At a time when women were expected to get married, have children and take care of a home, the late Trinidadian artist Sybil Atteck decided to instead pursue her passion and became one of the few professional artists in Trinidad and Tobago.

Atteck’s work, collected and catalogued by her nephew Keith Atteck, is on display at The Art Gallery of Burlington in Canada until January 7, 2024 in the exhibition titled Sybil Atteck: A Legacy Unveiled.

“You can imagine the journey to becoming a professional artist in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, when there was no professional artists in Trinidad, where women were not expected to do that kind of role or job. The expectations of a young woman in those days were very different than it is today. So she was breaking through social and economic barriers in order to take on something that was her passion,” said Keith about his aunt.

[caption id="attachment_1045033" align="alignnone" width="416"] Keith Atteck with one of Sybil Atteck's paintings. -[/caption]

He noted that Atteck never married or had children but pursued art from the time she left secondary school. She received the Chaconia Medal (gold) in 1973 but was too ill to accept it personally. She eventually died of cancer in 1975.

Sybil Atteck: A Legacy Unveiled has more than 40 pieces of Atteck’s art as well as artifacts such as sketches, letters, photographs, and catalogues.

“The self-portrait that is featured as the hero painting of this exhibition of Sybil from 1973 was her last self-portrait. It was her leaving herself, essentially, for the people of TT to see.”

He said the exhibition was limited to the chosen pieces as he and the curator did not want the audience to feel overwhelmed. However, they wanted to represent the various styles and media Atteck used including still life, portrait and landscape drawings, sculpture and paintings in post-impressionist, modernism and cubism styles using ceramic, watercolour, oils, acrylic, crayons, black and whites, with ink wash, pen and pencil, and more.

“She made a point in several newspaper articles about art being a language where we vocalise things. In terms of how she evolved as a person and an artist in her lifetime, I have managed to come up with ten different artistic periods in her life. And they were influenced greatly by her own personal experience, the education and training that she had and her explorations as an artist through time.

[caption id="attachment_1045035" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The cover of the Sybil Atteck: A Legacy Unveiled exhibition booklet showing the last self-portrait by Sybil Atteck in 1973. -[/caption]

“I can track her evolution. I could see that she was continuously exploring, she never stopped exploring, what art can be and she also changed media throughout her life.”

Keith’s deep dive into Atteck’s work began in 2018 when his mother and Atteck’s sister-in-law, Helen Atteck, invited him to her home to figure out the authenticity of a painting said to be by Atteck.

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