32N/64W A REVELATION:

BERMUDA’S BLACK ARTISTIC LEGACY

Masterworks Museum, until June 5

Bermuda's black artistic legacy is a worthy concept for an exhibition. After all a number of our best artists are black. Furthermore their contribution to Bermuda's art history is significant. The theme of the current exhibition at the Masterworks Museum is the black artistic legacy.

There are some real treasures in this show, I am thinking especially of the relief sculpture by Bill Ming. This is probably the best work in the exhibition, but this should not be surprising, as he is our best known and most successful international artist. Additionally, there are other notable creations by such artists as Edwin Smith, Manuel Palacio, Vernon Clarke, Sharon Wilson and Francis Furbert, not to mention Charles Lloyd Tucker, who has had such a powerful influence on so many of today's artists.

It is with some reluctance, therefore, that I express some major reservations regarding this exhibition. I say this regretfully, for I wish the Masterworks Museum great success, but an exhibition of this importance needs considerable research and care in curating, but in this show, this is not all that apparent.

I did ask questions of a number of individuals about how this show was curated. I understand that a number of the works came from the museum's own collection. Additionally, I understand that artists were also invited to submit a work for the exhibition and that may be part of the problem. Some artists are represented by works that I consider less then their best.

If, indeed, the artists were given the choice of selecting the work to represent them, this can be problematic. We artists get so emotionally attached to what we do, we often lose our objectivity. We get so close to the work, we have difficulty seeing it critically. This is where the job of the curator or curatorial committee comes in. These individuals have trained artistic eyes to see critically. They are looking for the best, most representative works within the show's master-plan. That does not seem to have happened with this exhibition.

There is an additional difficulty. The works of some very important artists are missing from the show. Without their representation, the show is inevitably weakened. I know the brochure says the show is not definitive and that only a cross-section of the black artistic legacy is being shown. But why not do a definitive show? How much better that would have been.

The title of this exhibition claims to showcase the black artistic legacy. That word, "legacy", however, seems to suggest something handed down from the past, yet, the brochure suggests that the show is about contemporary black art. I am puzzled about what the show is actually about, for, indeed, there are past and deceased artists in the show, so it is not completely contemporary, after all.

At any rate, I am puzzled about the absence of such artists as the photographers, John Athill Frith or Richard Saunders. There were also other black photographers in our past, that research might have uncovered. It would have been wonderful, if in this show, the work of some of these might have been found and exhibited.

Additionally, where are the works of such artists as Antoine Hunt, Lisa Quinn or Joan Forbes Darrell? Where are the powerful photographs of Dr. Jolene Bean? Where are the paintings of Mrs. Georgine Hill? There are maybe others that I do not presently recall, but at least this is a sample of some you will not find in this exhibition.

At the entrance to the exhibition, there is a selection of paintings and photographs of Gombeys. Although a serious exhibition devoted to the history and development of the Gombey dancers would be a worthy one, just showing a selection of paintings and photographs of Gombeys without their historic development, gives the wrong impression. The Gombey theme is fast replacing the "pink cottage", as Bermuda's number one cliche.

There is, however, one most interesting depiction of a Gombey troupe from about 1930, but in this case, it is an odd one out, for it is not by a black artist. I am thinking of a watercolour of Gombeys by Audrey Laing. Today, as an artist, Audrey Laing is practically unknown. Indeed, it was only after her death that I realised that she actually ever painted. But more than that, almost 70 years ago, she was painting in a contemporary mode that probably gives her priority as one of Bermuda's first modern artist. It is my understanding that she studied art with May Middleton. The particular painting on display depicts very effectively, something of the frenetic aspect of Gombey dancers.

Regarding Manuel Palacio: the work on display entitled, "Basquiat", is notable and given that he can paint works of such high quality, I wonder why it is he feels obliged to stoop to making "shock art".

Certainly Mr. Palacio has created works of much notoriety, but in the end, I see that tack as leading to a dead-end. If what you do is primarily to shock, every time you have another exhibit, you have to "up the ante". We humans easily adapt to the shocking, so much so, in order to get the same effect at a later time, something even more shocking has to be created. You can only carry that so far without getting yourself arrested.

The "Black Artistic Legacy" exhibition continues through June 5, 2009.