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| Caribbean Art Movement | |
|---|---|
| Name | Caribbean Art Movement |
| Founded | 1966 |
| Dissolved | 1972 |
| Location | Caribbean, United Kingdom |
Caribbean Art Movement The Caribbean Art Movement emerged in the late 1960s as a transnational cultural phenomenon linking artists, writers, curators, and activists across the Caribbean and the diaspora in the United Kingdom. It intersected with decolonization processes involving Independence of Jamaica, Independence of Trinidad and Tobago, Independence of Barbados and dialogues in cultural institutions such as the Commonwealth Institute, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, and the Tate Gallery. The movement engaged contemporaries active in networks that included Black Power (movement), Pan-Africanism, Non-Aligned Movement, and intellectual currents associated with figures in the Pan-African Congress and institutions like the School of Oriental and African Studies.
The formation of the movement correlated with postwar migration flows between the Windrush generation, British West Indies Regiment veterans, and students at the Courtauld Institute of Art, the Royal College of Art, and the Slade School of Fine Art. Key historical frames included the aftermath of the Mau Mau Uprising, the influence of Negritude thinkers such as Aimé Césaire and Léopold Sédar Senghor, and the cultural politics following the 1966 Barbados general election and the 1966 Guyanese constitutional conference. Diasporic hubs like London, Kingston, Jamaica, Port of Spain, Havana, Santo Domingo, Bridgetown, and Toronto provided sites for exhibitions and debates involving institutions such as the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, and the National Gallery of Jamaica.
Artists associated with the movement included prominent figures from diverse islands and diasporas: Frank Bowling, Stanley Greaves, Terry Joseph, Donald Locke, Ralph Thompson, Bernard Brathwaite, Gordon House, Kynaston McShine, Eddie Chambers, Peter Doig, Paulette Nardal, Amy Abbott, Winsome Evans, Wifredo Lam, Belkis Ayon, Ralph Hotere, Edna Manley, Hector Hyppolite, Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden, Faith Ringgold, Geoffrey Holder, Aubrey Williams, Christopher Cozier, Althea McNish, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mervyn Morris, George Lamming, Wilson Harris, Samuel Selvon, Derek Walcott, V.S. Naipaul, James Berry, Olive Senior, Kamau Brathwaite, Stuart Hall, Claudia Jones, and Walter Rodney. Collectives and groups that played roles included The Caribbean Artists Movement, Black Arts Movement, Group f/64, Art Workers' Coalition, The Royal Society of Arts, Caribbean Artists' Association, Trinidad and Tobago Art Society, Jamaica School of Art, and curatorial projects at the Hayward Gallery.
Visual vocabularies combined references to indigenous traditions like Taino people, Afro-Caribbean spiritualities associated with Vodou, Santería, and Orisha worship, and iconographies drawn from colonial archives including the Transatlantic slave trade and Middle Passage. Aesthetic strategies invoked modernist practices linked to Surrealism, Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, and Caribbean vernacular craft traditions exemplified by calypso, steelpan, and maroon communities. Political themes connected to Anti-apartheid Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Black Panther Party, and labor struggles such as the Trinidad sugar strikes infused works with questions of identity, memory, possession, and resistance. Materials and techniques recalled folk practices found in Jamaican revivalism, Haitian Vodou flags, and the iconography of Santería altars.
Regional centers developed distinct tendencies: Jamaica foregrounded figuration and political murals connected to movements around the Bustamante government and the Manley administration; Trinidad and Tobago emphasized syncretic performance-inflected imagery tied to Carnival (Trinidad and Tobago), Steelpan invention, and the legacy of Eric Williams; Barbados cultivated a school linked to the Barbados Museum and Historical Society and painterly traditions; Guyana produced socially engaged practice responsive to the People's Progressive Party era and the writings of Walter Rodney; Cuba and Haiti influenced revolutionary aesthetics through the Cuban Revolution and the art institutions of Havana and Port-au-Prince. Diasporic communities in London, New York City, Toronto, Bristol, and Birmingham generated hybrid practices shaped by the Notting Hill Carnival, the British Black Panthers, and university programs at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Exhibitions and institutions that showcased artists included the Institute of Contemporary Arts exhibitions, the Commonwealth Institute shows, the National Gallery of Jamaica retrospectives, and programs at the Hayward Gallery, Tate Modern, Serpentine Galleries, and the British Council. Key curated shows involved organizers from the Africa Centre, Institute of Race Relations, Horniman Museum, Photographers' Gallery, and the Caribbean Cultural Centre. Funding and patronage came from entities such as the British Council, UNESCO, the Caribbean Development Bank, private patrons like Mona Baker and institutions like the University of the West Indies, along with community-based spaces like Riverside Studios and grassroots venues tied to Notting Hill Carnival and the Black Cultural Archives.
The movement informed subsequent generations associated with institutional shifts at the Tate Britain, the National Gallery of Jamaica, and curatorial initiatives by figures at The Studio Museum in Harlem, MoMA PS1, and the New Museum. Its legacy appears in scholarship engaging with postcolonialism, exhibitions arranged by curators such as Okwui Enwezor, Hans Haacke, Lisa Phillips, and artists who cite predecessors including Chris Ofili, Yinka Shonibare, Isaac Julien, Lubaina Himid, Quincy Troupe, Hew Locke, Hurvin Anderson, David Hockney, and institutions that now collect works in the holdings of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Canada. Contemporary debates around restitution, repatriation, and representation invoke precedents from exhibitions, activism, and scholarship tied to the movement across diasporic networks.