Castellani House is currently exhibiting “Homage to Denis Williams: An Exhibition of Artworks by Indigenous Artists – Celebrating Amerindian Heritage Month” at the National Gallery of Art, running until October 15.
This is another very significant display of work that illustrates the impact and importance of Amerindian art or the Amerindian presence in Guyanese art. These have become much more notable and thematically specific since the 1990s when the Indigenous factor emphatically claimed its place in the art of the nation.
In the colonial era, pre-independence Guyanese art developed after a long period when expatriate and visiting artists drew and painted impressions of Amerindian life through the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. These included nineteenth century paintings by WH Hedges and Edward Goodall in particular, who simply represented people and landscape which documented visits to the interior. The work of Hedges was brought to general notice by Prof Sister Noel Menezes, while Goodall produced much work in support of anthropological explorations, particularly when he was hired by Robert Schomburgk. Others doing similar work were WL Walton and Dr William Leary Echlin.
