Rasta Culture in New York

Due to the commercialization of Rastafari iconography in America, the progression of Rasta fine art and artists in the New York City museum scene has been extremely limited. One may think that all cultures would be comprehensively represented in NYC museums, but in my experience, Rastafarian artists are completely underrepresented in major museums. Rasta imagery and iconography can easily be found wherever there is marijuana culture. This is because American commercialism has readily associated Rasta culture and tradition with marijuana because of music– predominately Bob Marley. Rasta fine art pops up in galleries, but if you’re looking to go to museums to find Rasta art, here is a list of where not to look and why that is ridiculous:

• The Metropolitan Museum of Art
• The Museum of Modern Art
• Studio Museum in Harlem
• The Guggenheim
• The New Museum
• The Whitney Museum

WHAT!? The Caribbean has become heavily integrated in New York City and the Rastafari movement is an important part of that. It is a major religion in Jamaica that soupports individuality and creativity, two quintessentially New York characteristics. The Met and MoMA are two of the most major museums that are supposed to encompass art through the ages and modern art respectively, meaning that the Rasta movement should at least in some small way be represented, but it isn’t and that’s ridiculous. It’s not surprising that there’s nothing in the Guggenheim or the New Museum because they really only show small rotating exhibitions. The Whitney Biennial had some work from Jamaican immigrants, but nothing from Rastafarians. The Studio Museum in Harlem had nothing even though it is a hub of the Caribbean diaspora. They had one book, Rockstone & Bootheel, that documented an exhibition of West indian artists that took place in Hartford, Connecticut.

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WHY!? Three words: American marijuana culture. You can easily find Rastafarian iconography in New York City, it’ll just be glass blown perched at St. Mark’s place or in any average smoke shop. Because the image of the Rasta religion has been altered to basically just weed, weed is all Americans observe in a Rastafarian context. This has markedly limited the fine art progression of Rastas and that’s… just ridiculous.

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Sources

Benard, Akeia A., “The Material Roots of Rastafarian Marijuana Symbolism.” History and
Anthropology 18 (2007): 89-99.

Pryce, Vinette K., Caribbean Life, “Stagnation or growth in the Rasta movement.”

Accessed May 7, 2014. http://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2012/12/
2012_12_03_vkp_rastas_rising.html.

Rockstone & Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art. Edited by Kristina Newman-Scott and
Yona Backer. Hartford, Connecticut: Real Art Ways, 2010.