Stanley Greaves (born 1934)Rupert Roopnarine
"Master Maker: Stanley Greaves"
''

Caribbean Beat ''Caribbean Beat'', founded in 1992, is a bimonthly magazine, published in Port of Spain, Trinidad, covering the arts, culture and society of the Caribbean, with a focus on the region's English-speaking territories. It is distributed in-flight by ...

'', Issue 72 (March/April 2005). is a Guyanese painter and writer who is one of the Caribbean's most distinguished artists. Writing in 1995 at the time of a retrospective exhibition to celebrate Greaves's 60th birthday, Rupert Roopnarine stated: "It may be that no major Caribbean artist of our time has been more fecund and versatile than Stanley Greaves of Guyana." Greaves himself has said of his own creativity:

I still don't talk about myself as making art! Other people do that. I am a maker of things. In the early days, I found empty matchboxes, cigarette boxes, bits of string, wire, empty boot-polish tins, whatever, and made things. Drawing was just another activity, and it still is. My favorite medium is still wood, of course. My hitherto secret preoccupation with writing poems, which has now come to light, is another form of making. Recently at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingha ...
, where I did a reading, I was asked if the paintings influenced the poetry, and I said, "No, they come from the same source."Anne Walmsley
"Stanley Greaves"
''
BOMB A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy. Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechan ...
'', Issue 86, 1 January 2004.

Biography

Greaves was born in a "tenement yard" on Carmichael Street,

Georgetown, Guyana Georgetown is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is t ...

. He studied art in Guyana with

Edward Burrowes Edward Rupert Burrowes (15 September 1903 – 1966) was a Guyanese artist and art teacher who founded the Working People's Art Class (WPAC), the first established art institution in Guyana. The E R Burrowes School of Art, an undergraduate ins ...

in the

Working Peoples' Art Class The Working People's Art Class (WPAC), founded by Edward Rupert Burrowes in 1945, was the first established art institution in the colony of British Guiana, now the country of Guyana. A number of well-known Guyanese artists were taught at the WPAC. ...

(1948–61) and from 1963 to 1968 attended University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the UK, where he studied painting, majoring in sculpture for the B.A.Hons degree in Fine Art. He also earned a Diploma in Art Teaching. He was a

Fulbright Scholar The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

from 1979 to 1980 at

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, where he did printmaking and sculpture for the MFA degree. In Guyana, Greaves taught at Sacred Heart Primary, St. Stanislaus College (his old schools), Berbice High School, Queen's College, from 1971 to 1975, and was the first Head of the Division of Creative Arts at the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard fo ...

from 1975 to 1986. He left Guyana in 1987 and has been resident in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate ...

since that time. He now lives in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

. Before and while in Barbados he served on the first art and craft panel designing the syllabus for the

Caribbean Examinations Council The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) is an examination board in the Caribbean. It was established in 1972 under agreement by the participating governments in the Caribbean Community to conduct such examinations as it may think appropriate an ...

and has been a part-time tutor at the Barbados Community College. He was elected a Distinguished Honourable Fellow at

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

Cave Hill Campus in 2003 and it was extended.

Work as an artist

As an artist Greaves works mainly in painting, but has also produced sculpture, drawings, prints and pottery. He was awarded the Guyana national honour of the Golden Arrow of Achievement in 1975. He has exhibited at national level, winning several prizes, and has had one-man shows. He represented Guyana twice at the

São Paulo Biennial SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S ...

and once at the Medellin Bienniale in Colombia. He has had major exhibitions in the UK (in 1999 his work was shown in the landmark exhibition curated by

Gottfried Donkor Godfried Donkor (born 1964) is a Ghanaian artist, living and working in London, who has exhibited in Cuba, Mexico, the US, Europe and Africa. He is known primarily for his work in collage, and has been described as similar to Keith Piper and Isa ...

, ''The Elders'', alongside that of Brother

Everald Brown Saint Everild of Everingham ( ang, Eoforhild) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the 7th century who founded a convent at Everingham, in the English county of the East Riding of Yorkshire. All we know of her comes from the York Breviary.David Hugh Farm ...

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) and elsewhere in Europe, as well as throughout the Caribbean. He won a gold medal for painting in the Barbados entry at the Santo Domingo Bienniale. He has been exhibiting since arriving in North Carolina, USA, in 2008, at the Fayetteville Museum of Art, Moruca Gallery Washington, the University of Fayetteville, the State University of North Carolina. and Claflin University in South Carolina, the OAS in Washington, and Castellani House in Guyana. In 2014 he celebrated his 80th birthday with an exhibition of 24 paintings based on his reading of the novels of the renowned Guyanese author Wilson Harris.The paintings were also shown at the OAS in 2015. He also won the gold medal for painting in the 2017 Guyana Visual Arts and Craft Exhibition where he declared it was his last showing in that exhibition. 2018 he showed photographs of 14 sculptures -The El dorado Series sponsored by Diamond distilleries. The actual works were shown at the OAS 2019. Over the years his paintings have appeared on the cover of several books. He has also done pen and ink illustrations for poems of Martin Carter, Ian Mc David, both distinguished Poets of the Caribbean.

Writing

His collection of poems ''Horizons'', published by

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...

in 2002, won the Guyana Prize for Literature in the first book of poems category. His most recent collection is ''The Poems Man'' (Peepal Tree Press, 2009). He co-authored, with

Anne Walmsley Anne Walmsley (born 1931) is a British-born editor, scholar, critic and author, notable as a specialist in Caribbean art and literature, whose career spans five decades. She is widely recognised for her work as Longman's Caribbean publisher, and f ...

, ''Art in the Caribbean: An Introduction'', published in 2010 by New Beacon Books. "Haiku" is his third book. Each contains pen and ink drawings. He has also collaborated with Akima Mc Pherson of the University of Guyana to write a series of articles in the Sunday Stabroek on individual works in the Guyana National Collection.

Personal life

Greaves was for a time married to the painter Alison Chapman-Andrews.

Selected awards

* 1979: Fulbright Award"Renowned artist to make presentation at National Gallery"
'' Kaieteur News'', 21 October 2012. * 1994: Gold medal, Santo Domingo Biennale of Painting (for triptych ''There Is a Meeting Here Tonight'')Rosaliene Bacchus
"On the Anniversary of Guyana’s Independence Day: A Tribute to Stanley Greaves"
''Three Worlds One Vision ~ Guyana – Brazil – USA", 26 May 2013. * 2002: Guyana Prize for Literature for best first book of poems (''Horizons: Selected Poems 1969–1998'') * 2014: Guyana National Lifetime Award for Art * 2017: Gold Medal First Prize (painting) Guyana National Art & Craft Competition

References

External links

* Vibert C. Cambridge, PhD
"Profiles of Caribbean Artistry – Stanley Greaves: The Guyanist"
4 January 2004, eCaroh Caribbean Emporium.
Author information
at Peepal Tree Press.
"Stanley Greaves Art"
CaribNation interview on YouTube. * Rupert Roopnarine
"Master Maker: Stanley Greaves"
(interview), ''

'', Issue 72 (March/April 2005).
"Stanley Greaves"
at Diaspora Artists. {{DEFAULTSORT:Greaves, Stanley Guyanese poets Living people Barbadian painters People from Georgetown, Guyana Alumni of Newcastle University Howard University alumni Academic staff of the University of Guyana 20th-century Guyanese painters 21st-century Guyanese painters 21st-century poets Guyanese male writers Male poets 21st-century male writers 1934 births Recipients of the Wordsworth McAndrew Award