In contemporary culture the word 'icon' has come to be widely used to describe persons who have attained a level of excellence deserving admiration. All too often, however, the 'iconic designation' is overrated and even ill-deserved. Not so however, with a true Jamaican icon, one worthy of all acclaim for his outstanding contribution to the development of the fine arts in our nation. We speak of the Hon. Cecil Archibald Baugh O.J., O.D., who has died at the age of 96.
Hailed as Jamaica's Master Potter, Mr. Baugh was an exceptional product of an earlier Jamaica when humble origins did not prevent a young country lad from aspiring to higher knowledge but spurred him on to take the steps to improve his circumstances by his own ambition and endeavours. It was that spirit which took Cecil Baugh from a rural Portland boyhood to pursue life in Kingston and later to England, in search of his dream to hone his skills as a potter. It was a course on which he embarked as one of that seminal band of artists led by Edna Manley who, in the early years of Jamaica's search for an identity, chose to use the arts to fuel their passion and to enrich the community.
In England, Baugh was the first "man of colour" to study with the noted ceramicist Bernard Leach and in time to become as famed as his tutor, certainly in his native land. While in England, Baugh responded to the War-time call to serve "King and Country" and so excelled in the arena of combat that his courage and dedication earned for him honours and appreciation. After military service, Cecil Baugh returned to Jamaica and began a long and illustrious career as a teacher and creative artist. He is credited along with Edna Manley and the distinguished painter Albert Huie as a founding father of the Jamaica School of Art where he served for many years.
For the rest of his life, he dedicated his time at the Art School to tutoring and mentorship of a new generation of Jamaican artists, some of whose accomplishments are today living monuments to their great teacher. As an artist himself, Mr. Baugh's spirit of creativity, imagination and inventiveness, his abiding love and respect for all things Jamaican, were reflected in his unique glazes and his capacity to transform a seemingly-simple utilitarian object like a clay yabba into a work of unparalleled beauty, sought after by private collectors and museums alike.
For all this, Cecil Baugh was quite rightly rewarded with the respect of the entire arts community and was the recipient of many honours and awards among them the Gleaner Honour Award for Arts and Culture, the Musgrave Gold Medal, the Order of Distinction (0.D.) and the Order of Jamaica (O.J). The most lasting memorial of Cecil Baugh will be his courtliness and gentility, his devotion to his students, his unmatched eye for beauty and the capacity to transform the lowly clay of his native soil into graceful objects all bearing the undeniable stamp of a great artist, an original and a genuine Jamaican icon, whose passing we now mourn, whose life we now celebrate.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
