In the 1980s Robert Barritt represented the people of Pembroke East Central as an MP and Cabinet Minister; today he is representing some of them again, albeit through art rather than politics.

The Bermuda National Gallery (BNG) recently installed three of his paintings in the gallery: 'Theatre Boycott, Upstairs Right, 1959' , 'Two Weeks Before Christmas and Government House 1960' and 'Descent from the Cross, 1961'.

The paintings were handed over in a special ceremony at the BNG last Tuesday.

'Two Weeks Before Christmas' depicts three boys eating oranges at Pembroke Dump in the shadow of Government House. The boys in the painting have no mouths, to show that they had no voice in society.

"I've lived in Pembroke East my whole life," said Mr. Barritt, 83. "The dump picture is special. As a kid I loved to go to the dump to poke around. One day I was out there and I saw three kids with an orange crate. I made a quick sketch. Years later I represented them in Parliament."

In "Theatre Boycott" a boy with a pound note in his hand argues with a theatre cashier, because he wants to sit upstairs.

Mr. Barritt would have been aged 32 at the time of the theatre boycott. He was working for the family soft drink company, John Barritt & Sons, where he eventually became managing director.

"At the height of the theatre boycott I was on a trip to Trinidad going to a soft drink seminar," he said. "When I got back I was reading about it in the papers to get a feel for it."

He said art, rather than politics, had always been his first love. In fact, he graduated from Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada with a degree in Fine Arts in 1950.

"Going abroad to university really helped to open my eyes," he said. "When you are here you are in it and part of it, and it is hard to get an objective view of what's going on."

He said at that time politics was the furthest thing from his mind. He didn't join the United Bermuda Party until 1972.

"I was unsure about party politics," he said. "I thought it might be one more divisive thing for the community."

But he did little things to show his support for desegregation, such as joining an all-black basketball team.

"One day I was painting on Friswells Hill," he said. "A fellow introduced me to a friend who was standing there. He said 'this is the only white Bermudian I have ever seen playing basketball with black Bermudians'."

Mr. Barritt was also one of the few white Bermudians to speak out in favour of universal adult suffrage at public meetings.

Director of the BNG, Lisa Howie, said she hoped Mr. Barritt's paintings would inspire more Bermudians to infuse their art with social commentary.

"One of the many qualities of successful art is that of timelessness," said BNG director Lisa Howie. "And in these works by Mr. Barritt, timelessness is very much evident.

"Each, in its own way, captures a strong political opinion, a commentary on society of the time, past and present."

She said the painting 'Theatre Boycott, Upstairs Right 1959' captured contentious, democratic dialogue that is still important today, because it shows Bermuda's social and political development.

"Something that interests me, particularly as director, is how artists might impact our society. How might art especially that which is reactionary and laden with social commentary — how might this art function as a pivot to social healing and development?" she said. "Perhaps this is difficult to measure, this intersection between art and social change, but certainly one that I believe has potential."

Former BNG director Laura Gorham said that Mr. Barritt first brought his work to the BNG's attention when the gallery offered portfolio reviews by Biennial show juror Susan Masuoka.

"We expected that young aspiring artists who had been rejected from that year's Biennial exhibition would sign up for constructive critique," said Ms Gorham. "Among a few surprises was a request from Mr. Barritt, whom I knew as our former Cultural Minister, an avid arts supporter and businessman.

"I had no idea that he was an artist, or that what we would see would astound us."

When the BNG reviewed his work and sketch books, he jokingly told them he painted in the "three Rs" — rum, race and religion.

"Bermuda's art history of the 20th Century, with a few exceptions, has a tradition steeped in landscape painting, with most artists making a living by either capturing Bermuda's beauty for our visitors, or our visitors capturing the Bermuda they loved to take home as a keepsake," said Ms Gorham. "Never before the day I walked into Mr. Barritt's home, had I seen a [Bermuda] artist who painted, not only a modernist style, but social commentary.

"I cannot begin to tell you how important these works are to Bermuda and how unique Mr. Barritt is as an individual, and artist. Not before, nor since, has there been an artist like him."

At the Tuesday ceremony, Mr. Barritt thanked the BNG for taking the paintings.

"It is tough to part with them," he said. "They are my favourites. It is not my best creative work, my best creative work would be my children, Christine, Freddie and Bruce."

He also thanked Dame Jennifer Smith who headed up a committee that selected his painting, 'Theatre Boycott' to be part of a series commemorating the 1959 Theatre Boycott that achieved the end of segregation in Bermuda.

He also paid tribute to his friend, Charles Lloyd Tucker, whose work was also selected to be on one of the commemorative stamps.

Mr. Tucker was Bermuda's first black professionally trained artist. He was a prominent artist in the 1950s and 1960s, and taught at the Berkeley Institute. He passed away in 1971.

"Charles Lloyd Tucker and I met through art," said Mr. Barritt.

"The old Art Association used to exhibit here in City Hall. Later we helped to form the Bermuda Society of Arts.

"We would meet some afternoons in Par-la-Ville Park and talk about art and what was going on in Bermuda. I became the best man at his wedding."

Mr. Barritt admitted he hasn't been doing much painting lately. He stopped painting when he entered politics.

"I really have no excuse other than to get off my behind and do it," he said. "I have paintings that I started in the 1980s that I didn't finish."

Mr. Barritt's artwork can be seen by the public in the upcoming exhibition "4 centuries: Evolving Art from the collections of Bermuda National Gallery And Bermuda National Trust" from September 11 to December 23.