British-American poet W H Auden was talking about the masters of art, the great painters and their study of suffering and the human condition. His persona might have been an art critic, a guide walking visitors through the Royal Museum of the Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, in December 1938, and deconstructing the paintings on show. He makes reference to a number of works by these “old masters”, in particular Belgian sixteenth century painter Pieter Bruegel. As he explains, he pauses by Bruegel’s “Landscape with the fall of Icarus” pinpointing it as an example of the fine precision and accuracy of the work of the old masters who never got it wrong.
Fast-forward to Castellani House and the National Gallery of Art, Guyana in Georgetown in July, 2017, where the Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition (GVACE) is on show. As one walks around the gallery deconstructing the more than 200 pieces of art, representing the output of the nation’s
