Boscoe Holder, born Arthur Aldwyn Holder in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, was Trinidad and Tobago's leading contemporary painter, who had a celebrated international career spanning six decades as a designer and visual artist, dancer, choreographer and musician.
22 Facts About Boscoe Holder
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Boscoe Holder's company danced for Queen Elizabeth II at her coronation in 1953, and, two years later, at Windsor Castle.
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Boscoe Holder is considered one of the top painters from the Caribbean and his works are in many collections around the world.
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Particularly recognizable for his paintings of people of colour, reflecting his appreciation of Caribbean people and culture, Holder often used his dancers as models, his "favourite" being his wife Sheila who was lead dancer in his company.
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Boscoe Holder attended Tranquility Intermediate School and Queen's Royal College.
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Boscoe Holder started a musical career at a young age, playing the piano professionally for rich French creole, Portuguese and Chinese families.
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Boscoe Holder was an early member of the Trinidad Art Society, along with people such as Ivy Hochoy, Hugh Stollmeyer and Amy Leong Pang.
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Boscoe Holder formed his own dance company, the Boscoe Holder Dance Company.
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Boscoe Holder choreographed and appeared in the 1953 BBC Television production The Emperor Jones.
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In January 1959, the Boscoe Holder dance troupe was a headline act, performing "Carnival Fantasia", at the "Caribbean Carnival" organised by Claudia Jones held in St Pancras Town Hall.
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From 1959, for four years, Boscoe Holder produced, choreographed and costumed the floorshow in the Candlelight Room of The May Fair hotel, where he formed and led his own band, The Pinkerton Boys, who alternated there with Harry Roy's orchestra.
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Boscoe Holder appeared in several films, including Sapphire, and in television series such as Danger Man and The Saint.
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Boscoe Holder danced in Nice, Monte Carlo, and Paris with Josephine Baker.
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Boscoe Holder's work has been exhibited all over the Caribbean and elsewhere internationally.
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In 1981, a Boscoe Holder painting was presented by the then President of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Sir Ellis Clarke, as a wedding gift from the nation to Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
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In 2006, the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago and Gallery 101 exhibited 58 works by Boscoe Holder, dated from 1991 to 2002.
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Christian Boscoe Holder eventually became a leading dancer with the Joffrey Ballet and an artist in his own right.
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Boscoe Holder died at the age of 85 in 2007, at his home in Newtown, Port of Spain.
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Boscoe Holder had suffered from prostate cancer, as well as complications from diabetes.
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On 31 October 2003, Boscoe Holder was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of the West Indies.
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Boscoe Holder's work was included in a 2010 exhibition in Berlin curated by Peter Doig and Hilton Als.
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In October 2011, an exhibition of 50 of Boscoe Holder's artworks was dedicated at the Upper Room Art Gallery at Top of the Mount, Mount Saint Benedict, St Augustine, Trinidad, as the Gallery's contribution to the United Nations proclaiming 2011 as the International Year for People of African Descent.