Learn more about how this exhibition was made possible.
Curated by Dr. Petrine Archer and Claudia Hucke
Dr. Petrine Archer is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of History of Art, Cornell University best known for her scholarship related to Negrophilia and Avant Garde Paris and her knowledge of Caribbean art history. Her current research focuses on art in the African Diaspora while her teaching interests relate to black visual culture, Caribbean cultural exchange and distance teaching.
Born in Britain to Jamaican parents, she was educated at the University of the West Indies B.A. (Theology History Sociology, 1975-78) and an M.Phil (Cultural History, 1983-87), and also trained as an artist at the Jamaica School of Art (Diploma. Painting, 1979-82). She gained her M.A. Art History and Ph.D. (Modern) from the Courtauld Institute, University of London, where she subsequently taught (1994-95). Archer-Straw is also an certified appraiser (New York University, 2010) and an Associate of the Appraisers Association of America.
Throughout her career Archer has maintained her professional activities as a curator and writer in the main working on exhibitions and catalogues that expose international audiences to Caribbean art. She is the co-author of Jamaican Art (Kingston Publishers, 1990 & 2011), editor of Fifty Years-Fifty Artists (Ian Randle Publishers, 2000), and the author of Negrophilia: Avant Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s (Thames & Hudson, 2000). She has also written numerous articles on a wide range of issues related to her research in the field of Negrophilia. For more information visit: www.petrinearcher.com
Claudia Hucke is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, and an independent curator. She has a PhD in Art History from the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her research focuses on the art of the African Diaspora, especially in Jamaica and the Caribbean, and the relationship between art and nation building. Recently, she was a visiting scholar at the Free University of Berlin, the Yale Center for British Art, and the Ibero-American Institute, Berlin. Her curatorial work includes Barrington – A Retrospective at the National Gallery of Jamaica (2012) and Jazz and Tings – Selections from Karl Parboosingh’s Sketchbooks (Bolivar Gallery, 2010). Her book Picturing the Postcolonial Nation: (Inter)Nationalism in the Art of Jamaica, 1962-1975, which examines the development of Jamaican art in the immediate post-independence period, is forthcoming with Ian Randle Publishers (fall 2012). One chapter of her book looks at Jamaican art exhibitions abroad, including Face of Jamaica.
Exhibition design by Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler
Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler is the Exhibits Coordinator for the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. This role includes planning, directing, and organizing an active exhibition program designed to share, interpret, and promote the Libraries’ collections. She also serves as the designer and translator of the Digital Library of the Caribbean. Previously she was the Museum and Special Projects Coordinator at the UF Digital Library Center. Recent publications include “Digital Dreams: the Potential in a Pile of Old Jewish Newspapers” (with Rebecca Jefferson and Laurie N. Taylor) in the Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship and "Advancing Digitization: Art and Technology” (with Laura Nemmers) in the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art at Twenty Years: The Collection Catalogue. She holds an MA in Museum Studies and a BFA in Creative Photography, both from UF.
We would like to especially thank the following individuals and institutions whose generosity in allowing us to use their collections made this exhibition possible:
Susan Alexander, Andrew Bogues, Winsome Boyd, Marjan Bruin-Maxwell, Alexander Cooper, Edna Manley Estate, Edna Manley Foundation, Fabian Escoffery, Anna-Maria Hendriks, Haus der Kunst, München, Christine Huie-Roy, Johnny Mais, Olivia McGilchrist, Museumsberg Flensburg - Städtische Museen und Sammlungen für den Landesteil Schleswig, National Gallery of Jamaica, Paris Parboosingh, Stefan Rambow, Michael Sloly, Gaston Tabois, Barrington and Doreen Watson, Patricia Zaskalicky, Brooke Wooldridge, Laurie Taylor, Leah Rosenberg, Knolly Moses, Dr. Veerle Poupeye and the George A. Smathers Libraries.
Acknowledgements and disclaimer: The curators wish to thank the artists, authors, and photographers who have generously donated their images and texts and given permission for their works to be used in this groundbreaking presentation. Every effort has been made to contact artists and authors. Wherever possible we have referenced the source from which they were taken. If any images or articles have not been appropriately assigned we will be happy to do so and thank all the artists for their support and co-operation.