1911-2005

After making a living as an artist for over 77 years, Jamaican artist Carl Abrahams  died on April 10, 2005, was buried April 19, 2005, at the St Andrew Parish Church in Kingston, Jamaica.
Born in 1911, he started his career as a cartoonist at the age of 17.
The Gleaner Company, among other publications at the time, embraced his early talent as a cartoonist, before he crossed over into full-time painting.
At the urging of renowned British painter Augustus John, Abrahams began painting in 1937. But it was not until the mid-1950s that he found his true mode of expression - ironic transformations of the great mythological and religious themes - says a release from the National Gallery.
In the mid-1970s he responded to the Gallery's solicitations and presented The Passion of Christ, an exhibition of approximately 20 works on the final days of the Lord's ministry.
According to the Gallery "the wit and sheer inventiveness of the series coupled with the devout sentiment of a true believer marked Abrahams as Jamaica and the Caribbean's finest religious painter."
His final decades saw few new developments in his work and he replicated many of his earlier paintings in copies and variations. Abrahams died at home Sunday, April 10, marking the end of an era in Jamaican art.
During his lifetime, he received many national honours including the Order of Distinction and the Gold Musgrave Medal, additionally two of his religious works were featured on Jamaican stamps, marking the advent of the third millennium.
His painting Woman I Must Be About My Father's Business was loaned to the City of Edingburgh's Light of the World exhibition in commemoration of the 2000th anniversary of Christ's birth.

Hallelujah