As described by art critic Carlos Diaz Sosa, Branch paints "abstract canvases in cool, cloudy colours that have a quality which allow the viewer to explore the depths of the mind. Branch uses paint like a symbol, a purely aesthetic language, an illustration of spirit."[1]
Sunrise on Bodega Bay
Early years and education
Born in Castries, Saint Lucia, Branch attended a Catholic school there,[3] before being sent to London at the age of 12 in the 1960s.[4] He explains: "My parents saw I had an aptitude for art and wanted to give me the best opportunity."[5] He studied at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, where his talent was recognized early, and after graduating in 1970 he won the prestigious British Prix de Rome, enabling him at the age of 24 to attend the British School at Rome for a year (1971–72).[6] Critic Amon Saba Saakana notes: "Branch had a first hand experience of the Renaissance masters and subsequent developments of art movements in Europe. And though he ingested these European masters, he was searching for a form that incorporated and reflected his beginnings in the Caribbean. Though first working in the figurative tradition, he moved to abstracts as he apprehended the world of colour reflected in the cosmos, lightning, volcanoes, tropical storms, and earthquakes."[3]
He has also given several public lectures, including at Oakland Museum of California, at the Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, and at Barrows Hall, University of California at Berkeley.[8]
In 2010 he fell ill while at San Francisco International Airport waiting for a flight in order to exhibit work and give a lecture at the Museum of Modern Art in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and was cared for at the Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, where following his recovery he held an exhibition entitled A Gift of Life (1 May–24 June 2011).[9] He has subsequently spent more time in London, where he has a close longtime association with the Chelsea Arts Club.[3]
Most recently, he was one of the artists featured prominently in No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990 (July 2015–January 2016) at the City of London's Guildhall Art Gallery,[10][11][3] with three of his paintings hung at the entrance of the exhibition.[12] One of the works shown was his painting West Indian — "a marked exception" to the non-figurative style now more typical of Branch[13] — on loan from Rugby Borough Council's respected collection of 20th- and 21st-century British art, which also includes works by L. S. Lowry, Barbara Hepworth, Stanley Spencer and Bridget Riley.[14]
From early on in his career, Branch's work has won recognition and awards, such as the British Prix de Rome in 1971, a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Fellowship to Berlin in 1976, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1978[2] (in which year he was featured in the international quarterly journal Black Art).[13][15]
2004: Peter Selz, Ronald Alley, Alliance Française, San Francisco, California. 27 March
2002: "Being There: 45 Oakland Artists" Museum of California, Oakland
2000: Marianne de Tolentino, "Urban Life in the Caribe" Muséo del Pantéon National, Art Nexus, May 2000, #36
2000: Jan Biles, "Inner Vision Drives Artist", Lawrence Journal-World, 9 November 2000
2000: Jennifer Detweiler, "Sharing His Art", The Manhattan Mercury, Sunday, 8 October 2000
1999: Wendy Martin, "A Matter of Survival – Portrait of Winston Branch", Women's Studies, No. 3, Volume 28, ISSN 0049-7878
1999: Julia Sommer, Berkeleyan, "Painter Winston Branch – Visiting Artist Shares His 'Great Love' for Painting & education", August 1999, ISSN 0885-3142
1998: Ronald Alley, 30th Festival International de La Peinture, Cagnes-Sur-Mer, France, Cat. 1988–1999
1998: Maria Lluisa Borras and Antonio Zaya, Casa de America, Caribe Insular, Exclusion, Fragmentaçion y Paraiso, Madrid, Spain, Cat. 1998
1998: Vlad, "Winston Branch ou les Métaphores de la Liberté", Frances-Antilles Magazine: Arts Plastiques, Saturday, 30 May–5 June 1998
1997: Holland Cotter, "This Realm of Newcomer, This England", The New York Times, 24 October 1997
1997: Mora Beauchamp Byrd, Transforming the Crown, ISBN 09654082-0-5
1996: André Chahot, 23rd Bienal International Sao Paulo, "The Inner Landscape", Cat. 1996
1996: Caroline Popovic, "The Precarious Life of Art", B.W.I.A. Caribbean Beat, November–December 1995
1994: André Chapot, Alliance Française de Roseau, Dominica
1993: Winston Branch, "In Search of the Green Banana", Evening Standard, 27 January 1993
1992: Anne Walmsley, The Caribbean Artists Movement: A Literary and Cultural History, 1966–1971, London and Port of Spain: New Beacon Books, ISBN 978-1873201060
1992: Ferdinand Dennis, "Ferdinand Dennis in Conversation with Winston Branch", BBC Radio Forum Work Talk, November 1992
1992: Michael Fabre, Los Afro Americains et L'Europe (catalogue), Paris: Galerie d'Art Noir Contemporain
1988: This is London, "Artist Opens City Studio", No. 1708, 30 June 1988
1987: Rod McLoughlin, "Exploring the Depths", Jersey Evening Post, Friday, 8 May 1987
1982: Carlos Diaz Sosa, 12th Biennale de Paris, "The Light in the Colors", Museé de Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Cat. 1982
1981: Goethe Institute, "Two Decades of the DAAD's British Artists in Berlin", London, November 1981
1978: David Simolke, "Winston Branch – A Study in Contrast", Black Art International Quarterly, Volume 2, No. 2, 1978
1978: Bernd Lubowski, "Ich Lasse Mich von Kimt der Stadt beein Flussen", Berliner Morgenpost, 3 December 1978, #282/81. JAHRG
1977: Peter Hans Gopfert, "Malerische Dialoge Zwischen Kalkul und Phantasie", Die Welt, Tuesday, 12 July 1977-B NR 159/28W
1976: Was ist Wann?, "Winston Branch: Guest of Berlin DAAD", #6, Vol. 15.5–15.8, 1976
1973: Dr David C. Driskell, "The Recent Paintings of Winston Branch", The Carl Van Vechten Gallery, Department of Art, Fisk University, Nashville, Tennessee, October 1973
1973: Clara Hieronymus, "Major Show At Fisk", The Tennessean, Sunday, 14 October 1973
References
^ a b cPopovic, Caroline (December 1995). "Winston Branch: The Precarious Life of Art". Caribbean Beat (16).
^ a b"Winston Branch". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
^ a b c d eSaakana, Amon, "Winston Branch: A painter at the crossroads", Kensington, Chelsea & Westminster Today, 12 October 2015.
^Work Talk, BBC Radio 4, November 1992. Interview by Ferdinand Dennis.
^ a b cSommer, Julia (10 March 1999). "Painter Winston Branch — Visiting Artist Shares His 'Great Love' for Painting and Education". Berkeleyan. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
^Martin, Wendy (1 January 1999). "A matter of survival—a portrait of Winston Branch". Women's Studies. 28 (3): 281–290. doi:10.1080/00497878.1999.9979260.
^ a b"Winston Branch CV".
^"Wednesday, Feb. 9: Modernity Out of the Calabash — The Art and Artists of the Caribbean, Part I: A lecture by Winston Branch", Black History Month: Events, February 2000. Berkeleyan, February 2 – 8, 2000 (Volume 28, Number 20).
^"Gallery Exhibit — Tribute to Alta Bates Summit Staff", Winston Branch: "A Gift of Life" (exhibition brochure).
^Axtell, William, "Guildhall celebrates black British artists with No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action", Culture24, 9 July 2015.
^Tresadern, Molly, "Ten black British artists to celebrate", Art UK, 23 November 2016.
^ a bChambers, Eddie, Black Artists in British Art: A History from 1950 to the Present, I.B.Tauris, 2014, pp. 79–80.
^"Rugby Collection painting features in prestigious London exhibition — A Painting from the Rugby Collection has been loaned to London's Guildhall Art Gallery for a prestigious national exhibition", Rugby Borough Council.
^Simolke, David, "Winston Branch: A Study in Contrast", Black Art: an international quarterly, Volume 2, Number 2, Winter 1978: 4–8.
^Alta Bates Summit Medical Center Exhibition 2011, Oakland, California, Winston Branch website.