“Art is my life, I have no other life to live,” said 75-year-old Kendal Hanna at the opening of his art exhibit in the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.
The exhibit- Happy Birthday to Me-The work of Kendal Hanna is a retrospective composition of the dazzling career of the celebrated abstract artist who blazed a trail in that particular form of self expression that is emulated today.
Gazing at the array of vastly different paintings is almost like sitting down with Hanna and having a conversation about the many stages of his life- all tell a story about who this man is.
Hanna is ready to delve into another medium of abstract expression – sculpture. He says that he has a passion for sculpture that is as strong as his desire to paint, and that he is ready to marry the two.
Speaking at the opening on Friday- Education minister Desmond Bannister noted that Hanna is a “true example of what it means to rise above challenge and become a true ambassador of the Bahamas.”
Fellow artists John Cox and Heino Schmid also noted the achievements of the artist. Mr Cox said that Hanna’s ability to focus such a degree of passion in abstract painting in a time when it was difficult enough to be just be a painter is a true testament to him.
Mr Schmid added that Hanna “attacks every painting not like its his last, but his first. He has a slow moving way of painting that is the language of his practice.”
Kendal Hanna – Happy Birthday to Me” Retrospective Exhibition runs at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas until Monday, January 2, 2012.
