Questions on local art scene

An artist’s relationship to the society s/he inhabits is an interesting and complex one. Artists do not exist in a vacuum. Their work is often an expression of the mood of the time, so when the first recognisable wave of an art movement emerged in the shape of the bohemians of the Society of Independents in the 1920s, their modernist art and decadent lifestyle seemed out of tune with the realities of the time — poverty, political and social strife. Not surprisingly, their work is not easily viewable today although it exists in private collections.

It is clear that “ordinary” people in Trinidad and Tobago did not collect or value art until it began to speak to them, until some sort of art infrastructure began to emerge, until there was spare cash to patronise artists with, and until people’s understanding of artistic endeavour grew.

Today, Trinidad and Tobago has a few fine private art collections that mostly began to be built in the 1950s and 60s.

The Trinidad Art Society had a very important role to play in this development.

Founded in 1943 by a group of artists and art enthusiasts, spearheaded by the imposing, foreign-trained, Max Beckman-inspired Sybil Atteck, the artists of that era used their canvases to portray local events, reconciling the prevailing “schools” or styles, be they expressionism or realism, and establishing a national art movement.

The society was also able, through workshops, classes and other activities, to spawn artists who, though not formally schooled, were not naïve or “primitive” artists. Rather, they developed acceptable “contemporary” styles, in keeping with a local social environment that was dynamic and forward looking.

These various directions, some representational, some abstract, prevailed throughout the 50s and 60s, highlighted by Carlisle Chang, Boscoe Holder and others.

Leroy Clarke, who emerged in the late 60s, was able to tap into the rising social and cultural consciousness of the time and the discoveries of the Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, to produce work that allowed him to dominate the art scene for the rest of the last century.

There is some consensus about who would be considered part of our contemporary visual arts canon and whose work any serious collection should include. But the question is who decides that when no sustained art criticism in magazines or newspapers exists, no television programmes that discuss or focus on contemporary art, no defining text, no auction houses, when the corporate and Central Bank collections (reputedly the best in the country) are not for wide public viewing and the National Museum and Art Gallery’s, the only public institution, collection has important gaps and insufficient permanent exhibition space to establish a historical narrative for the general public? The answer is: The private art galleries, which number about six in Port of Spain alone. As the Art Society’s influence waned, they became the key determinants of desirability and value. Is there a correlation between that and the prevailing rather cons e rvative art s c e n e ? W h e r e is the space for our new a v a n t garde artists?