What do Marvel Comics, Third World Comics, and Ras Head have in common? Well they are all cartoons but they are also all considered art. They are on display at an exhibition now open at the Museum of Belize called “Communicating through Art.” It traces the roots of storytelling through art – from paintings on cave ceilings and walls, to hieroglyphics to cartoons. The curator Shauniece Heusner told us how it evolved.
Shauniece Heusner, Curator
“We have the cave painting days in Africa and humans used to communicate
drawing on walls but not hieroglyphics. The paintings told a story of maybe how they used to hunt and magic as well and then on to early years in Europe and the Europeans used to tell stories on woodcuts and then on fabrics and then moving on when paper was created, you would have artists painting stories of the poor and of war and telling stores in their paintings, each picture tells a story.
And then earlier in current times we have Belizean artists who paint and their painting also tell stories so you see a transition. You have Belizean artists like Louis Belisle who paint and their painting also tell stories and so you see a transistion. And then on to the comics, the comedy side would be Chavannes.”
Keith Swift,
What do you hope we learn from it?
Shauniece Heusner,
“That art is very important in history because imagine 50 years from now, any little piece of comic or whatever can be used to identify what has happened today.”
The exhibition runs through to December.
