Exhibition: Paint Like the Swallow Sings Calypso

Kettle’s Yard is pleased to present Paint Like the Swallow Sings Calypso, a major new exhibition curated in dialogue with artists Paul Dash (b. 1946, Barbados), Errol Lloyd (b. 1943, Jamaica) and John Lyons (b. 1933, Trinidad), three important first-generation diaspora Caribbean painters that were working in the UK during the same period that the Kettle’s Yard House and collection was still being established.

Alongside a selection of their own works, the artists will bring together the collections of Kettle’s Yard and The Fitzwilliam Museum for the first time, assembling paintings and works on paper that reflect the rich history, themes and forms of Carnival, from street parades with music and dancing, to folklore, flora and fauna.

28 artists whose work span across five centuries will reflect elements from Carnival’s rituals and celebrations, including Jean-Michel Moreau, Albrecht Dürer, Helen Frankenthaler, Avinash Chandra, David Bomberg, Graham Sutherland and Barbara Hepworth.

FREE, come along

Paul Dash, Masked Stick-lick Fighters Parade, 2019, etching.

Paul Dash (b. 1946, Barbados) lives and works in London. He emigrated to Oxford in 1957 with his family at the age of eleven. After a foundation course at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University, he completed a BA at Chelsea School of Art in 1968 and an MA at the Institute of Education, University of London, where he received a distinction in 1990. In 2009 Dash was awarded a PhD from Goldsmiths University of London, writing a dissertation on African Caribbean pupils in Art Education. Dash was an active member of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) from 1969-1972 and exhibited with the group at various venues in London and Kent. He participated in the ‘Whitechapel Open’ in 1985 and ‘Caribbean Connection 2: Island Pulse’, at Islington Arts Factory in 1996. Other exhibitions include the ‘Summer Exhibition’ at The Royal Academy (1998 and 2020), ‘No Colour Bar’ at Guildhall Art Gallery, London (2015-16), the Arrivants exhibition at Barbados Museum in honour of Kamau Brathwaite (2018), his first major solo show at 198 Gallery Brixton (2019) and Threadneedle Street Prize at Mall Galleries (2020). Dash was also a participating artist in ‘Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now’ at Tate Britain (2019-2022).

Errol Lloyd (b. 1943, Jamaica) is an artist, writer, art critic, editor and arts administrator. Since the 1960s he has been based in London, to which he originally travelled to study law. Now well known as a book illustrator, he was runner-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 1973 for his work on My Brother Sean by Petronella Breinburg. A central figure in the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) in 1966, he went on to produce book jackets, greetings cards and other material for London’s Black-owned publishing companies including New Beacon Books, Bogle-L’Ouverture Publications and Allison & Busby. He also served as an editor of the Minorities’ Arts Advisory Service (MAAS) magazine, Artrage, and his young adult novel Many Rivers (1995) was nominated for the Carnegie Medal.

A painter and prize-winning poet, John Lyons (b.1933,Trinidad) moved to London to study at Goldsmiths’ College School of Art and Design (1959-64) and at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne (1964-65). Trinidadian myths, folklore and Carnival are recurring themes in Lyons’ work as seen in ‘Caribbean Connections’ at Islington Arts Factory (1995), his major touring solo exhibition, ‘Behind the Carnival’ at Huddersfield Art Gallery (1992-94) and Edison Galerie, The Hague (1982); and ‘Mythopoeia’, a touring solo exhibition at Wrexham Art Centre Gallery (1997). From 1979 to 2019 Lyons exhibited in numerous group exhibitions. From 1998-2004 he was co-founder and Director of the Hourglass Studio Gallery, which included an arts education charity-funded branch in West Yorkshire. He has also been active in many art organisations, including as a selector for the exhibitions, ‘Double Vision’ at Cartwright Hall, Bradford (1987) and most notably, Denzil Forrester’s ‘Dub Transition’ at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston (1991). As a poet he has published seven collections and has contributed to numerous anthologies. In 2016 his collection for children, Dancing in The Rain, was shortlisted for the CLIPPA award given by Clpe (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education). In 2022, he served as a judge for that same award. Lyons has also written published critical texts on the work of other artists. For his contributions to the arts, he was awarded The WindRush Arts Achievement Award in 2003, sponsored by the Arts Council.