Sybil Atteck (1911-1975)

Sybil Atteck's Artwork at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

Her epic Self Portrait and family photographs take the stage with her contemporaries and epic photographs of the Caribbean past.

Sybil Atteck's Artwork at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

Sybil Atteck's Self-Portrait (1973) has been on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) since September 2021 in this exhibition entitled Fragments of Epic Memory. The exhibition continues into January 2022. The photograph above features Sybil's Self-Portrait and in the glass case below it are the 8 family photographs.

This Self-Portrait was completed just after Sybil was awarded the Chaconia Medal (Gold) for her lifelong contribution to the advancement of Fine Arts in her home nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Sybil Atteck was a pioneering artist who's efforts gave birth to the Trinidad Art Society and to a modern movement of art, not only in Trinidad and Tobago, but also in the entire Caribbean region. She influenced budding young artists and senior artists of her generation by her relentless efforts to advance the entire artistic scene in the region. She taught hundreds of students in high school, delivered lectures and art classes in Trinidad and across the Caribbean region. Sybil Atteck is still held in high regard in the epic memories of her nation's people.

The eight (8) photographs of the Chinese in Trinidad included in the exhibition's photographic display are all from the Atteck family's collection. We are pleased to represent the Chinese decedents of Indentured Labourers who travelled to the Caribbean in the search for a better life and to labour on the sugar estates in the Caribbean. A parallel project of Sybil Atteck Biography Project is a family history of the Atteck and related families, all decedents of the British Indentured Labour Programme.

The Sybil Atteck Biography Project continues to collect and document her activities and artworks in an effort to amass sufficient information and artworks for publication of her biography and art catalogues.

Sybil Atteck continues to be be recognized as an epic artist from the Caribbean region and major contributor the the collective works of the artistic diaspora and continuum.