On April 25, Guyanese-American artist Arlington Weithers’s first New York City solo exhibition since 2006 opened at the David Richard Gallery in Chelsea. Weithers is little known to Guyanese at home since he left Guyana in 1969 as a young man and has mostly been away except for very short sojourns home (not exceeding three weeks) in 1973, 1977, 2001, and 2007.
Weithers was first pulled into art by an image that fascinated him as a child – a reproduction of a Denis Wiliams (1923 – 1998) self-portrait done while Williams was in Khartoum, Sudan. In the self-portrait, Weithers recalled that Williams wore “a white towel that was twisted on his head as a turban.” He noted that the towel also hung over Williams’ neck and shoulders. The drawing of Williams – his cousin – was in Weithers’ bedroom, and he recounted that he would “wake in the morning and gaze at this picture. [….]. In this exercise [I] was training my eyes to understand structure and form, positive and negative spaces.” These morning visual meditations were his “most immediate experience” with the art of Denis Williams. “At that time I still had no idea of how famous he was.” He recalled, however, that his own propensity for drawing well was explained as a hereditary trait by his mother.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Weithers shared E R Burrowes (1903 – 1966) as an early teacher with other noteworthy Guyanese artists including Carl Hazlewood whom he encouraged to attend these classes and with whom he has shared a lifelong friendship and brotherhood. While Burrowes’ role as an art teacher is known and thus not surprising in the artist’s early foundation, Vivian Antrobus (1907 – ?) and Hubert Moshett (1902 – 2003) were also impactful on Weithers’s early development and the path taken. Antrobus’s landscapes in oil in the National Collection of Guyana evidence attention to detail within intimately scaled works. Meanwhile, Moshett’s landscapes, also in the collection, vary in subject but are coherent in chronicling the routines of local life.
Around 1959, Weithers’ father began taking him to Burrowes’s art classes. He continued regularly attending until 1961, when a significant family tragedy interrupted his patterns. Later, on an errand for the Seventh Day Adventist Davis Memorial Hospital, Weithers met Antrobus at his home in McDoom when he went to uplift a painted sign. The errand resulted in frequent visits to watch Antrobus paint and to engage in discussions about religion. Of course, as one can imagine Weithers mentioned his past attendance at Burrowes’ class and in turn was asked to show what he had learned. Weithers responded and painted a watercolour sunset which he recalled impressed Antrobus for the skillful handling of the medium. Thereafter, Antrobus offered him “pointers”, as he, Weithers, painted primarily portraits.
Through his association with Antrobus, Weithers met Moshett, who he recalled was impressed with his work, felt there was no possibility for further development of his skills in Guyana and thus recommended he leave. It was, however, Antrobus who told him of the Art Students League of New York. The venerable institution was established nearly 100 years prior in 1875 by art students who rejected the traditions of the day and embraced European Modernism. Committed to creative freedom, it is not surprising that the League counts among its alumni ‘action painter’ Jackson Pollock, Modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe, and Colour Field painter Mark Rothko – significant figures in early 20th century American Art. Committed to the idea of becoming an artist and disillusioned with the life and career path hoped for him, Weithers departed these shores in 1969 intending to study art. Following the guidance of his mentor and friend, he enrolled at the League where he studied Fine Art Illustration under the tutelage of New York Daily News illustrator Stephen R Kidd and Drawing with figurative, portrait, and still-life artist Robert Brackman. Weithers spent one year studying at the League.
In 1971, motivated by the desire to earn formal certification (a degree) so as to one day become a university art educator – a Professor of Art, Weithers enrolled at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. Here he studied Drawing with sculptor Lee Bontecou whom he noted was “a diminutive lady, but a powerful force among Abstract American artists;” Elementary and Advance Painting with African-American Abstract Painter William T Williams, and Independent Study with Figurative Painter Philip Pearlstein. While in pursuit of his degree, Weithers attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, in the Summer of 1973 with a full scholarship. Skowhegan (its shortened appellation) was founded by artists for artists in 1946 and is neither a residency nor an art school. However, it offers to those who are admitted a literal once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, which if used well can be pivotal to one’s career. Individual studio spaces, shared facilities and equipment, and a substantial library are afforded students along with critical support. While at Skowhegan, Weithers was once again guided by William T Williams, himself an alumnus of Skowhegan, among others. As the summer residency concluded Weithers was buoyed on with a Faculty Purchase Award for Best Painter. With his studies completed, Weithers departed New York City, the epicentre of the American art world, in 1974 and effectively stayed away until 1999.
Despite his current painterly leanings and departure from his early foundations while in Guyana, Weithers has continued to ground his work in his memories of the physical space as he responds to the new lessons learned and the life he has forged for himself in the United States. Today it is possible to see how this all comes together in 13 paintings in his exhibition titled Organic: Imagery and Processes Inspired by the Natural World. Of these, 12 paintings date to the period 2000 to 2004 with one large horizontal painting from a series of similarly large format works dating from 2015 to 2018.
According to an extract from the David Richard Gallery’s press release: Weithers […] is inspired by colours, forms, and processes as well as the interactions between each of them in the natural world. Thus, the hues and shapes reference plants, flowers, seeds, landscapes, [egg-laying] habits of reptiles, and celestial skies to name a few. However, his paintings are nonobjective abstractions, not figurative nor narrative per se. Thus, his creations not only have an organic vibe, but are literally organic by incorporating sand, volcanic ash, and coconut tree bark, among other earthy materials onto the surfaces. His process is also organic, emulating the weather patterns and resulting impact on the Guyanese landscape. Guyana is located below sea level, therefore, the land fills with rain during storms and then as it dries, the soil cracks and creates fissures on the surface.”
Weithers applies paint to his canvases by pouring, staining, spraying, and brushing. In a gesture of questioning the parameters of painting, he uses as his preferred medium synthetic polymer emulsions combined with dry pigments; organic materials such as calcium carbonate powder, red and white clays, sand, and volcanic ash; and man-made materials such as glass beads and pearlescent pigments to arrive at canvases which encourage one’s seeing to be a discovery of “reflections, refractions, and optical interferences.” Thus, through the textures and colours of his canvases, Weithers allows relationships and associations to be arrived at that are as varied as the viewer. As a consequence, the canvases may lead to recollections of the rises and depressions of dried, cracked, sunbaked and rain-deprived land or flora and fauna seen by tropical light.
Weithers’ exhibition Organic: Imagery and Processes Inspired by the Natural World runs until June 2 and the individual works can be seen on the gallery’s website.
Akima McPherson is a multimedia artist, art historian, and educator.
