In the summer of 1989, the then President of Guyana, Hon. Desmond Hoyte, attended the opening of an art exhibition hosted by the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C. The exhibit featured two Guyanese, Dudley Charles and Gary Thomas, who were selected from submissions from across the Americas. President Hoyte had little knowledge of how this exhibition happened or that of his own government's role in withholding support to the artists’ proposal. President Hoyte was in Washington, D.C., meeting with President Bush and various bank presidents in an attempt to reposition Guyana within the US neoliberal sphere and away from the failed socialist experiments of former President, Forbes Burnham. From all accounts it was a pleasant and timely surprise to be invited to the opening of an exhibition of high quality art by Guyanese and in the capital city of his hosts. It was a welcome surprise for Roots and Culture Gallery too and some validation of its collection as well as the perseverance of its members. A seemingly happy ending did not reflect the resistance Ras Camo and the whole Roots and Culture Gallery organization had overcome to make the exhibition possible and what they would face in its aftermath.
Art has its own potential for endurance and this was a test.
The culture around the arts at the time was to funnel everything through the government. Projects were not supported if not in line with the Republic's message or featured artists that could not be kept on message. It discouraged independent attempts to secure opportunities local and abroad. No one would know more about this than Dudley Charles. He worked for the Ministry of Education which had oversight for culture and he curated many of those government sponsored exhibits through its History and Arts Council.
So, It was a surprise to me when Ras Camo Williams called and said he was in Washington, D.C. with Dudley Charles and Gary Thomas and that they had just exhibited at the Inter-American Development Bank in D.C., and completed a summer program as artists-in-residence at Jackson State University, in Mississippi.
The next day, I drove from Harlem to DC in my black Plymouth Horizon without a working air conditioning system. It was the hottest day of the hottest summer ever. You could lose a pound or more sitting at a traffic light.
Many times since, I had spoken with Charles, Thomas and Ras Camo about the trip. I would get bits and pieces and over the last 30 years had gathered enough to write an essay. Yet, I may never have written on it except for a recent Facebook repost. Art collector Valerie Coddett reposted comments attributed to renowned artist and critic Stanley Greaves on a series of newer 'old house' paintings by Dudley Charles. Guyana's old wooden cottages, abstracted, had been a feature in Charles' work that seemed to ask questions about the inhabitants more so than the architecture. Among other errors, Greaves credited The US Ambassador with arranging the trip, Charles was very animated when we talked about the need to correct the record.
The comments credited to Greaves, are these:
Valerie Coddett From Stanley Greaves -
“THE PAINTINGS shown are not of the same quality as the early ones from the 1970's in
the National Collection in Guyana.
.............
I actually had done about three paintings in the late 1950's based on the same theme. But
Dudley really did a much better job by far. It was these paintings that made the US Ambassador
arrange a show for him and sculptor Gary Thomas...great work, at the World Bank on the late
1970's Dudley remained.”
According to Charles, it was Vladimir Radovic, a representative of the Inter-American Development Bank in Guyana, that introduced Roots and Culture Gallery to the application process for the exhibition. It was the IDB and not the World Bank. The US Ambassador had nothing to do with it. And Moreover, the Guyana government played no role in the project. In fact the trip would never have happened if left to the Guyana government. A proposal was sent to the Ministry of Education and Culture months ahead of the scheduled date. The artists learned only days before the exhibition was scheduled to open that no assistance would be forthcoming and that parliament had not voted on it or for it.
Each artist had to secure transportation for themselves and their work. They managed to do just that and arrived in New York, en route to DC, with little money.
I learned from Ras Camo that It was the Trinidad and Tobago High Commissioner to Guyana, Bladen Semple, who first brought Radovic to the Roots and Culture Gallery at the South Ruimveldt Shopping Plaza. Many notables, local and foreign, visited the gallery during that time. And from the visitors’ log, we know they were sufficiently impressed by what they saw to bring their friends and others from the local middle class and intelligentsia.
In the mid 1980’s, Roots and Culture Gallery was co-founded by Ras Camo who doubled as its curator. He had cited Rastafari and, like the rest of the world, was influenced by Robert Marley and that movement. Roots and Culture Gallery became a movement in its own right and opened doors for artists previously excluded. It would become a center of Guyanese art and hosted the who-is-who of collectors, critics, and ordinary people. Its location within a working class neighborhood allowed easy access without the intimidation served by locations further afield.
Ras Camo had spent his entire life immersed in some form of art and surrounded himself with the most talented. It began in Russian Bear Silvertones pan yard in Lombard Street, learning the rudiments from legends like Roy Geddes, Patsy, and Freddie Thornhill. He brought that knowledge to Twilights Steel Orchestra, testing his skills at arranging, even competing at the National Steelband Competition. There were other highlights like his interactions with Marc Mathews and Ken Corsbie, the early dramatist-duo: “Dem Two''. That became 'We three' then “All Ah We” when Henry Muttoo and musicians like Keith Waithe joined. Camo was also part of Buttonwood, a band developed by Eddie Hooper. He was with poet Michael Jeune and the Buxton Drummers opening bottom-house groundings for Walter Rodney. He made guest appearances with Yoruba Singers and Zulu as a flautist. Then, there was Twilights; the second coming. This time at his former home in Pineapple Street, East La Penitence where he experimented with mixing steelpan with voice, brass, and his flute. He was always trying to learn something new, musically too. I had a front seat to a lot of it.
Similarly, Charles and Thomas were already accomplished artists before the gallery, if not fully recognized. I did not know Charles then. I knew Thomas. Both had made trips abroad representing Guyana and their pieces had been selected as gifts by the Guyana government to its most important visitors and friends. The goodwill Ras Camo had developed from those 1970s projects carried over into the 1980s and the gallery. It was not unusual to walk in on a meeting of the Rastafari Council one day and have members of the diplomatic corp visit on another. It did not happen right away. It took serious work and the cooperation of several artists to achieve its notoriety and to navigate Guyana's cultural landscape during that period. The IDB exhibit was just one example.
Radovic was so impressed by what he saw at the gallery that he suggested the artists enter into the hemisphere-wide process that could lead to an exhibition at what would later become the IDB Cultural Center and Art Gallery in Washington DC. Radovic supplied the application forms. The chosen work would have to be selected from hemisphere-wide submissions, sixty plus countries, and by a panel of judges drawn from curators and institutions across the Americas. Charles’ and Thomas’ work won selection in separate categories, but were combined in one showing.
So, it is understandable that the members of the Roots and Culture Gallery collective wanted to correct any mistakes in crediting any successes of the gallery to the wrong sources. It may not have been the only thing in Greaves' comments to irk Dudley Charles. Greaves' comments do seem to question the originality of Charles 'Old House' series.
Despite the trip taking place more than 30 years ago, Greaves' comments triggered some feelings about Guyana’s art history and a determination to set the record straight. Charles' curatorial work for the Ministry of Education, working through the History and Arts Council, gave him first hand understanding of the political culture within the Ministry. Renowned artist and critic Denis Williams was also at the Ministry, as was Lynette Dolphin. Hon. Viola Burnham was the Minister of Education with the culture portfolio. Roots and Culture Gallery presented a proposal to the Ministry because they knew not much happened without the Ministry. The invitation to the exhibition was reported in the local newspapers with pictures. Even Denis Williams' support was not enough to win favor. The artist needed a miracle with two weeks to go before opening, they got word that no government support would be forthcoming. It was believed the proposal was never presented or supported, because the initiative did not come from within the government.
When Radovic learned of the Ministry’s position, he must have understood his own reputation was on the line as head of a local office that could not deliver. He and others, like Bobby Fernandes, arranged transportation for the pieces. Lennox “Scanty” Canterbury from the Guyana Airways Corporation found 2 tickets to New York just days before the artists were due in Wash., DC. As an example, Charles arrived in DC on a Friday, stretched his own canvases the next day, Saturday, hung them Sunday and the exhibition opened on Monday. The IDB selection was just that; and did not promise any other assistance.
President Hoyte's fortuitous attendance was as a result of an invitation from the president of the IDB. Dr. Cedric Grant, Guyana’s Ambassador to the US, chaperoned Hoyte's presence in Washington, D.C. The artists approached President Hoyte directly and some funds were made available to them while in Washington, D.C.
Not only did they stage the exhibit at the IDB with the artists and curator in attendance, but were invited to Jackson State University, and to Delta State University, both historically Black colleges in Mississippi. At Jackson State, they exhibited and conducted workshops as artists-in-residence for the summer semester. The Mississippi leg of the trip was sponsored by Partners of the Americas. Guyana had been partnered with Mississippi as sister states. Partners of the Americas capitalized on the opportunity to use the traveling exhibit as a gesture of sisterhood.
Charles did return contrary to Greaves' comments, but on his own time and dime. Camo Williams and Gary Thomas returned home to be greeted by questions from Lynette Dolphin, and others in charge of Guyana's culture, as to why and how such an event was organized without the permission of the Ministry. Comrade Viola Burnham would inquire as to who authorized Roots and Culture Gallery to initiate such a trip. US Ambassador, Theresa Anne Tull warned Ras Camo that Charles remaining in the USA may affect the issuance of visas to other artists and that it was Williams’ responsibility to ensure they return.
But those were those days and culture has its own resilience. It survives governments, civilizations too. That is the reason we need to get the facts right and why Roots and Culture Gallery needs to be recognized for its central role in the arts and for what Denis Wlliams called ‘the Guyana School’.
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