Sybil Marjorie Atteck

Sybil Marjory Atteck, BFA CMG (1911-1975) is recognised both nationally and internationally as Trinidad and Tobago’s leading woman artist, and as the first National Grand Master of Art during the 1960s and early 1970s. She firmly established, secured, and influenced the nation’s fine arts capabilities and capacity pre-, during, and post-Independence. For her lifetime of accomplishment and leadership, Sybil Atteck received the nation’s second highest award, the Chaconia Medal (Gold) in 1973, as recognition of her eminent contribution to the advancement of Fine Arts in Trinidad and Tobago.

In the years after her death in 1975, Atteck’s legacy and art continued to  endure. Her artworks have continually been featured in major national art collections, on the nation’s postage stamps, at numerous national events, and at local and international art exhibitions.

Sybil Atteck began her formal art studies in 1935 at the London Polytechnic Institute, and later, in 1948, received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. She continued her art studies in Peru, England, and Italy. She was, along with Amy Leong Pang,  a founding member of the Trinidad Art Society (TAS) — now known as the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago — which sought to make art accessible to the wider population and not just a privileged section of society.  As president of the Art Society, Atteck led the Trinidad and Tobago art community through the nation’s independence period from 1962. TAS was awarded the Hummingbird Medal (Gold) in 1997.

While at Washington University, Atteck studied the grand masters of European art, and Paul Cezanne was the subject of her graduation thesis. Atteck was a student of some of the most significant artists of the 20th century, including Julia Manuela Codesido Estenós (1883-1979), Pierre Emile Lelong (1908-1984), Philip Guston (1913-1980) and Max Carl Friedrich Beckmann (1884-1950), to name a few. She brought the knowledge and skills she learned back to Trinidad and Tobago and integrated this into her own artistic style, influencing the artistic development of her native land and the entire Caribbean region.

Sybil Atteck’s impact can be seen in the national symbols of Trinidad and Tobago. These include being on the committee for the design of the nation’s Coat of Arms, National Flag, and a party to the discovery of the National Flower of Trinidad and Tobago.

She was not only an accomplished artist, but a highly qualified art teacher, instructing and guiding thousands of the nation’s young and emerging artists. She was Art Mistress at St. Joseph’s Convent in San Fernando, St. Joseph’s Convent in Port of Spain, Bishop Anstey High School (BAHS), Holy Name Convent and St. Francois Girls’ College in Port of Spain. She taught art classes at the Trinidad Art Society, as well as the Extramural Department of The University of the West Indies, and lectured at numerous art centres across the Caribbean.

Atteck’s artworks evolved throughout her career with her best-known artworks being considered as expressionist and neo-expressionist. The subject of her art was her native land, its people, traditions and culture, and collectively represents an anthropological study of the nation. Her artworks are distinctly and uniquely her own in style and colour palette, and even formed the first “recognisable school of art” in Trinidad and Tobago.

Sybil Atteck’s legacy is three-fold. First, there are her collective artworks which reflect the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Second, there is the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago which is the first formal arts-based institution of its kind, and oldest continuously active society for over 78 years, in Trinidad and Tobago. Third, there are the multitude of artists that were either her students or were influenced and encouraged to come to the forefront of the art community in Trinidad and Tobago and the British Caribbean.

Sybil Atteck’s art has been featured at many recent major art exhibitions: In 2017-2018, an exhibition entitled Circles and Circuits, in California, USA; in 2021 at the 100th anniversary of Bishop Anstey High School; in 2021, Fragments of Epic Memory at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada and in 2021, Más Allá, el Mar Canta (Beyond, the Sea Sings) at the Times Art Centre in Berlin, Germany.