Barrington Watson
Basil Barrington Watson (9 January 1931 – 26 January 2016) was a Jamaican painter.
Biography
Born in 1931 in Lucea,[1] Barrington Watson made his original mark in Jamaica as a football player for Kingston College. However, he ultimately followed his artistic yearnings by enrolling at the Royal College of Art in London. He travelled widely and then returned t the first Director of Studies at the Jamaica School of Art and co-founded the Contemporary Jamaican Artists' Association (1964–74).[2][3] He later served as visiting professor at Spelman College, Atlanta.[2] In 1967 he won a prize at the first Spanish Biennale at Barcelona. In 2000 he was awarded a Gold Musgrave Medal by the Institute of Jamaica.[4]
Watson has exhibited throughout Jamaica and internationally. He is the father of sculptors Basil Watson and Raymond Watson. Watson is the subject of Lennie Little-White's 2015 documentary film They Call Me Barrington.[5] He died on 26 January 2016 at the age of 85.[6]
Awards
- 1957 – British Council Scholarship
- 1958-9 – Jamaican Government Scholarship
- 1960 – German Government Scholarship
- 1960 – Dutch Government Scholarship
- 1961 – Jamaican Government Travel Scholarship
- 1967 – Special Award, Spanish Biennale – First Barcelona International Exhibition
- 1971 – Fulbright Professorship, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA
- 1974 – Gold Medal, Jamaica Festival
- 1980 – Centenary Medal, Institute of Jamaica
- 1984 – Commander of the Order of Distinction, C.D.
- 1984 – Prime Minister of Jamaica's Award for Excellence
- 1999 – Barrington Watson Day in Atlanta, GA (11 February)
- 2000 – Gold Musgrave Medal
- 2001 – Citation, University of Technology, Jamaica
Notable works
Portraits
- Marcus Garvey, Jamaica
- Fredrick Douglass, US
- C. L. R. James, Trinidad
- Harriet Tubman, US
- Kwame Nkrumah, Gold Coast
- W. E. B. Du Bois, US
- Julius Nyerere, Tanganyika
- Jomo Kenyatta, British East Africa
- George Padmore, Trinidad
- Haile Selassie I, Ethiopia
- Paul Robeson, US
- Malcolm X, US
- Rosa Parks, US
- Martin Luther King, Jr., US
- Muhammad Ali, US
- Patrice Lumumba, Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville)
Literary works
- Shades of Grey
- The Pan-Africanists
- Barrington
References
- ↑ Biography.
- 1 2 "Introduction", Barrington Watson: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Jamaica.
- ↑ Tamara Scott-Williams, "Barrington Watson: A life in paint", Jamaica Observer, 16 October 2011.
- ↑ "Musgrave Awardees". Institute of Jamaica. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
- ↑ "Watson film premieres Sunday", Jamaica Observer, 28 January 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2015
- ↑ "Renowned Jamaican artist Barrington Watson dies". jamaica-gleaner.com.