Denzil Forrester
VISUAL ARTIST / PAINTER
Born in Grenada in 1956, Denzil Forrester moved to London in 1967 during the expanding presence of Rastafarian culture in England, as dub reggae music took root during the late 1960s and 1970s. Pulsating with rhythm, the artist's expressive depictions of dance halls and clubs capture crowds of people moving in unison with the beat of the music. Flashes of vivid colour, gestural brushstrokes and frenetic compositions characterise his work.Forrester spent his nights making sketches that he would reference to create large, boldly colored paintings at his studio the next day. As the artist has explained, “I just wanted to draw movement, action, and expression. I was interested in the energy of the crowd, particular dance movements, and what the clubbers wore. In these clubs, city life is recreated in essence: sounds, lights, police sirens, bodies pushing and swaying in a smoke-filled room.”
More somber works relate to the death of Winston Rose in 1981. A friend and neighbor of Forrester’s in London’s East End, Rose died under unexplained circumstances while in police custody. If reggae and dub nightlife capture one side of Black British experience at the time, social inequities and a fraught relationship with state institutions reflect the other. Rose’s death and the lack of accountability that characterized its aftermath triggered a series of somber paintings. Rose is depicted in police custody in Deado 2 (1983) and in Funeral of Winston Rose (1981) his wake is reimagined at a dub nightclub.
Funeral of Winston Rose 1981. Oil on canvas. 80 1/2 x 110 3/4 in. Photo: Mark Blower. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.
Other paintings show the police invading spaces of joyful conviviality, standing watch beside towering speakers at the back of dancehalls and taking revelers away. The seminal work, Three Wicked Men (1982), which takes its title from the Reggae George track, portrays a policeman, a politician and a businessman – along with Winston Rose. Now in the collection of London Tate, the piece was originally painted while Forrester was studying at London Royal College of Art.
“I began to take my sketchbook, A1 paper and drawing equipment and draw. It was dark and smoky. I didn't care what the people looked like – I just wanted to draw movement, action and expression. I was interested in the feeling and energy of the crowd. Particular dance movements and clothing play an important part in my gesture drawings. In these clubs, city life is recreated in essence – sounds, lights, police sirens, bodies pushing and swaying back and forth and all in a smoke-filled room. Sometimes the atmosphere was momentarily broken by another group of people, dressed only in blue.”
Three Wicked Men, 1982. Oil paint on canvas
Following the tragedy of Rose’s death, Forrester earned a prestigious two-year scholarship at the British School at Rome in 1983–84. The work created during this time reverberate with light and color, synthesizing Forrester’s newfound experiences of the city with his Caribbean roots and love of London’s dub scene. In Rome, Forrester continued to work directly from sketches he made in London of nocturnal revelers dancing to the sets of legendary DJs such as Jah Shaka. Removed from that immediate experience, he revisited the subject from memory with renewed intensity. The city also offered him new subjects, like the Villa Borghese fountain, which began to appear in his work, consistently in his drawings—a medium that has been central to his practice from the beginning of his career and that Forrester continues to explore intensely.
Recently Forrester completed on a new commission for Art On The Underground. Called Brixton Blue, it’s a large-scale interpretation of Three Wicked Men, and was unveiled in 2020 at South London’s Brixton Underground station.
Denzil Forrester, 'Brixton Blue', 2019. Photo by Angus Mill. Commissioned by Art on the Underground. © Denzil Forrester. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
On Brixton Blue and revisitingThree Wicked Men
Brixton Blue is my first commission. Once I had decided to take part, I then had to decide on the image that was best for Brixton and the space. I felt that Three Wicked Men resonated with the contemporary history of Brixton. This is the fifth time that I have revisited this image. I was very conscious that I wanted this to be just another painting on show and not change my process because it was on view to such a wide audience; I am not a mural painter.
Brixton is well known for the 1980/1 riots and the heavy policing of the black community, including Operation Swamp 81 (an attempt to cut street crime in Brixton which used the Sus law to stop more than 1,000 people in six days). I think Brixton Blue evokes the more creative side of Brixton: street life and nightclub life comes together as one. I wanted this painting to have a busy more active surface. I was a bit more playful with this version of Three Wicked Men: including speakers, a DJ, strobe lighting, the underground logo and a boy with a mobile taking a photo..