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A Choice Landscape: The Early Work of the Late Chan Pratt

21 May 2019 Articles

By Natalie Willis. There are a few names that come to mind for us when we think of the quintessential, traditional, picturesque Bahamian landscape: Hildegarde Hamilton, Alton Lowe, Eddie Minnis, Dorman Stubbs, Ricardo Knowles, and the well-collected (but not quite always at the forefront of our minds), Chan Pratt. Landscape painting is quite a contentious genre of painting for The Bahamas and certainly for the rest of the Caribbean region, and this is for good reason. The colonial photography and postcards and paintings of days-gone-by were instrumental in framing and re-shaping the region as an idyll for tourist consumption, and this growing industry would later become the backbone and difficult foundation of many Caribbean economies.  

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A Death Foretold: Whitehead & Pratt on Beauty and Loss

20 May 2019 Articles

By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett, The University of The Bahamas. Beauty, as we began two weeks ago, heals souls and allows us to come to a higher place where we feel more human, connected, communal and loved.  Nature, green trees, and shade along roads allow us to walk in and explore the special areas and spaces around us.  This exploration is seen in Jean Rhys’ novel Wide Sargasso Sea (1966), and in Tessa Whitehead’s work, the creek (2018) as beauty envelopes us in its natural form.  When cement covers every inch of land, the soul is taken out of life.  Singer Gloria Estefan’s Mi Tierra (1993), similar to Coulibri, the main location in Wide Sargasso Sea speaks of the loss, longing and nostalgia for a home that we have lost the deep connection to and the healing that comes from revisiting even if only metaphorically, metaphysically or through imagination. 

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Blank Canvas: May 15th, 2019, The Current at Bahamar

16 May 2019 Podcasts

On tonight’s Blank Canvas our host Amanda Coulson (NAGB Executive Director) is in the studio with (right to left) John Cox, Creative Art Director; Angelika Wallace-Whitfield, Curatorial Manager; and Natascha Vazquez, Programming Manager from The Current Gallery and Art Center at Bahamar. They discuss upcoming events at The Current and the overall vision of the operation to actively promote Bahamian art to both a local and international audience.

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From the Collection: “Ain’t I A Good Mother?”

14 May 2019 Articles

By Kelly Fowler, Guest Writer. Maxwell Taylor honours Black Bahamian mothers. As with many things, the concept of motherhood does not always translate neatly or equally cross-culturally. While it is not unusual for a society to have defined gender roles and to encounter expectations based on them, women of marginalised groups tend to face harsher criticism of their lifestyles for not meeting the concept of womanhood or motherhood that is associated with the “ideal.” Naturally, this would lead to feelings of inadequacy and questions of being good or good enough. Bahamian master artist, Maxwell Taylor, delves into this subject matter in much of his work, but his black and white woodcut print on paper entitled Ain’t I A Good Mother?, 2003 is one that addresses Black motherhood specifically. 

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Reconnecting to the Divine Feminine

13 May 2019 Articles

By Blake Fox. Calling upon fear, surrender and angst, Tessa Whitehead presents us with an incredibly personal impression of her dreams, memories, and experiences in a transcendent series of figurative paintings in her first solo exhibition in The Bahamas titled “…there are always two deaths.”   

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