Winston Branch

Winston Branch OBE (born in 1947) is a British artist originally from Saint Lucia, the sovereign island in the Caribbean Sea. He still has a home there, while maintaining a studio in California. Works by Branch are included in the collections of Tate Britain, the Legion of Honor De Young Museum in San Francisco, California, and the St Louis Museum of Art in Missouri. Branch was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978, the British Prix de Rome, a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship to Berlin, a sponsorship to Belize from the Organization of American States, and was Artist in Residence at Fisk University in Tennessee. He has been a professor of fine arts and has taught at several art institutions in London and in the US. He has also worked as a theatrical set designer with various theatre groups.

As described by art critic Carlos Diaz Sosa, Branch paints "abstract canvases in cool, cloudy colours that have a quality which allow the viewer to explore the depths of the mind. Branch uses paint like a symbol, a purely aesthetic language, an illustration of spirit." He explains: "My parents saw I had an aptitude for art and wanted to give me the best opportunity." Critic Amon Saba Saakana notes: "Branch had a first hand experience of the Renaissance masters and subsequent developments of art movements in Europe. And though he ingested these European masters, he was searching for a form that incorporated and reflected his beginnings in the Caribbean. Though first working in the figurative tradition, he moved to abstracts as he apprehended the world of colour reflected in the cosmos, lightning, volcanoes, tropical storms, and earthquakes." Teaching In 1971, Branch was a visiting tutor at Hornsey College of Art and at Goldsmiths College of Art, London University. His first visit to the US was as Artist-in-Residence at Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, in 1973, and in the UK between 1973 and 1992 he also taught at Kingston School of Art, Chelsea Art School and at the Slade School. He was a professor of art at the University of California, Berkeley, and at Kansas State University.

He has also given several public lectures, including at Oakland Museum of California, at the Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, and at Barrows Hall, University of California at Berkeley.

Painting

alt=Branch has exhibited his work consistently since the 1960s, including at the Oakland Museum of California, the Alliance Francaise de San Francisco, the permanent collection of the Berkeley Art Museum, the 11th and 23rd São Paulo Art Biennial, Museo de Arte Moderno in São Paulo, the 4th Bienal de Pincture de Cuenca, Modern Art Museum (Cuenca, Ecuador) and the Biennale de Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He has subsequently spent more time in London, where he has a close longtime association with the Chelsea Arts Club. One of the works shown was his painting West Indian — "a marked exception" to the non-figurative style now more typical of Branch

From early on in his career, Branch's work has won recognition and awards, such as the British Prix de Rome in 1971, a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship to Berlin in 1976, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978

His paintings are in public and private collections. Several are in St. Lucia, Germany and France: the British Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Arts Council of Great Britain, Sinclair Research Limited (United Kingdom), Victoria and Albert Museum, 2009: Robert Mondavi Winery Exhibition, Napa, California 2004: Alliance Française de San Francisco, California 2003: Alliance Française, Los Angeles, California 2001: Willard Hall, Kansas State University, Kansas 2000: Alliance Française, San Francisco, California 1999: Townsend Center for the Humanities, University of California at Berkeley 1998: 150th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the French Antilles, Alliance Française, Castries, St. Lucia 1997: Clink Wharf Gallery, London 1996: Dunnottar School, Castries, St. Lucia 1994: Belize Arts Council, Belize 1994: Department of Museums, Belmopan, Belize 1994: Alliance Française, Roseau, Dominica 1994: Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Castries. St. Lucia 1993: National Commercial Bank, Castries, St. Lucia 1992: Alliance Française, Castries, St. Lucia 1987: Jersey Arts Council, Bernie Gallery, Channel Isles 1985: Artist's Open Studio, Whitfield Place, London 1984: Joanna Lonsdale, London 1983; Lady Marabelle Kelly, Carlyle Square, London 1977; Hochschule der Künste, Berlin 1976: Galerie Richter, Berlin 1975: Winston Branch, Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York. 1973: Fisk University, Carl van Vechten Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee 1969: Winston Branch with Felix Topolski, St Martin-in-the-Fields, London 1967: Winston Branch Paintings & Drawings, Arts Lab Gallery, Drury Lane, London

Group shows

Awards and honours 2024: Appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to the creative and fine arts. 2020: Honorary Doctor of Arts, HonDArt, University of Greenwich London, UK 1996: Purchase award by the 23rd Bienal de São Paulo 1995: Mural – Hewanorra International Airport, St. Lucia 1994: Organization of American States sponsorship to Belize 1978: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Painting 1977: Represented UK at 2nd World Festival of African Arts and Culture, Lagos, Nigeria 1976: Artists-in-Berlin Programme (Berliner Kunsler Programme des DAAD) 1973: British Council Award 1971: Brazilian Government sponsorship to the 11th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil 1971: British Prix de Rome, Italy 1970: Boise Traveling Scholarship

Select bibliography 2004: Peter Selz, Ronald Alley, Alliance Française, San Francisco, California. 27 March 2002: "Being There: 45 Oakland Artists" Museum of California, Oakland 2000: Marianne de Tolentino, "Urban Life in the Caribe" Muséo del Pantéon National, Art Nexus, May 2000, #36 2000: Jan Biles, "Inner Vision Drives Artist", Lawrence Journal-World, 9 November 2000 2000: Jennifer Detweiler, "Sharing His Art", The Manhattan Mercury, Sunday, 8 October 2000 1999: Wendy Martin, "A Matter of Survival – Portrait of Winston Branch", Women's Studies, No. 3, Volume 28, 1999: Julia Sommer, Berkeleyan, "Painter Winston Branch – Visiting Artist Shares His 'Great Love' for Painting & education", August 1999, 1998: Ronald Alley, 30th Festival International de La Peinture, Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France, Cat. 1988–1999 1998: Maria Lluisa Borras and Antonio Zaya, Casa de America, Caribe Insular, Exclusion, Fragmentaçion y Paraiso, Madrid, Spain, Cat. 1998 1998: Vlad, "Winston Branch ou les Métaphores de la Liberté", Frances-Antilles Magazine: Arts Plastiques, Saturday, 30 May–5 June 1998 1997: Holland Cotter, "This Realm of Newcomer, This England", The New York Times, 24 October 1997 1997: Mora Beauchamp Byrd, Transforming the Crown, 1996: André Chahot, 23rd Bienal International Sao Paulo, "The Inner Landscape", Cat. 1996 1996: Caroline Popovic, "The Precarious Life of Art", B.W.I.A. Caribbean Beat, November–December 1995 1994: André Chapot, Alliance Française de Roseau, Dominica 1993: Winston Branch, "In Search of the Green Banana", Evening Standard, 27 January 1993 1992: Anne Walmsley, The Caribbean Artists Movement: A Literary and Cultural History, 1966–1971, London and Port of Spain: New Beacon Books, 1992: Ferdinand Dennis, "Ferdinand Dennis in Conversation with Winston Branch", BBC Radio Forum Work Talk, November 1992 1992: Michael Fabre, Los Afro Americains et L'Europe (catalogue), Paris: Galerie d'Art Noir Contemporain 1988: This is London, "Artist Opens City Studio", No. 1708, 30 June 1988 1987: Rod McLoughlin, "Exploring the Depths", Jersey Evening Post, Friday, 8 May 1987 1982: Carlos Diaz Sosa, 12th Biennale de Paris, "The Light in the Colors", Museé de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Cat. 1982 1981: Goethe Institute, "Two Decades of the DAAD's British Artists in Berlin", London, November 1981 1978: David Simolke, "Winston Branch – A Study in Contrast", Black Art International Quarterly, Volume 2, No. 2, 1978 1978: Bernd Lubowski, "Ich Lasse Mich von Kimt der Stadt beein Flussen", Berliner Morgenpost, 3 December 1978, #282/81. JAHRG 1977: Jules Walter, "Winston Branch Painting 1976-77", DAAD: Hochschule der Kunst, Berlin, 1977 1977: Peter Hans Gopfert, "Malerische Dialoge Zwischen Kalkul und Phantasie", Die Welt, Tuesday, 12 July 1977-B NR 159/28W 1976: Was ist Wann?, "Winston Branch: Guest of Berlin DAAD", #6, Vol. 15.5–15.8, 1976 1973: Dr David C. Driskell, "The Recent Paintings of Winston Branch", The Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Department of Art, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, October 1973 1973: Clara Hieronymus, "Major Show At Fisk", The Tennessean, Sunday, 14 October 1973