HOME TOO SMALL,

SO BOSCOE REACHES OUT

 

By Angela Pidduck

Newsday

April 16, 2000

Page 60

 

Boscoe Holder's collection of paintings and period costumes were pushing him out of his home and small studio at No 82b Woodford Street, Newtown, so he thought, "I should get a new studio."

One year later, from demolition of the old property next to the George Brown house in which the Holders live, to the final coat of paint, Boscoe and Sheila Holder invited a large crowd of art lovers to celebrate the opening of "Boscoe Holder's new studio" on Friday March 31.

The studio will be opened to viewers "by appointment only, you telephone and I will show," explains Boscoe "I wish it could be otherwise but I am a bit too old for that.

"The studio is more of a repository cum museum.  My brother, Geoffrey will send paintings; son Chris his ballet books and ethnic costumes.  I hope to eventually display our vintage European collection of Sheila's wardrobe from the days when she sang."

Because Holder is not the gushing type, he would only smile widely when asked if this was a dream come true.  A dream which took 61 long years as a professional painter to materialize.  "My first art exhibition was in 1937.  After Cazabon is me" claims this outspoken man who holds being Trinidadian "very dear to me."

His studio and what it stands for is meant for posterity: "I hope somebody would be able to sustain it without messing it up.  The Europeans go differently, here there is a lot of talk and everything goes down the drain."

But then the Holders have a son, Christian, who I am certain will see that his father's dreams were carried on.  He started out as a classical ballet dancer, but dance puts a strain on the body, and so he has become a choreographer and costume designer which takes him all over the world.  "Occasionally" says his proud mother "he will make a cameo appearance in a show."

As only Boscoe can, he has used fragile, lacy-looking insets from India in his studio as he found it difficult to match the original fretwork, which still also exists in his home, next door.

Boscoe credits his father for what he is today: "No other black man had my father's vision.  Any other parent would have killed me as a young, sensible man - piano painting, dancing, costuming - those were the colonial days you had to be academic, there was no art education here."

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