RASTAFARIAN ART. EDITED BY WOLFGANG BENDER

ISBN 10: 976637192X / ISBN 13: 9789766371920

Published by Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston, 2005

About this Item

130p., color plates, photos, illus., bibl., wrps, large 4to. With essays on Rasta as counter culture, Rasta in the novel, and Rastafarian art. Includes documents, dates, interviews, conversations, etc. Original title: "Rastafari-kunst aus Jamaika" (Berlin, 1992). Seller Inventory # 99924

Bibliographic Details

Title: RASTAFARIAN ART. EDITED BY WOLFGANG BENDER

Publisher: Ian Randle Publishers, Kingston

Publication Date: 2005

Binding: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

Edition: First edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

The Rastafarian religion in Jamaica came to prominence in the late 1960's and early 1970's and was given international exposure through the music of one of its main exponents Bob Marley. Music, and Reggae music in particular, was the centerpiece of Rasta creativity but Rastafarianism gave rise to a whole new cultural movement of which visual art was one of the many components. ‘Official' recognition of Rasta art may be traced to the year 1980 when the National Gallery installed a new section dedicated to "intuitive" artists, that is, untrained artists who were previously described as primitive or naïve. The works of Rastafarians were prominent among these intuitives including those of Albert Artwell, Ras Dizzy, Ras Daniel Hartman and Leonard Daley to name a few.

But beyond that, little, if any, recognition has been given to Rastafarian art as a particular genre within Jamaica, and the only known attempt to document and survey the art and handicraft of Rastafarians was in the form of an exhibition catalogue prepared for an exhibition in Germany in 1980 and updated 11 years later for a second exhibition for the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin Germany.

Now, almost 25 years after that first catalogue was produced, comes its first English translation. The works presented in this volume are meant to introduce a selection of Rastafarian artists from Jamaica. The collection is accompanied by photographs that depict everyday life among Jamaican Rastas and scenes from the environment in which the artists live. In addition there are interviews with a number of the artists, a chronology of events in the development of the Rastafarian movement and Rastafarian art, and an index of the artists and their works.