Barrington Watson rendered lush paintings of his country’s history and culture throughout his life. The Conversation (1981) is one of Watson’s best-known portrayals of Jamaican women, his abiding subject. The painting shows a trio of young women as they relish a lull in their workday, their tin buckets propped behind them as they regard one another attentively. Clad in skirts, shirts, and headscarves, they stand in eloquent contrapposto, perhaps bantering, venting their frustrations, or amusing one another with details of the latest neighbourhood drama. Though women have long played a pivotal role in the Jamaican labour force, their contributions are often overlooked. Watson’s sensitivity to this moment of everyday life lends the women’s activities a heroic resonance.
This is the first time the work of Barrington Watson is presented at Biennale Arte.
—Ade J. Omotosho
