The University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries have debuted the online exhibition About Face: Revisiting Jamaica’s First Exhibition in Europe. The exhibition, which is only available online, celebrates Jamaica’s 50th Anniversary of Independence by revisiting the country’s first post-independence exhibition to tour Europe.

Gloria Escoffery The Old Woman, 1955 National Gallery of Jamaica Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Jamaica

Face of Jamaica toured Europe for nine months between 1963 and 1964 yet it was never viewed in Jamaica. Almost fifty years later, the online exhibition About Face: Revisiting Jamaica’s First Exhibition in Europe reconsiders that exhibition by re-presenting its art and related materials online. Over forty of the original works of art by such noted artists as Edna Manley, Karl Parboosingh, and Barrington Watson, as well as original news articles about the exhibition and a study of Jamaican perception and pop culture in the early 1960s are included. Many items featured in the online exhibition are also freely available as zoomable images in the Digital Library of the Caribbean to allow more in depth and detailed viewing.

About Face was co-curated by Dr. Petrine Archer, Visiting Scholar in the Department of History of Art at Cornell University and Claudia Hucke, Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica. It was designed by Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler, Exhibits Coordinator for the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.

Thanks to Claudia Hucke for sharing this information with ARC’s community.