This collection of over two hundred (200) art works including paintings, sculpture, works on paper, ceramics, photographs and mixed media installations by over seventy artists, while not the largest collection in the country is respected for its quality.

Many of the nation’s best known artists are represented, including pioneers such as Carl Abrahams, Albert Huie, Barrington Watson, Eugene Hyde, and contemporary artists such as Omari Ra, Oliver Myrie and Amy Laskin. It also has works by important Caribbean artists such as Trinidad’s Leroy Clarke Untitled, (n.d.), Guyana’s Aubrey Williams Quetzacoatl III, (1973) and Surinamese Ervin De Vries’s The Ballet Dancer (1971).

In terms of artistic significance, many of the works are watershed pieces from exhibitions that have defined an artist’s oeuvre or the nation’s development such as Edna Manley’s Jacob and the Angel created in the 1990s after her husband and national hero Norman Manley’s death, or Eugene Hyde’s Isolation, 1978 from his important Casualties Series or his diptych from the controversial Colour Is a Personal Thing created in the run up to Jamaica’s general election in 1980. Looking at Gloria Escoffery’s Street Life triptych of 1984, we see how that series predicted environmental concerns long before it was politic to do so.

The scale of the works in this collection is also impressive, many having been bought specifically for exhibition in Pan-Jam’s (now Pan Jamaica Group’s) modern offices. Large works such as Laura Facey’s Prince of Peace (2001) and Crucifixion (2006) or Tina Matkovic  Spiro’s Soaring (1984) could never be as comfortable in a domestic setting.

The collection’s range of genres is also notable since its holdings include original lithographs dating back to the 18th century such as Belinger’s Roaring River scene, or early photographs by Adolphe Duperly & Sons Country Niggers Rockfort Road, even as it goes on to document other significant styles such as the representational and nationalist inspired Cigarette Boy (1970) by Albert Huie or the intuitive landscapes of Kapo such as Wag Water (1982).

The vision behind this eclectic body of work has always been a modern one that, spanning nearly half a century, has always supported the best of what was available by an artist in any given moment. The result is a collection that has both historical breadth and artistic depth.

History of the Collection

The collection’s origins date back to 1974 when Maurice Facey was appointed as first Chairman of the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) and he (with wife Valerie) became even more active in artistic circles. The establishment of a new building for Air Jamaica on downtown’s Harbour Street also meant that work was acquired to furnish offices there. Both Faceys had previously been involved with buying art such as Barrington Watson’s Mother and Child (1958-9) that would later be donated or loaned to the NGJ’s collection (a print of this work was also commissioned to raise funds for Mother and Child’s purchase for the NGJ) but their activities became formalized after 1974. 

The idea of developing a collection specifically for Pan-Jamaican (now Pan Jamaica Group) was very much in keeping with the times, when Jamaican businessmen were being encouraged to support the culture of the newly independent nation.”

Dr. Petrine Archer-Straw, from Notes on the Pan-Jamaican Collection, 2012

Notes

Over the years this eclectic collection has expanded, led by Pan Jamaica chairman and architect Stephen Facey, to include the new generation of contemporary artists, graduates of the art school at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and international graduate programs.