Kapo’s 114th birthday observance today at Heroes Park

On February 10, 1911, a few years before the start of World War I, Mallica Reynolds was born in Byndloss, St Catherine. At age 12, Reynolds had a religious experience and began going by the name ‘Kapo’, and that was what he was called the rest of his life, which ended on February 24, 1989.

Kapo is lying in eternal rest in National Heroes Park, Kingston, where people will gather today at 6 p.m. to commemorate the 114th anniversary of his birth. The event is hosted by Minister of Culture, Gender and Sport Olivia Grange. Guests are requested to be seated by 5:45 p.m.

Kapo’s interment in Heroes Park is a result of his eminence in Revivalism, a Jamaican folk religion, and the arts, particularly painting and sculpture. The man, who did not go to theology or art school, was respected locally and internationally for his significant contribution to religion and the arts.

“Many of Kapo’s paintings and sculptures depict his cultural milieu, including portraits of those around him and scenes from daily life. He was also a fine landscape painter and he was fond of depicting the environment of his childhood, the hills and valleys of St Catherine’s interior,” the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) says on its website.

“Other works are more spiritual in nature and were clearly inspired by his visions and practices as a Zion Revivalist leader. Some of his works have erotic overtones and joyfully celebrate the nude human body and sexuality.”

At age 16, Kapo received a vision and became a preacher, travelling the countryside preaching. He later moved to Kingston, where he founded a Zion Revival church, St Michael’s Revival Apostolic Tabernacle, in Trench Town. He later relocated to Olympic Gardens. Kapo was a leader in the Zion Revival movement and, from 1976 until his death, was the patriarch bishop of St Michael’s.

“ In Trench Town I found Malachi (sic) Reynolds, ‘Kapo’, the Zion captain and the most prominent of Zion Revivalists in Jamaica,” Edward Seaga, Revivalism scholar and former prime minister of Jamaica, writes in Jamaica Journal Vol. 32 Nos.1-2, 2009, “ But he was also something else; he sculpted and painted, not in the contemporary, but African sense.”

Kapo’s artistic career started in the late 1930s-early 1940s, when he began to translate his visions and his imaginative transcriptions of biblical events into paintings. Kapo, along with Sidney McLaren and Everald Brown, led the group of artists referred to as the ‘Intuitives’. For carving, he started with stones, then wood.

“ Kapo gave me his first piece of sculpture carved with a penknife, unbelievably, from lignum vitae (a very hard wood). After completing that impossible task, I advised him to switch to cedar,” Seaga writes.

In addition to the local exhibitions in which Kapo’s works were on show, he had exhibited in New York in 1953, 1969 and 1982; Los Angeles in 1964 and 1968; and in Washington, DC in 1972. At the NGJ at 12 Ocean Boulevard, downtown Kingston, some of Kapo’s works are a part of the permanent collections.

The back story to this permanence, as told by Seaga in the above-mentioned journal, is that when Larry Wirth’s large collection of Kapo’s work was about to be sold to an overseas buyer, he “was just in time to capture it for Jamaica”, and bought it for the National Gallery of Jamaica.

21st-Century Kapo

In February 2018, in observance of Black History Month, the NGJ hosted a special event titled ‘21st-Century Kapo’. The NGJ said then, “Mallica ‘Kapo’ Reynolds is considered to be Jamaica’s foremost intuitive artist; and the newly reinstalled gallery features a selection of sculptures and paintings from the Larry Wirth Collection, the John Pringle Collection and the Aaron and Marjorie Matalon Collection.

“The works in these galleries showcase the broad subject matter and iconography that Kapo explored and highlight the cultural significance of this artist. The Kapo Gallery … will give the public an opportunity to learn more about this artist and engage in a discussion of his legacy and relevance to Jamaicans today.”

In 1981, Kapo’s painting, Shining Spring, was chosen as a wedding gift to Prince Charles and Lady Diana from the Government and people of Jamaica. It was selected by the Institute of Jamaica and the Office of the Prime Minister “because it was felt to be representative of true Jamaican art”.

For his contribution to the arts, Kapo was honoured and awarded with: a gold medal from Emperor Haile Selassie during his visit to Jamaica in 1966; a Silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica in 1969; the Order of Distinction by the Government of Jamaica in 1977; the Norman Manley Award for Excellence in the Fine Arts in 1985; and in the same year a Gold Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica.

editorial@gleanerjm.com