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Pivotal Contributions to the Expansion of Jamaican Visual Art Knowledge
The National Gallery's Dujo (a ritual stool) is the oldest art artifact in its collection and may be the oldest dujo of all the Taino, found in St. Catherine. The Tainos were the indigenous people of Jamaica thought to have arrived from South America around 600-950 naming the island “Xaymaca” or land of wood and water. Due to Spanish colonization in the 15th century these Arawak people all but vanished, leaving behind few artifacts and pictorial drawings. The National Gallery currently holds 4 Tainos objects, with the majority of Tainoi artifacts owned by the British Museum. (National Gallery Jamaica, 2009).
AD 1000-1170
Taino Artifacts
(Photo: Eleanor Nelson. This content is used for non-commercial educational purposes to enhance research and learning, without intent to profit from copyrighted work. All rights to the original content are held by NGJ.)
August 2019 - Hon. Olivia Grange (Jamaica's Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport) called for repatriation of artifacts collected during the colonial era and held by the British Museum while addressing the Jamaican parliament. (Artnet, 2019)
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Approximately 26 cave art sites in Jamaica have been found and recorded containing petroglyphs and pictographs thought to have been made by the Tainos. Only 4 contain pictorial drawings. The largest site with pictographs being a cave (Mountain River Cave) discovered in 1897 by J F Dueden and documented in 1960-70s by J W Lee in Cudjo Hill, St. Catherine. The site was later entrusted to the Jamaica National Heritage Trust in 1982. (Thorne, 2020).
18th Century
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Jamaica became one of the world’s top sugar producers operated by enslaved Africans. Jamaica’s plantocracy (society or government ruled by or dominated by plantation owners) brought in European artists for artistic commissions of plantation landscapes and portraits of plantation owners, introducing European formed art standards (Boxer & Poupeye, 1998, p. 11-12).
1835
Jamaica (a British colony) received funds from the British government’s Negro Education Grant for the education of formerly enslaved populations marking the start of public education. (Barnes, 2010, p. 18). Awarded to religious bodies (missionaries), funding ceased in 1841 (Thompson, 2025).
Jamaica Emancipation Day. The Emancipation proclamation was read commemorating the end of slavery.
August 1, 1838
The Institute of Jamaica founded for the encouragement of Literature, Science, and Art by Governor Sir Anthony Musgrave. Secretary and Librarian Englishman Frank Cundall, was responsible for cataloging collections including IOJ’s Portrait Gallery. Other documented work includes engravings and architecture which included a biographical guide (Poupeye, 2011 , p.65)
1879
1890-1914:
In Eye for the Tropics: Tourism, Photography, and the Caribbean Picturesque, Krista Thompson classifies this period as a time in which British colonial administrators, mercantile elite, and foreign businessmen from Britain and North America aimed to photograph “the New Jamaica” or “Awakened Jamaica” in aesthetically pleasing ways to promote the island as modern and civilized. (Thompson, 2006, 29-30)
Krista Thompson's The Evidence of Things Not Photographed: Slavery and Historical Memory in the British West Indies contains a rich historical overview with photos from the Thompson's personal collection and reproductions with official permission.
(Thompson, 2011. This content is used for non-commercial educational purposes to enhance research and learning, without intent to profit from copyrighted work. This site owns none of the rights to the original content or reproductions.)
Jamaica International Exhibition in Kingston opened. In preparation for it Jamaica premiered the Jamaica Hotel Law of 1890 to provide financial incentive for hotels to be built for the exhibition (including guaranteeing the principal plus three percent interest on all debentures and no import fees on all material and furniture). The exhibition was Jamaica’s attempt to attract investment, largely in tourism. Notably, only one English photographer, A.P. Baker, was allowed to take photographs of the Jamaica International Exhibition. This highlighted the control of the media and cultural identity captured and effectively censored locals' ability to document and create their own content until the last 2 weeks of the exhibition. (Lumsden, 1991)
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The exhibition also included a collection of seized Obeah Artifacts ( at least one of which was of Jamaican origin) owned by a member of the Constabulary named Inspector Thomas. The display was removed after 10 days for "causing a sensation". It is assumed objects were returned but are presumed lost. (Poupeye, 2018). This is another example of limitations to access and preservation of Caribbean visual culture.
(Jamaican Historical Society Bulletin Vol 10 nos 3&4 Oct 1991 pp 17-21. Photo reprinted in Joy Lumsden's article on the Jamaica International Exhibition)
1891
The Obeah Act of 1898 (still in effect today) criminalizes the practice of Obeah, a form of traditional Caribbean spirituality with African roots. The act defines an “instrument of Obeah” to be “anything used, or intended to be used by a person and presented by such person to be possessed of any occult or supernatural power (Paton, 2019).” During slavery, Obeah was a tool of resistance thought to "ward off evil" and was first made illegal in Jamaica in 1760 after Jamaica's biggest slave rebellion (Tacky's rebellion). These acts may have impacted the preservation of antique and culturally historical objects.
1898
Marcus Garvey calls for a ‘National Opera House with an Academy of Music and Art’ in the manifesto founding the Jamaican political party, the People’s Political Party. “Garvey encourages the development of black art as an instrument of racial upliftment” (New World Imagery, Contemporary Jamaican Art Exhibition Catalogue, 1995) In 1934 Garvey addresses art in his speech for the United Negro Improvement Association, which he was the founder of, stating:
“The Negro has not engaged himself in the building up of a Standard Artistic Civilization. He has had only Tribal Civilizations. […] The Art of Sculpture has been raised by the White man. What do you have to compare. What expression of your art in sculpture? Nothing. […] You can still find in Egypt lasting monuments of Negro Art. But it is not a credit to us today. As much as we are trying to develop ourselves in Business, Religion, Politics and so on, we have to build up ourselves in Art. […] We must train the young Rubens, the young Rosetti, the young Reynolds, the young Michaelangelo [sic] of the Negro Race.”
(Gleaner, August 18, 1934, 27) as found in a blog post from Veerle Poupeye entitled “From the Archives: Ideas about Art and Postcolonial Society-Part 1 from May 3, 2019)
1929
1930's
Rise of the Jamaican Intuitives or self taught visual artists. (only a few listed below)
John Dunkley (1891-1947)
Mallica Kapo Reynolds (1911-1989)
Everald Brown (1917-2002)
Edna Manley starts free art classes for adults at the Junior Centre of the Institute of Jamaica. (New World Imagery, Contemporary Jamaican Art Exhibition Catalogue, 1995). Edna Manley was a British trained sculptor of Jamaican descent. She moved to Jamaica in 1922 with her husband Norman Manley who became Jamaican Premier (Founder of the political party the People’s National Party) in 1959.
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Representative Government established and adults over 18 were allowed to vote via the law of 18 universal suffrage. The new constitution established an executive government of five elected members, including a Minister of Education. This meant that citizens had a say in education for the first time. (Barnes, 2010, p. 18).
1940's
1944
1947
The Textile Industry introduced by the British based company, the Ariguanabo Company of Jamaica.The Jamaican Ariguanabo factory was the largest industrial plant in the British Caribbean of its time…it contained 350 looms which wove cotton 24 hours a day and only stopped for Sabbath and important holidays. Ariguanabo’s appreciation for Jamaica's cassava starch necessitated the first bills relating to industrialization in Jamaica to be drafted in 1942. Not passed until 1947, the Textile Industry Encouragement Law granted remissions of customs duty and tonnage tax for imports for construction and operations and relief on income tax. Ariguanabo would go on to produce ten million yards of brown calico, blue denim, and blue chambray a year. (Coombs, 2008, p. 5)
