Art galleries on Martinique : Art & Culture

Art & Culture on Martinique : Art galleries

In recent years, Martinique has prided itself in displaying an extensive palette of local painters and sculptors. Exhibitions are more frequent than ever, and the general public has also been widening from connoisseurs to the simply interested. Some of the island’s artists are of native background, others merely residents, some self-educated, others graduates of renowned art schools of the region or elsewhere. Tendencies are in line with all schools from figurative and naïve to symbolic or contemporary and the artists themselves also work in different structures: some independently, others in artistic groups of federative movements.

A bit of history

Painting and sculpture are not rooted in Martinique’s historic identity, which is only logical if we take into consideration that slaves did not have the time to paint pictures, and their colonist keepers kept a permanent contact with the mainland in terms of culture and art until well into the 19th century. Between 1887 and 1927, the only artistic activity was carried out by official Navy painters, who were paid to depict local landscapes and way of life. These early paintings are on display in the Musee de la Marine in Paris and La Rochelle.

In 1937, Paul Bally, a schoolteacher, began to give lessons of drawing and painting in Fort de France’s only high school. The upcoming World War II also played an important role in the region’s plastic arts: the maritime blockade left a certain number of European artists (Denuisière, Baldjean…) stranded on the island, and they in time took the opportunity to create painting and sculpture workshops open to all interested. The style of these paintings was predominantly romantic realism or exotism. The School of Applied Arts was created after the war, as a branch of Fort de France’s technical high school, and as a preparatory course for the Conservatory of Arts and Crafts. In 1945, Mr. Honorien, Mr Mystille and Mr Tiquant founded a new pictorial movement, Atelier 45, greatly inspired by the era’s political and cultural environment. This was the same period as the appearance of Tropiques magazine, a study of Martiniquean society by Aime Cesaire, as well as the literary movement it engendered with the participation of Cesaire and Joseph Zobel.

The 1950s brought about another pictorial movement: the Grouping of Martiniquean Artists, led by Marie-Thérèse Julien. An exhibition entitled “Exhibition of Martiniquean Realities” was organised in 1950 in Fort de France, which eventually led to a polemic between Atelier 45 and the Grouping of Martiniquean Artists, resulting in the dissolution of Atelier 45 in 1955.

In the 1960s, a certain number of artists decided to change their style, such as Hector Charpentier (senior) and Marie-Thérèse Julien, whose works show a tendency of symbolism and mysticism. There were also a few naïve painters in this era, drawing fishing scenes and colourful landscapes, similar to the resplendent colours of reality. Others, such as Joseph, or Khoko Rene-Corail, found means of self-expression in local crafts, using materials such as bamboo and sand in their works of art.

Certain artists who had been following art courses in Metropolitan France now came back to Martinique and turned their backs on the classical education they had received overseas. They wished to include their own Martiniquean identity in their works, which eventually led to waves of symbolism and surrealism, also influenced by Negritude and the 1967 Festival of Negro Arts.

The 1970s brought about a certain artistic “pedagogy”, which took shape in cultural structures such as the Sermac (Municipal service for cultural action in the town of Fort de France), where instructors taught interested youngsters different disciplines like pottery, ceramics, silk-screen printing, painting, sculpture, etc. Another organisation, the GEP (Grouping of Plastic Expression) was created in 1983, in order to contribute to the promotion of Martiniquean and Caribbean painting and sculpture.

The following artistic group to be created was the Fwomaie, which set out to become the crossroads for European, Caribbean, African and Asian cultures… The sector has been in full bloom in our days, artists and expositions multiply, and the number of artistic associations increases each year.

Landscape painting in Martinique

Martinique’s artistic scene today displays a proliferation of exhibitions all year round, with more significant activity in the months of May and June. Certain painters are as inspired as to present regular works, which consequently claim the approval of the public. Many movements and ways of expression are represented by the island’s painters, such as naïve figurative, figurabstractionist, or contemporary expression, which means, for certain artists, a print of slavery. The palette is dynamic and ever on the move.

Victor Anicet

Plastic artist and ceramist, born in 1938 in Marigot. His work recalls scenes of cimaroons, of courageous and rebellious slaves. His objects speak of Martinique and the history of Amerindians. He was one of the founding fathers of Fwomaie in 1984. His works are on display in France and in the Caribbean.

Hervé Beuze

Martiniquean plastic artist, graduate of the Regional School for Plastic Arts of Martinique. His works include sculpture, painting, installations and graphic design, objects as well as space. As a multiform creator, he deals with several artistic domains such as stage settings, costumes and accessories for live performances (theatre, music and dance), as well as for the carnival (disguises and costumes) and also drawings: illustrations, comic strips, logotypes, cartoons and computer graphics.

Henri Guédon

Born on the 22 May, 1944 in Martinique, he has organised a great number of personal and collective exhibitions: mural art and other installations in France and abroad, sonorous sculptures and percussions. Examples of personal projects: 1989, creation of a mosaic for the ministry of the Dom Tom; creation of an Antillean cave in the Musee de l’Homme in Paris.

Hector Charpentier

Born in 1950 in Fort de France, he is most well known to our days as the founding father of « figurabstraction », an artistic form associating figurative and abstract vision. His choice of topic is often the black woman. His exhibitions can be seen all over the Caribbean.

Patricia Donatien

Plastic artist, born in Fort de France, a member of the Totem group, founded in 1983 in the spirit of research and innovation. She is a specialist of Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean plastic arts, exhibiting mainly in the Caribbean and the United States.

Habdaphaï

One of the most well-known painters of Martinique, born in 1960 in Fort de France, he exhibits mainly in Martinique and in the Caribbean region.

Joël Zobel

Despite his degree in decoration, Joel Zobel earned his name in photography, compiling a serious collection of photographs before actually showing it all to the public for the first time in 1996, in the Art Gallery of Fort de France, in the framework of a collective exhibition on the theme of music.

Xavier Barthe

Plastic artist, born in 1964 in Dakar. His magic fingers transform flamboyant husk, mangrove roots, pebbles, shipwreck fragments and bits of rusty metal into paintings and sculptures, sometimes figurative, other times abstract. He renders a second life, a taste of eternity to his materials, preserving them from the offence of time and elements.

Claude Cauquil

After graduating as a teacher for applied arts, Claude Cauquil turned his back on teaching and plunged into the more practical side of art. He researched several things at the same time: sculptures and architecture in the form of plaits, as well as paintings and portraits characterise his work. He was also the composer of several frescoes in Martinique and Puerto Rico.