GEOFFREY HOLDER, “Swimmers II,” 1986 (colored pencil on paper, 91.4 x 116.8 cm / 36 x 46 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
TRUE RENAISSANCE MEN, brothers Boscoe Holder (1921-2007) and Geoffrey Holder (1930-2014) were active across multiple artistic disciplines, including dance, choreography, music, acting, and painting. Born about a century ago in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, their Caribbean culture and heritage was foundational to the creativity they brought to the world and is on full display in the vibrant, figurative works on view at Victoria Miro gallery in London. “Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder” is the first presentation of their paintings in parallel.
Legends in the performing arts, painting was a persistent pursuit throughout their lives. Boscoe started painting at the age of five and was a piano prodigy at seven. He immersed himself in the traditional songs and dances of Trinidad and was in his mid-teens when he formed the Boscoe Holder Dancers. When the U.S. military set up bases in Trinidad during World War II, Boscoe launched a program called Piano Ramblings on Armed Forces Radio.
In 1947, he spent a year in New York where he taught at the Katherine Dunham School of Dance. Then Boscoe returned to Trinidad and married Sheila Clarke, his lead dancer. Over the next two decades (1950-70), the couple lived and worked in London, where he established a new dance troupe. Boscoe Holder and his Caribbean Dancers performed at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953.
From left, Boscoe Holder and Geoffrey Holder in London, 1961. | Courtesy the Holder Family Archive
More than a performer, Boscoe was self-studied ambassador of Caribbean arts and culture. “His knowledge of the history of many unrecognised black dancers and musicians in the English-speaking West Indies was considerable, as was his understanding of the role of black performance in Britain during the 1950s,” Boscoe’s obituary in The Guardian said. The report later noted that one of Boscoe’s performances was broadcast by BBC television in June 1950 “and introduced the steel drum to British audiences for the first time (he had brought two units with him from Trinidad).”
Boscoe’s expansive portfolio always included more than dance and choreography. He put together a band, opened a private club, and took on film and TV roles. Over the years, painting remained a constant. Boscoe had shown his work in galleries in New York and London. In 1970, when he moved back to Trinidad, it became his focus as his accomplishments were celebrated at home.
In 1973, Boscoe received the Hummingbird Medal from The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, in recognition of his profound contributions to the arts, and the government also named a street for him. Three decades after Boscoe performed at the Queen’s coronation, Trinidad’s then-President Sir Ellis Clarke presented one of his paintings to Prince Charles and Princes Diana as a wedding gift from the Republic (1983). Concentrating on his painting practice in the final decades of his life, Boscoe regularly exhibited his work locally and throughout the Caribbean.
Boscoe and Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean culture and heritage was foundational to the creativity they brought to the world and is on full display in the vibrant, figurative works on view at Victoria Miro.
Installation view of “Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder,” June 1–July 27, 2024, Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW. | © Boscoe Holder Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
THE VICTORIA MIRO EXHIBITIONS are accompanied by “Vetiver and Terpentine,” a poetic essay by Trinidadian writer Attillah Springer. There were five children in the Holder family—Boscoe was the oldest, and Geoffrey was the youngest, nine years his junior. Springer’s text provides invaluable information about the family background of the artists and context about the place they called home. Her words are a narrative origin story, explaining the complex history, culture, beauty, and tensions from which the paintings emerged.
“The father is stoic and meticulous, a salesman whose father came from Barbados; the mother a melancholic seamstress whose father came from Martinique. Boscoe comes first. Prodigiously talented on the piano, he is earning a living by the age of nine, playing classics in the homes of the wealthy. And then comes Geoffrey. He follows his brother around learning to dance and paint and sing like him,” Springer wrote.
She added: “Trinidad’s beauty is not a good colonial subject. Boscoe and Geoffrey learned the art of that beauty and soon it began to spill out of them. Too much, so soon, too hard not to take notice. It made Trinidad, already a small place, even smaller, too small a place to hold all that talent and range and audacity. An island is a place where you need to know your place. The family remembers the toll of all that brilliance: Boscoe had a nervous breakdown as a teenager; Geoffrey stammered well into his twenties. Speaking out to defend Trinidad in New York is how he found his voice.”
“Boscoe and Geoffrey learned the art of that beauty and soon it began to spill out of them. Too much, so soon, too hard not to take notice. It made Trinidad, already a small place, even smaller, too small a place to hold all that talent and range and audacity.” — Attillah Springer
BOSCOE HOLDER,, Green Background, 1996 (acrylic on board, 57.7 x 48.1 cm / 22 3/4 x 19 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
BOSCOE HOLDER, Untitled, 1996 (acrylic on board, 50.7 x 40.6 cm / 20 x 16 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
A MAN OF MANY TALENTS, Geoffrey modeled his older brother and then forged his own path. He was seven when he danced for the first time with the Boscoe Holder Dancers. More than a dozen years later, he took charge of the troupe when Boscoe moved to London. In 1952, the dance company participated in the first Caribbean Festival of the Arts in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Then opportunity abroad came calling for the younger brother and he went to New York in 1953.
Geoffrey met his wife Carmen de Lavallade when he made his Broadway debut in 1954. He was a featured dancer and choreographer in “House of Flowers,” a musical based on a short story by Truman Capote. The production starred Diahann Carroll and Pearl Bailey with de Lavallade cast among the dancers.
“She passed me in a beautiful, yellow halter dress. The back was open and she had this long black hair and this face to die over. I said, ‘I want to marry that girl,'” Geoffrey recalled in the documentary “Carmen & Geoffrey” (2006). In the film, de Lavallade, a dancer, actress, and choreographer from Los Angeles, said someone told her this real tall guy whose picture was in Dance magazine or something was going to be in the show. “Oh really?” she replied, indicating little interest. “Four days after (he first saw her), I proposed to Carmen,” Geoffrey continued. “I said, ‘You don’t know me, but uh, give me an answer, you know later on. A month later, she said, ‘Yes.'”
Geoffrey and de Lavallade married in 1955. The same year, Geoffrey became a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. The couple traveled to Europe, worked with Josephine Baker in Paris in the mid-1960s, and eventually settled in New York, where Geoffrey provided choreography for Dance Theatre of Harlem and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
His first film roles included “Porgy and Bess” (1959) with Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr., Brock Peters, Bailey and Carroll. In the years following, Geoffrey was featured in films such as “Dr. Doolittle” (1967), “Live and Let Die,” from the James Bond franchise, “Annie,” “Boomerang,” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005). He was also a pitchman for 7UP. Appearing in memorable television commercials for the soft drink in the 1970s and 80s, Geoffrey’s 6-foot, 6-inch frame, bald head, infectious smile, and Caribbean lilt made him a familiar figure in American households.
GEOFFREY HOLDER, “Untitled, n.d. (oil, oil crayon and china marker on canvas, 121.9 x 91.4 cm / 48 x 36 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
GEOFFREY HOLDER, “Nude Lovers Embracing,” n.d. (Conte crayon on paper mounted on black paper, 120.7 x 90.2 cm / 47 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
THROUGH IT ALL, Geoffrey was painting. In 1954, he presented his first solo exhibition in New York and he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in painting in 1956. In fact, his paintings got him to New York helping him pursue the opportunities that would make his career.
“His brother’s departure put Geoffrey Holder in charge of the dance company (Boscoe Holder Dancers), as its director and lead performer, and he took it to New York City in 1954, invited by the choreographer Agnes de Mille, who had seen the troupe perform two years before in St. Thomas, in the Virgin Islands,” Geoffrey’s New York Times obituary said. “She arranged an audition for the impresario Sol Hurok. To pay for the troupe’s passage, Mr. Holder, already an established young painter, sold 20 of his paintings.”
Arguably his greatest critical achievement, Geoffrey’s direction and costume design for the Broadway musical “The Wiz” was recognized with two Tony awards in 1975. Two decades later, Geoffrey recalled Boscoe’s influence, opening up the world of arts to him. “Touched By The Muses, The Artistic World of Geoffrey Holder” was curated by Reid Buckley at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1998.
In the catalog for the exhibition, Geoffrey wrote: “And like Pygmalion, Boscoe shaped a lot of artists’ lives, including mine. He collected art books and left them around, which exposed me to so many different worlds; books that influenced me gave me the freedom to fantasize about unfamiliar cultures; books on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias, for example. I remember opening up a Life magazine spread on Carmen Jones in 1943 with illustrations by Covarrubias. Thirty-two years later, when I designed costumes for the Wiz, those illustrations remained in my head because every scene was painted a different color, and I used that.”
“Boscoe shaped a lot of artists’ lives, including mine. He collected art books and left them around, which exposed me to so many different worlds; books that influenced me gave me the freedom to fantasize about unfamiliar cultures; books on Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and Miguel Covarrubias, for example.” — Geoffrey Holder
Installation view of “Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder,” June 1–July 27, 2024, Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW. | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
PROMINENT GALLERIES in New York, Los Angeles, London, and Berlin have presented paintings by Boscoe and Geoffrey posthumously. In 2010, a pair of group exhibitions included Boscoe’s work. “In the Company of Alice” at Victoria Miro in London featured artist’s who “admire or have been inspired” by Alice Neel. “Self-Consciousness” was organized by critic and curator Hilton Als and artist Peter Doig at VeneKlasen/Werner in Berlin, Germany.
Solo exhibitions of Geoffrey were on view at James Fuentes, more recently. In 2022, Als curated “Pleasures of the Flesh” in New York. The show coincided with a presentation of Geoffrey’s paintings in the James Fuentes booth at the ADAA Art Show at the Park Avenue Armory in New York. Earlier this year, Erica Moiah James curated a solo show at the Melrose Avenue location of James Fuentes. Simply titled “Geoffrey Holder,” the exhibition was the first solo show of the artist in Los Angeles and ran in conjunction with the gallery’s solo presentation of Geoffrey’s work at Frieze Los Angeles.
Currently, paintings by Boscoe and Geoffrey are on display in adjacent galleries at Victoria Miro. Executed in brilliant tropical colors, the figurative works focus on the body and include nudes. The subjects suggest people the artists knew, who shared their history and Caribbean background. The lithe contours of many indicate the discipline of dance. Boscoe usually worked with models and sitters, whereas Geoffrey tended to paint from memory and his imagination.
GEOFFREY HOLDER, “Woman on Man’s Shoulders,” Late 1970s (oil on canvas, 152.4 x 101.6 cm / 60 x 40 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
GEOFFREY HOLDER, “Possible Self Portrait,” n.d. (oil on board with artist frame, 104.1 x 78.4 cm / 41 x 30 7/8 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
Spanning the late 1970s to 2010, 15 paintings by Geoffrey are on display. The works include “Woman on Man’s Shoulders” (late 1970s), a double nude from behind. An undated “Possible Self Portrait” of the artist, features a youthful, statuesque figure filling the entire height of the canvas, which is washed in red. The 16 paintings on view by Boscoe were produced between 1988 and 2004. In a video made to accompany the exhibition, the artists’s sons walk through the galleries reflecting on the work of their fathers.
“He is known for his seascapes, for his landscapes, and for what we call women in white—people of African heritage in white fanciful regalia,” Boscoe’s son Christian Holder, a London-based dancer, painter, and writer, said. “What is shown here is another aspect. It’s a quieter aspect. It’s a more introverted aspect, because it’s mostly figurative. Mostly nudes. The things that he couldn’t move in Trinidad because there’s a very sort of Victorian, prudish attitude toward nudity and the body, male or female.”
Walking among Geoffrey’s paintings, his son Leo Holder, a London composer, said: I see a DNA, but I see a separation of the DNA. I see the source, and this may be because I know both of them, but you see where the DNA starts and then you see where it goes this way. To see the counterpoints, it’s fascinating to see the contemporary nature. It’s kind of like the world caught up to them.” CT
“Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder” is on view at Victoria Miro gallery in London, from June 1–July 27, 2024
FIND MORE about Boscoe Holder’s work from a conversation among Peter Doig, Angus Cook, and Hilton Als published by The New York Review of Books in 2010
FIND MORE about Geoffrey Holder on his website and Emory University, where the papers of Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade are archived
FIND MORE about Geoffrey Holder’s death from a candid NPR essay his son Leo Holder wrote about his last days in the ICU
BOSCOE HOLDER, Untitled, 2001 (acrylic on board, 90.6 x 71 cm / 35 5/8 x 28 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
BOSCOE HOLDER, “Coiffed Hair,” 1990 (acrylic on board, 91.2 x 43.2 cm / 35 7/8 x 17 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
Installation view of “Boscoe Holder | Geoffrey Holder,” June 1–July 27, 2024, Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, N1 7RW. | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
GEOFFREY HOLDER, Untitled, circa mid-late 1980s (oil on canvas, 152.4 x 91.4 cm / 60 x 36 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
GEOFFREY HOLDER, Untitled, n.d. (oil, oil crayon and china marker on canvas, 121.9 x 91.4 cm / 48 x 36 inches). | © Geoffrey Holder, Courtesy the Geoffrey Holder Estate and James Fuentes
BOSCOE HOLDER, “Folded Arms,” 1993 (acrylic on board. 50.6 x 40.7 cm / 19.5 x 16 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
BOSCOE HOLDER, Fret Work, 1988 (acrylic on board, 65.8 x 94.4 cm / 25.93 x 37.19 inches). | © Boscoe Holder, Courtesy the Boscoe Holder Estate and Victoria Miro
BOOKSHELF
“Geoffrey Holder: A Life in Theater, Dance and Art” was authored by New York Times dance critic Jennifer Dunning. “Spirits: Selections from the Collection of Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade” documents a 1991 exhibition at the Katonah Museum of Art in Katonah, N.Y. “Adam” by Geoffrey Holder features nude photography by the artist. Exploring the people, history, and culture of Trinidad and Tobago, “Black Gods, Green Islands” by Geoffrey Holder with Tom Harshman was first published in 1959. Geoffrey also wrote the foreword to “The Way We Wore: Black Style Then” and published “Geoffrey Holder’s Caribbean Cookbook” in the 1970s. Also consider, “Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today,” which documents a traveling museum exhibition, a group show featuring contemporary artists from throughout the Caribbean, on view last year.
