved effective trade and farming practices, and a politico-religious system of government. Artefacts made for recreational and religious ceremonies

were of expert craftsmanship and expressive artistry. Evidence for this abounds in contemporary written records and archaelogical finds, including petroglyphs (carvings on stone) and pictographs (paintings, often in caves), pottery sherds, and ceremonial carvings in wood and stone such as the Avian Figure which came to light recently in Jamaica. This advanced Taino culture was halted and largely destroyed, and its population decimated, under Spanish occupation.

In the Lesser Antilles, the Island Caribs’ fierce determination to defend their homelands from invaders deterred the Spanish from settling there. Island Caribs excelled as navigators and as farmers, with skills in boat-building and basketry and, oustandingly, in pottery. Their petroglyphs are to be found on rocks and in caves throughout the Lesser Antilles. Such arts were eroded by later French and, especially British settlers, and their population drastically reduced. A few Caribs live now only in Dominica and St. Vincent.

The Guianas are still home to Caribs, Arawaks and other Amerindians. Their artistry is to be seen here, too, in pictographs and in petroglyphs on boulders by river banks. Their life-style, based on the cultivation of manioc (cassava), on fishing and hunting, ensures the continuation of arts such as ceramics, basketry, featherwork, beading and weaving, using forest materials. In recent times STEPHANIE CORREIA has celebrated her peoples’ traditional food practices in ceramics, with designs and forms from old artefacts.

Line drawing of petroglyphs at Marlissa, Berbice River, Guyana.

MAYA Line drawing of a detail of bas-relief at Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico AD450-650.

Part 3 — Looking at the pictures LIST OF CONTENTS

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