Tropical Oil on Canvas. Original painting of workers at a plantation. Signed Natalie and dated '73 lower right. 

Overall: 42 3/4 X 36 3/4 in. 

Sight: 35 3/4 X 29 3/4 in. 

Depth: 2 1/2 in. 

#2721 . 

The mainly Spanish, French and English speaking island populations colonized by Europeans from the 16th century still reflect the cultural mix that the Atlantic trade in sugar, spice and slaves provoked. Most Caribbeans of African descent have some Asian, Middle Eastern or European heritage, and Caribbean art is similarly often a diverse hybrid of styles and ancestry. Afro-Caribbean art is specifically considered modern because, aside from the work of European itinerant artists, there is sparse evidence of local visual art production in any of the islands prior to the 20th century. By 1920, the Caribbean became a vogue muse to Europe, as did Africa and other so-called “primitive” cultures. It attracted artists such as Edna Manley in Jamaica, Richmond Barthe in Haiti, and Wifredo Lam in Cuba. Their progressive art provoked a racial awareness and prefigured the modern use of the black physiognomy in painting and sculpture, as African descendents began to see themselves in the work of outsiders and question their own representation. Their interests coincided with shifts in political power from colonial administrations to a growing local middle class attracted by cultural nationalist sentiments, Pan-Africanism, and the “New Negro” philosophies of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s. By the 1940s the perception of the Caribbean changed from exotica to that of an accommodating cultural hub for America and Europe, where both black ideas about Africa and European ideas of the “primitive” co-existed. The creativity of many Afro-Caribbean artists were suppressed during the colonial period, but “discovery” and patronage (as with Dewitt Peters in Haiti in 1944) was a big factor in expanding awareness of their work. The protests and upheavals in the region in the 1960s and 70s fractured the cohesive nationalist sentiments reflected in Caribbean art of earlier decades. In the 1980s and 90s, Afro-Caribbean art depicted Postmodern preoccupations with cultural diversity and regional identity. Today, the dominant schools of art in the islands are considered to be Academic and Self-Taught, with cross-overs happening more and more frequently as the exchange of information and ideas accelerates in the Information Age.