John Dunkley

John Dunkley (10 December 1891 – 17 February 1947) was a self-taught Jamaican painter and sculptor. Though his fame is largely posthumous, he is considered one of the island's most significant artists.

Early life

Dunkley's early life was filled with both adversity and adventure, which may account, in part, for his unique artistic vision. At the age of seven, an accident damaged one of his eyes, affecting his ability to learn in school. As a result, he was sent for by his father who was living in Panama. Upon arrival, the teen-aged Dunkley discovered his father had recently died and was buried the day before he landed.

Deprived of his father's wealth, Dunkley started earning his own livelihood. Like many of his impoverished black countrymen, he sought work throughout the Caribbean,

He returned to Chiriqui, where he set up a barbershop and started painting in his spare time, encouraged by Clarence Rock, a prominent Panamanian photographer. H. Delves Molesworth, then Secretary of the Institute of Jamaica, was attracted by the paintings. A key figure in the early Jamaican art movement, the young Englishman encouraged Dunkley to keep painting. His work is generally darker in tone, and has been described as sharing characteristics with Wifredo Lam's paintings. Some critics see commonality with the work of French Post-Impressionist Henri Rousseau.

Dunkley was deeply involved in the socio-political issues of his day, in particular the rampant racism that saw him become a pan-Africanist and an admirer of Marcus Garvey.

Later life

While continuing to ply his trade as a barber, Dunkley maintained his artistic pursuits. Active for little more than a decade before his early death, his output as a painter was small. Less than 50 paintings are known, but they reveal a unique and compelling aesthetic. There is no clearly discernible development in Dunkley's work. Anticipating impending fame, the artist kept his paintings and persisted in refining, even overworking, them. Small mammals, crabs, birds and often spiders with their complex webs, inhabit the gloomy woods. Human figures are rare, though human presence is implied by an occasional house painted in the distance or at the edge of a wood. Dunkley's most persistent motif is the pathway or road, which sometimes pushes through the vegetation to suggest great depth. In "Back to Nature" (circa 1939), the path, impressed with footprints, bifurcates to encircle a heart-shaped grave. Dunkley made a painting of the president. From a large piece of Lignum Vitae cut down for the military base, he carved a seated portrait of a proud Jamaican man and named him "Sandy Gully".

The show traveled to the National Gallery of Jamaica, where it was on display from 29 April 2018 to 29 July 2018, and it was then on display at the American Folk Art Museum in New York from 30 October 2018 to 24 February 2019. The National Gallery of Jamaica's version contained work not shown at PAMM that explored the themes of tourism, immigration and the emergence of cultural nationalism during Dunkley's lifetime. "Daylight Come…Picturing Dunkley’s Jamaica" served as a complement to "John Dunkley: Neither Day nor Night." It included rare photographs, artifacts and film footage from the turn of the 20th century to the Jamaican Nationalist movement, providing further context to Dunkley's output.