By Willi Chen
Derek Walcott’s exhibition of eighteen paintings at the Campus Principals’ office, UWI , could have been a formidable show if his other numerous pieces were included to further reveal evidence of his selective approach as an artist with an architectural flair for design. For the spirit of architecture is the requisite for all forms of art: for painting, drama, sculpture, music, dance, whatever, since it is a vital element.
A competent draughtsman, Walcott has glorified our Caribbean landscape with pure colour washes in which the pristine effect of light makes his passages sing. He recognizes that for the oeuvre to survive he must have control of tone, shape, texture, weight and size of his washes correctly juxtaposed for maximum clarity. A genuine water colorist-artist aims for the instant effect and success of his first impulsive brush strokes ,which can only emanate from long practice. Mistakes may not be corrected as in work done in oils.
A water colour painting is likened to a poem, or a short story. Like novels, some large oil paintings can be stretched journeys into episodic grandeur of history and life experiences.
It is the duty of the poet to spout instant phrases of truths, unusual, startling, coined words (“The starved eye” “the melancholy of sundays”) culled out of absorbed and digested information, where ideas, emotions and memory form the basic compendium for artistic expression.
But in this exhibition predominantly of water colours, two oil paintings take centre stage.
Though not professionally framed they present interesting aspects of the painter’s choice of subjects, people as actors and horses (maybe exercising on the Port of Spain savannah green).
“Country Fete 2001” is sheer dramatic theatre. Here is the playwright’s open air stage. The main-hero character is prudently placed off-centre in an attractive red shirt with his violin. Here is action and the supporting cast with visuals. The drummer amidst standing native bele dancers, dresses exquisitely designed with an assortment of head ties, shoulder wraps, and petticoats. The landscape setting is appropriately relevant. But the mid ground and background could have been better resolved where a more acute tonal perspective would have made the figures more pronounced. The impact is vibrant, placement of the player-actors form a cohesive pattern even though minor parts could have been omitted.
“Horses at Sunrise” shows up Walcott’s strategy of focus again by his use of warm red foliage to serve as anchor for the viewer’s attention. Part of the left of this painting could be left out with no detrimental loss to the work.
The smaller water colours, insufficiently lit in this room, are panels of delight of country scenes. “At the Gate, Petit Valley” stands out for its geometrical white fence that gives strong contrast to the fields. White objects are the poet’s favorite elements.
The catalogue cover deserves comment. Though visually delightful in part, the flaws in the painting are obvious. The left half of the picture represents a good botanical illustration but they are too heavy, to complement the right half of the painting which did not get the same attention. More open space, more light on the left would have added more balance, more relief and more interest. The convent girl on the extreme right edge serving as a vertical prop should have been placed more inside. So too, the six-legged animal (from outer space?) should have been higher up the picture plane, both adding life to the pastoral scene. But the banana tree divides the painting in half; the lowest leaf is disturbingly wrong-angled and wrongly attached to the tree trunk. These may be inconsequential comments but valid on cursory observation.
As Nobel Laureate of Literature (1992) can Walcott now at eighty, draw on his corner strings of creative power to add universal meaning to his paintings in which aesthetic value could be entwined with contemporary significance coupled with originality of vision, to fortify his statements uniquely singular of a superior order? To germinate an unusual magnetism to make him a master painter as well?
Walcott wants no praise for his style nor does he believe in heroes, but to succeed here, means he has to reject deja-vu, avoid honey-toned pastiche and familiar sun and sand seascapes, easily imagined within the common man’s experience and sensitivity in favour of probing into his own memorabilia, to create new images out of the unknown world of mystery, magic, and excitement waiting to be discovered with his unbridled passion.
Let us salute the ‘Crocus of the stars’, develop ‘Soul Culture’. Be not the Scholar of One Candle,’. Let ‘The Wild Winds Coldly Blow’. But do not do what has been done before.
