This is the first part of an extended conversation with the Jamaican painter Phillip Thomas. Part two can be found here. Veerle Poupeye: How do you situate and define yourself as an artist, in the contemporary Jamaican and Caribbean context? Is that, in fact, the context in which you situate and define yourself and, if... Continue Reading →
Ivanhoe Martin and the Hotel
I had lunch with a friend at the new AC Marriott Hotel today, because I wanted to see the art that was acquired for and installed in the lobby, which has received enthusiastic coverage in the local press. I had initially planned to write about it in the context of a more general post about... Continue Reading →
From the Archives: Ideas about Art and Postcolonial Society – Part 2
Here is part two of a two-part excerpt from my PhD dissertation "Between National and Market: Art and Society in 20th Century Jamaica" (Emory University, 2011). The excerpt is from the Introduction. Part one can be found here. (c) Veerle Poupeye, al rights reserved Partha Chatterjee has pointed out that the challenge facing anticolonial cultural... Continue Reading →
From the Archives: Ideas about Art and Postcolonial Society – Part 1
While I work on some urgent publication deadlines and some new blog posts (and mark papers!), here is another text from my personal archives: the first of a two-part excerpt from my PhD dissertation "Between National and Market: Art and Society in 20th Century Jamaica" (Emory University, 2011). The excerpt is from the Introduction. Part... Continue Reading →
The Wheels of History: Museums, Restitution and the Caribbean – Part 1
This is the first of a two-part post on the restitution debate and its significance to the Caribbean. This first part explores the general context and the second part specifically looks at the Caribbean. It is a time of reckoning for museums: museums are increasingly pressured to come to terms with their historical origins,... Continue Reading →
The Elephant in the Museum
Late last month, on December 28 to be precise, I visited what is now branded as the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, a suburb of Brussels. My visit, during a family vacation to Belgium, came just a few weeks after the museum had reopened, after being closed for about five years for extensive renovations. The 86 million... Continue Reading →