By Sharon Leach
The Caribbean
visual arts community lost one of its leading luminaries on Jan. 26 when revered painter Basil Barrington Watson died at his Kingston residence, after a
year-long battle with cancer. He was 85.
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| Barrington Watson: "Self-Portrait" (1973), Orange Park Collection. |
But Watson,
considered one of Jamaica’s most distinguished artists of the post-Independence
period, has left behind a legacy that is likely to inspire Caribbean artists
for years to come.
Dr David
Boxer, the former curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica, described him as
“our finest and most influential realist painter… [who] had no equal”.
Watson was
born in the Jamaican parish of Hanover, in 1931 and was educated at Kingston College before
going on to the Royal College of Art in London, from 1958 to 1960. He continued
studying the works of European masters at the Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, and at major
art schools in Spain and other countries.
On his return
to Jamaica in 1961 (the year before independence from Britain and time of the
nascent art movement), he became the first director of studies at the Jamaica
School of Arts and Crafts - now part of the Edna Manley College of the Visual
and Performing Arts. There he promptly set about contributing to what would
eventually be seen as one of his lasting legacies regarding Jamaican arts and
the country’s cultural heritage as a whole.
According to
former Jamaican culture minister Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange, Watson had “an undying
vision of global reach for Jamaica’s artists. For him, the Jamaican artist
could have a place in any international exhibition or gallery”.
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| Barrington Watson: "Barbara" (c.1962) Aaron & Marjonie Matalon collection, National Gallery of Jamaica |
Having
persevered and become an artist despite the vociferous objections of his own
father, Watson was determined to change the mindset of his people as it
pertained to the arts. At the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts, he was
instrumental in developing a curriculum that would afford graduates the ability
to pursue income-earning opportunities, not only in the area of conventional
and applied arts, but across a broader spectrum that included teaching,
television and advertising.
In short,
local artistic practice was now legitimized. As art facilitator Tamara
Scott-Williams noted in a 2011 article in the Jamaica Observer titled
“Barrington Watson: A Life in Paint,” he gave art students “the tools, the
degrees and diplomas that would allow [them] to become professionals in their own
right in a field that was commonly thought to be an idle pursuit”.
The emergence
of what is today seen as a thriving art scene in Jamaica, and by extension the
Caribbean, is in no small part due to Watson, who had begun, by the 1960s, to
build a name for himself, not only in Jamaica and the broader Caribbean, but
also North America and Europe.
Among his
well catalogued and beloved oeuvre - such as Mother and Child, Washer Women and
Conversation - are also various commissions and official portraits, including
those of several Jamaican prime ministers, American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, and former
Commonwealth Secretary and University of the West Indies Chancellor Sir
Shridath Ramphal.
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| Barrington Watson: "Conversation" (1981), Courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica. |
Watson became
one of the country’s most prolific artists, producing, in addition to three
sculptures, hundreds of paintings over a wide range of genres that included
nudes, erotica, landscapes, history, portraits and self-portraits, for which he
received numerous accolades, including the country’s prestigious Gold Musgrave
Medal, the Commander of the Order of Distinction, and the Order of Jamaica.
But it is his
acutely rendered paintings of Jamaican people - in particular, the Jamaican
woman, his favourite subject - that perhaps have most endeared him to
contemporary Jamaican audiences.
In a post-Independent
society that was used to Eurocentric portrayals of so-called beauty, Watson
unapologetically presented, through his sensitive compositions, an equally
unapologetic Caribbean aesthetic that unswervingly reflected his appreciation
and love of his people, and helped, probably unconsciously, to boost their
self-esteem.
Edward Sullivan, an art historian
at New York University and a specialist in Caribbean art, said: “Barrington Watson's death is a major loss for not only Jamaican art but for
that of the Caribbean as a whole. His work was a touchstone of excellence and
integrity for its technical brilliance but also for its forthright depiction of
a wide variety of characters that form the cultural personality of his nation.
I do not by any means refer to simple folkloric representations of ‘types’ of
Jamaica, but, rather wish to underscore the significance of his innate
comprehension of the social and psychological circumstances of the individuals
and groups he portrayed.”
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| Barrinton Watson: "Mother and Child" (1958-59). Collection: National Gallery of Jamaica. |
Veerle Poupeye, executive director of the National Gallery of Jamaica, reacting
to news of his passing, stated: “Barrington's exceptional command of paint and
line and his professional success as an artist continue to inspire our younger
generation.”
Recalling a lecture that Watson gave at the Gallery and how spectators admired him, she added, “I will never
forget the reaction of young artists and students when he gave a public lecture
at the National Gallery in October 2011 — they treated him like a rock star,
mobbing him with requests for autographs!
We were very fortunate to be able to work with Barrington and his wife,
Doreen, on his retrospective, which was held in 2012 and remains as one of the
most popular exhibitions we have ever staged.”
As Jamaica
bids farewell to this icon of the art world, the country knows that his
impressive legacy is reaching a new generation of artists and art-lovers. -
Sharon Leach is an award-winning author and journalist based in Jamaica.
Sharon Leach is an award-winning author and journalist based in Jamaica.
You can follow SWAN on Twitter: @mcKenzie_ale
