Collection Archives - Page 6 of 8 - National Art Gallery of The Bahamas

‘Slam-Bam’ Sands: ‘The hastily hand-coloured colonial postcards of James “Doc” Sands.’

6 March 2017 Natalie Willis

We are very much accustomed to seeing our islands in various forms of media, anything that can spread the image of our too-blue-to-be-true water. And it is true, we do have some of the most beautiful water on the planet (along with a number of other countries though, we mustn’t forget), and we are – according to certain NASA astronauts “the most beautiful place from space”. However, despite the natural beauty of our landscape, for almost 200 years we have been packaged up and sold as this pristine image that seems to be as clear-cut as our crystal waters.

Colonial desires in the 21st-Century: Using our image purposefully

22 February 2017 NAGB

Images can create wealth, or they can be used to create ideas of paradise that serve only to silence those who occupy the place of paradise. Can we begin to use new art or contextualized images to tell a story that sells a place to the world that builds local and resident brands instead of disempowering them?

January Artwork of the Month: Curtain call for the colonial in Sanford Sawyer’s studio photographs.

31 January 2017 Natalie Willis

Itchy white lace, decorative candles, pristine stockings, crisp gloves and fine gold chains. These three little brides – being married to the good Christian church they inherited as newfangledBahamian post-colonial subjects, are a vision of all that is respectable and good and expected of a Bahamian of this time.

December Artwork of the Month: Hearth and heart – E. J. Read’s ‘Clay Oven’

28 December 2016 admin

‘Clay Oven’ (1912) is earthy, it is full of sepias and greens and stony grays, and, it is homely and sincere. This watercolour by ex-patriot Elmer Joseph Read, more commonly known as E. J. Read, is of our oldest works in the National Collection, outside of the traditional black and white film photography by Jacob Coonley, on display in the first wing of the current Permanent Exhibition ‘From Columbus to Junkanoo’ curated by Averia Wright and Jodi Minnis.

August Artwork of the Month -Amos Ferguson’s Junkanoo Cow Face: Match Me If You Can

22 August 2016 admin

The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas was an idea long before it was a reality. Many artworks, therefore, had been purchased and earmarked for the collection before its eventual incarnation in 2003. The Bahamian National Collection, now housed with us in the magnificently restored Villa Doyle, was originally founded on the purchase of 25 Amos Ferguson works.

NAGB Artwork of the Month: “Pulling Nr. 1,” 1982. Woodprint by Maxwell Taylor

18 July 2016 admin

This month’s selected artwork is a woodcut print on paper entitled “Pulling Nr. 1,” (1982) by Maxwell Taylor—a painter, printmaker, sculptor, ceramicist and draughtsman. The work is currently on show alongside other Taylor drawings and prints, as well as many other artists, in the exhibition “From Columbus to Junkanoo” curated by Jodi Minnis and Averia Wright.

June’s Art of the Month: ‘Sponge Yard’ (c. 1870): The Colonial Photography of Jacob Coonley

27 June 2016 admin

Scraped up from the beds. Uprooted. Carefully picked and collected. Transported by boat. Beaten. Sun-dried. Clipped and polished. Sold to the highest bidder. The sponge industry of the colonial Bahamas as represented in Jacob F. Coonley’s ‘The Sponge Yard’, an albumen print circa 1870, shows neat rows of sponges laid out to dry, to be clipped, to have the animal remains eroded away by hours in the sun

Brent Malone’s ‘Metamorphosis’ is the March artwork of the month

7 March 2016 admin

Brent Malone’s “Metamorphosis” (1979), part of the NAGB’s National Collection, is on view in the R. Brent Malone Reincarnation exhibition. The work was donated to the National Collection by Jean Cookson.

Brent Malone’s “Seaside Village” is the February Artwork of The Month

16 February 2016 NAGB

Throughout his life, Brent Malone went through a lot of changes personally and with his work. But in its own way, “Seaside Village” stands out in R. Brent Malone: “Reincarnation” for various reasons. “Seaside Village” was completed while Malone was studying at Beckenham School of Art, London (1959-1963). It is from the collection of Anthony Jervis and is on permanent loan to the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas.

The January Artwork of the Month is ‘Beller’

13 January 2016 NAGB

Though we are nine days into the new year, excitement from the recent Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Junkanoo parades is still in the air. It isn’t difficult to see why the tradition resonated so much with Brent Malone.