ANDY JACOB
Noted local artist Glenn Roopchand died on July 5. This article acknowledges his invaluable contribution to this country.
A mural painted by Roopchand recreating one of Carlisle Chang's paintings will be installed at the Piarco Airport arrival lounge on August 23.
Apprenticed to the artist Carlisle Chang at 14, Glenn Roopchand fashioned an outstanding career that built on that early training, “transforming Chang into a conduit for Roopchand’s own expressive concerns,” in Pat Bishop's words.
He was a significant presence on the local art scene, exhibiting frequently, inspiring colleagues and younger artists and publishing catalogues of his work that will remain an invaluable resource for generations to come.
He articulated, in many forums, the philosophy that underpins his work: the feminine principle, the concept of soul, the importance of rhythm. Most of all, he espoused that love of country and art as a means to express that love.
His long association with a venerable local art tradition, his restless decorativeness, the use of actual and simulated texture and a commitment to teasing out archetypal forms like the Caribbean Queen, Man with the Hammer and others, were drawn together in his work to create a unique Caribbean vision that is both ornamental and profound.
Roopchand’s long apprenticeship to Chang honed his skills with brush, knife, scissors, glue and colour.
More importantly, this period linked him to a tradition that encompassed both Carnival and “art- for-country” that few of our artists even remember. These were the heady post-Independence years when artists aspired to create a national art style in service first to the Federation and later to the newly independent TT.
These were the days of Chang, Isaiah Boodhoo, MP Alladin, Willi Chen and Sybil Atteck, founder of the Trinidad Art Society. Future Nobel Prize winners Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul were poised for takeoff and the scholar-politician, Eric Williams, was fashioning TT in his own image and likeness.
Roopchand’s direct connection to this tradition would be enough to ensure his importance to the contemporary era. However, his acknowledgement of that tradition’s high seriousness and lofty ambition shines like a beacon at a time when commercial interests and cynicism have caused several of our local artists to fall short of their best work.
[caption id="attachment_971291" align="alignnone" width="1007"] Photo by Mark Lyndersay[/caption]
Roopchand’s texture bursts out of his canvas with that same energetic randomness that mirrors the human energy and joy of participation that the Carnival permits. Its biological quality is deliberate, indicative of the artist’s stated desire to create a "garden" or "forest" from which his symbolic forms emerge.
His work uses actual and simulated textures that are at the core of Trinidad’s long Carnival tradition. Satin, chiffon, lace and mesh are layered and decorated with rhinestones, sequins, braid and glitter. This creates a richly layered tapestry, a veritable orgy of t
