The National Gallery has honoured Guyanese artist extraordinaire Philip Moore, who recently celebrated his 90th birthday and announced that it had printed a special card this month with a reproduction of his colourfully patterned 1966 painting ‘Journey – Rosignol to Georgetown’.
Paintings and sculpture from the National Collection by Moore were on display on the two upper floors of the National Gallery building throughout December and will continue for the month of January 2012, a press release from the gallery said.
It noted that Moore celebrated his 90th birthday on October 12, shortly before he was bestowed with the Cacique Crown of Honour (CCH) for his exceptional contribution to Guyanese art. The gallery’s display honours this most influential of Guyana’s artists for his lifelong creativity which has produced hundreds of works of art since his first sculptures begun in the late 1940s, after he experienced a vision of a hand reaching down to him from the skies with a sculptor’s tool – recorded in his painting in the National Collection, ‘Receiving the Gift’(1971-80), the release said.
Meanwhile National Gallery Curator, Elfrieda Bissember and staff visited Moore at his home on the Corentyne on his birthday with gifts and also with the painting, titled ‘Janet Guyana’, which the artist had donated to the gallery last year in memory of the late chairman of the National Gallery’s Management Committee and former president of Guyana, Janet Jagan.
Contrary to his usual practice the artist had not signed the work and had promised to do so later; the gallery therefore returned with the work for the artist’s signature, the release said.
Meanwhile, the main first floor gallery at Castellani House is exhibiting works by artists who have won awards at the National Visual Arts Exhibition, the premier visual arts competition in Guyana, which ceased in 1994 after nearly four decades of such competitions being organized and presented, first by the National History & Culture Council, later renamed the National History and Arts Council, and its further successor the Department of Culture, which also administered the National Collection prior to the founding of the National Gallery in 1993.
Castellani House in wishing to revive an earlier proposal for a relaunch of the NVAE event, is thus promoting the idea of such a competition through the presentation and examination of the quality of prizewinning works and artists, many of whom have had their careers and reputations enhanced, if not established, by the winning of NVAE awards, the release said.
The current exhibition includes paintings and sculpture by prizewinning artists from the National Collection, such as Stanley Greaves, George Simon, Oswald Hussein, Bernadette Persaud, Kenneth Ward and Gary Thomas. The exhibition will run until Saturday, February 4 next.
The gallery has also printed another card this month; this one by Winston Strick, MS, which depicts his painting ‘Birds in the Forest’(1987). Moore’s card along with this one and others reproducing works from the National Collection, can be purchased from the National Gallery’s foyer shop. The cards are all blank for personal messages.
Please note that gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm Monday to Friday, and 2 to 6 pm on Saturday; the gallery is closed on Sundays and holidays, and admission is free.
