“A people’s art is the genesis of their freedom,” was the slogan used on the programme for the Caribbean carnival at St Pancras town hall in 1959, organised by Claudia Jones and often cited as a forerunner of today’s vast Notting Hill carnival.
With those words in mind, it is fitting that three of the most significant British-Caribbean artists – Paul Dash, Errol Lloyd and John Lyons – have each found it necessary in their practice to depict the historical and cultural significance of carnival. In a forthcoming exhibition, Paint Like the Swallow Sings Calypso at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, each artist’s work evokes different memories, historical events and colour palettes that work together to summon the spirit of carnival. Alongside a selection of their own etchings, drawings and paintings, Dash, Lloyd and Lyons have picked works from Kettle’s Yard and the Fitzwilliam Museum by artists including David Bomberg, Barbara Hepworth, Goya and Picasso.
