After fading from view, celebrated Trinidadian painter Sybil Atteck is finally getting her due

As a kid in Trinidad, Keith Atteck was peripherally aware that his aunt, Sybil Atteck, was an artist. It wasn't until fairly recently, however, that he realized exactly how prolific or important she was.

In the fall of 2018,  Atteck's mother showed him a photo of some paintings that had been sent to her from Trinidad, for her to determine if they were Sybil's works or not. It made him start wondering more about his aunt's legacy and career, and kicked off a research project that would eventually culminate in Sybil Atteck: A Legacy Unveiled, a retrospective of his aunt's career on now at the Art Gallery of Burlington, in the Southern Ontario city where Atteck now lives

Sybil Atteck started her career as a botanical illustrator and cartographer in the 1930s, working for the Trinidadian Ministry of Agriculture, before leaving the country to attend art school in the England, the United States, and Peru. When she returned to Trinidad and Tobago, she quickly became a force in the country's art scene. She had over 20 solo shows — both in her own country and overseas — and took part in more than 75 group shows. She helped found the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago. She broke down barriers as both a painter from the Caribbean and a woman painter. But, following her death from cancer in 1975, she slowly drifted into obscurity, particularly outside of Trinidad and Tobago.

Keith Atteck said his exploration of his aunt's work really kicked into high gear during the pandemic, when he found himself between jobs and with a lot of time on his hands.

"It kind of became my pandemic project," he says.

He adds that he's found works by his aunt all over the world, in places ranging from Malaysia to Winnipeg, but there was a huge trove of her work right under his nose.

"When my mother and my aunties came to Canada, they brought up all of Sybil's artifacts and belongings, and they've been sitting at my mother's house for years," he says. So we started going through everything and finding tons of stuff that was sitting there that I didn't even know about: paintings and drawings and sketches and documents and all kinds of stuff. So I started just sort of documenting all of this and digitizing it."

The collection that Atteck has put together contains dozens of paintings and sketches, depicting both the people and landscapes of Trinidad. He adds that he wanted to show the evolution of her style, from very realistic botanical illustrations early in her career, then post-impressionist painting, and later exploring modernism, cubism, and semi-abstract expressionism.

Suzanne Carte is the senior curator at the Art Gallery of Burlington. She says that when Atteck first approached her, she was sceptical to say the least. 

"Keith came to me and said that he had some works of his aunt's, and whenever I hear that, that's a real red flag," she says. "It's like, this is not the Antique Roadshow… [But] when he came and did the full presentation, and I actually understood who he was talking about, that changed everything."

Carte adds that, coincidentally, her partner is Trinidadian, and her response confirmed that this was a project worth pursuing.

"I came home and said 'You'll never guess what happened at the gallery today' and she said 'What!? No way!""

In addition to being an artist, Sybil Atteck was also an art teacher, teaching at various girls high school's throughout Trinidad as well as through the Art Society. 

"I went to the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester [England], who purchased a portrait of [famed Trinidadian-British textile artist] Althea [McNish] that was done by Sybil," he says. "Then in my research, I discovered that Althea McNeish actually… was involved with the Art Society right from the beginning — 1944 until she left Trinidad in 1950. So Sybil mentored her."

Atteck says that Sybil's fade into obscurity is part of a larger trend of erasure of women artists.

"I think many women artists suffer the same fate in a lot of cases… and it's a tragedy," says Atteck. "Maybe it's because men are doing the writing about men … But for whatever reason, it seems that they're not taken as seriously. And yet here is an artist who is a first in so many ways."

Similarly, Carte says this show is part of a broader movement to give female artists, particularly ones of previous generations, who's work "never got its moment," their due.

"I think [there's] an interest in rediscovering women," she says. "Women who were sidelined. And now that the dial has shifted, now that conversations are being made where women are no longer in the shadows of art history… you're starting to see female artists all over the globe start to get more retrospectives."

Sybil Atteck: A Legacy Unveiled runs until Jan. 7, 2024 at the Art Gallery of Burlington (1333 Lakeshore Rd.)