Reviews of the permanent collection of the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) should always demand an examination of the works and aesthetics of two of the country’s outstanding and prolific indigenous artists, Amos Ferguson (1920-2009) and Maxwell Taylor, better known as “Max”. Ferguson has a particular call on prominence in this regard because it was the Bahamas Government’s purchase of twenty-five of his paintings in 1991 that launched the National Collection.
On this week’s Blank Canvas, Amanda Coulson has the great pleasure to converse with renowned Bahamian artist, Max Taylor.
‘Nassau Boy’ (1973) by Maxwell Taylor is a patterned, shifting mass of humanoid parts set against a lightly textured background, with a hint of houses and civilisation in the distance. This work is most certainly not what one expects of Taylor’s practice, but it is one of the more rebellious and unexpected pieces in the National Collection, a bit of a misfit, and our March Artwork of the Month.
Few things are timeless enough that one would find something special about carving their images out to be immortalized. Max Taylor has made it his life’s work to find them and do just that. In an affirmation of Taylor’s passion and respect for the art form, the D’Aguilar Art Foundation (DAF) recently opened My Neighbourhood – an exhibition of Taylor’s newest prints. Starting out Taylor was born in Grant’s Town, and grew up in Nassau during the 40s and 50s.
“What to Do?”, a woodcut by Bahamian master printmaker Maxwell Taylor, is this month’s Art Work of the Month.