David Wayne Boxer

Artist, curator, and art historian specialized in Jamaican art, David Wayne Boxer has just died in Kingston, the city in Jamaica where he was born in 1946. In the US, Boxer studied at Cornell University and then at John Hopkins University, where he earned a PhD in Art History. After his return to Jamaica, in 1975, he became director and curator of the National Gallery, serving in both capacities until 1991, and as head curator until 2013. Boxer taught art in the US at the University of Maryland, the Morgan State College in Baltimore, and the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He also taught at the Edna Manley School for the Visual Arts in Kingston. David Wayne Boxer's influence in younger generations, particularly among Jamaican artists, was not only exerted through teaching but also through his unconventional and vanguardist artistic approach in the context of his country. Recognized as one of the most important artists of his generation in Jamaica and the Caribbean, Boxer relied on installation as one of his favorite mediums. His work was exhibited in several museums, most recently at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. As an artist, he also participated in several of the most important international biennials, including: the Johannesburg Biennale (South Africa), the São Paulo Biennial (Brazil), the Havana Biennial (Cuba), and the Biennial of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic). Boxer's contributions as art historian were not only recognized in Jamaica but also throughout the Caribbean. He published articles in specialized magazines and exhibition catalogs of the region. His efforts towards the compilation and categorization of the art history of Jamaica were instrumental in the organization of the history of art of his country; beginning with his first exhibition, in 1975, at the National Gallery titled "Five Centuries of Art in Jamaica." As curator, he presented more than fifty exhibitions and established the permanent exhibition rooms of the National Gallery. Under his directorship, the institution expanded its art collection from the approximately 230 works that it had in 1974, to the more than two thousand that it has today. Boxer convinced private collectors like A.D. Scott, Aaron, and Marjorie Matalon to donate an important part of their collections to the Museum. Boxer's vision and commitment to Jamaica's "intuitive" artists included his very coining of the "Intuitive" term when referring to them, as well as the exhibition of their works at a level equal to the one enjoyed by their academically-trained colleagues. Another of his most important contributions was his thorough study of the work by sculptor Edna Manley, which resulted in the publication of a monography about her work. One of Boxer's passions was the study of photography in Jamaica, which shed light on the name and work of forgotten photographers. His last project as an art historian was his collaboration in the exhibition titled "John Dunkley: Neither Day or Night," recently opened at the Perez Art Museum in Miami, which included a masterful essay for the catalog.