The artist Bernard Stanley Hoyes is a visionary whose works bridge the rivers of time and memory, reminding all people of their ancestral heritage that flows from African roots. The artist can uniquely express the bond with life's daily rituals and the many sacred ceremonies we celebrate. Hoyes's paintings challenge and inspire the viewer to appreciate cultural and religious differences and focus on the capacity of each person to live a sacred and joyful life. Each painting becomes a window into the artist's deep and personal vision. Hoyes's paintings reflect the spiritual meaning which arises from our relationship with God and the immense spiritual wake left in his presence. Hoyes states his strong tie to the ancient religious practices of Africa as manifest in the African slaves of the Caribbean and today have become a link across the waters of the world. This forced journey, called the "middle passage," would attempt to destroy the strong and deep bonds between people is spirits and the lands of Africa. But Hoyes will not let us forget the Motherland or how it still resonates in the lives of people today.
Hoyes's paintings are built upon dynamic, rhythmic compositions. Driven by sensuous and evocative color, they are reminiscent of art from the Fauve Movement. Spiritual and emotional content pervades each composition through the subjects portrayed. In his painting "Visit of the Pentecost," each face and form is bathed in the subdued light of the torch symbolizing the flames that burn with the people assembled. Its composition is a chain of emotion, yielding a figure releasing the spirit. Like the great African American painter Jacob Lawrence, Hoyes is not concerned with every minute detail of the subject, but how universal meaning can be expressed through color and gesture.
Many of Hoyes's paintings draw upon music or dance to evoke spiritual meaning. In his painting "Apparition by Lamplight," undulating figures dance ceremoniously above the artist's studio table. This painting might very well stand among the great works of Matisse or Bonnard. And yet unlike the French artists's work, this painting portrays the artist's personal vision of sacred ritual, magnified by color and graphic rhythm. In Hoyes's painting "Bell Ringer," the artist chooses an uncharacteristic foreshortened composition, one in which the emphasis is on the young woman being blessed by the ringer as she calls out the blessing. The resulting combination of subtle geatures and intense focus creates expectation and suspense within the picture. In his painting entitled "Tambourines, Talking Drums, and Smoke Signals," the music made from the drums becomes gesture and color. Sound is color and color sound. In this picture and others like it, Hoyes achieves "visual sound" through color and rhythmic patterns, reminescent of the futurist painter who sought to capture motion and sound in their works.
Much like Gabriel heralding the gathering of many tribes, Hoyes's paintings proclaim the need for spiritual awakening and hope. It is the sacrifice of millions who died on slave ships, whose lives his paintings honor and connect to their African heritage. His paintings reveal that that there can be joy from sorrow and that there is sacred meaning in all life. Hoyes's paintings serve as a witness, guardian, and teacher that reflect his unique vision to the viewer. His work is a celebration of grace and ritual in life as well as a visual prompter to remember. We are reminded that in every black individual dwells a soul and spirit profoundly connected to his or her African roots.
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