Before Independence

Visual arts began in Jamaica in the early to middle 1900s and became noticed in the 1920s through the art of self-taught artists who developed their own styles. Kapo is the best known of these early pioneers in Jamaican art. Mainstream art in Jamaica, in the early days, were strongly influenced by European art and by the 1940s, the desire for Jamaican independence was an important theme for artistic expressions. Edna Manley, who later taught, and founded the Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, led that movement. African cultural influence on mainstream art in Jamaica came later on, when younger practitioners such as Kofi Kayiga, Christopher Gonzalez and Gene Pearson were inspired by the teachings of Marcus Mosiah Garvey. The maturity of Jamaican art today is evident in the wide range of media, styles and subject matters exhibited in the National Gallery and galleries throughout the island and overseas, and displayed in public buildings and in private collections. Young artists who are making their mark in Jamaica include K Khalfani Ra, Ebony Grace Patterson and Michael Layne. Jamaican visual artists who have worked abroad and have returned to make their contribution include Opio Yaw Asante, formerly Horace Donovan, who is featured in this web-site.

Before Independence In 1962
Self-taught art styles became noticed in Jamaica in the 1920s. After emancipation on August 1, 1834 and a further three years of “apprenticeship”, Jamaicans started to use the freedom that they had won to develop the skills needed for nation building. Less than a century later, self-employed skilled professionals, such as David Miller – a carpenter, John Dunkley – a barber and Kapo (Mallica Reynolds) – a spiritual leader, found time to develop their unique styles of sculpture and painting. John Dunkley and David Miller were sculptors. David Miller worked with his son, David, his apprentice, to produce works in wood, which were sold to visitors at Kingston Harbour. David Miller Sr. worked in an African style, creating intricately carved works with a rough natural finish while Miller Jr. sculpted exaggerated African heads, smoothly finished and often polished.

Kapo was the first self-taught Jamaican painter to be noticed and went on to achieve international recognition. Kapo’s subject was the landscape, with patterned foliage, fruits and houses. His sculptures of human images and religious symbolism retain the form of the natural wood and were inspired by a vision of an angel that instructed him to take up art.

An African and religious thread run through the works of many of Jamaica’s self-taught artists and is seen in the art of two Rastafarians - Everald Brown and Albert Artwell. Other self-taught Jamaican artists are Allan Zion Johnson, William Rhule, Michael Parchment, Tony Bag, Sylvester Wood and Zacchaeus Powell. The African and Rastafarian theme that run through the works of the above artists can also be seen in the many craft markets across the island that cater for the tourist trade.