Petrine Archer-Straw
| Petrine Archer-Straw | |
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| Born |
26 December 1956 Birmingham, England |
| Died | 5 December 2012 (aged 55) Mona, Jamaica |
| Occupation | Curator and art historian |
| Website | |
| petrinearcher |
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Petrine Archer-Straw (26 December 1956 – 5 December 2012) was a British artist and influential art historian and curator who specialised in the art of the Caribbean people. In the words of Eddie Chambers: "In her work as an artist, academic, art historian, writer and curator, Archer-Straw consistently challenged the prevailing orthodoxies that treat Caribbean artists and cultural practice in geographical, racial and artistic isolation. In essence, her position was that we cannot fully understand or appreciate the practice of Caribbean artists without due consideration of broader factors such as migration, history, identity and, above all diaspora – the scattering of many black people beyond their ancestral homeland of Africa."
Petrine Archer-Straw was born in Birmingham, England, to Jamaican parents, and raised during the 1960s in an atmosphere of "... racial pride, and activism". Her father arrived England in 1955 as a linotype press operator and subsequently sent for his family to join him. Archer-Straw notes that her home was a hub for the community. These were extremely formative experiences for the young Archer-Straw who also recalls how she "would do the rounds [on Sunday] with my father, .... joining in house to house campaigning and, in the summer, attending the numerous rallies and protest marches. However, this community work eventually drew the ire of the right-wing British National Front and the family subsequently moved to Jamaica in the early 1970s, where Dr. Archer-Straw finished high school and started university.
Petrine Archer-Straw earned a Theology, History, Sociology B.A. at the University of the West Indies (UWI) B.A. (1975–78) and later earned a Cultural History M.Phil (1983–87) at the same institution. She was also trained as an artist at the Jamaican School of Art (Diploma, Painting, 1979–82). She also received degrees from the Courtauld Institute at the University of London, where she earned an M.A. in Art History and PhD (Art History Modern, Negrophilia, 1994–95).
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