Reconstructing the Black Image: Section 1. The Past, and the Process of Debasement

Different elements of the painting show different representations of black people by history and geography. Here we see an example of the tortured Indian. "Whereas Columbus first wrote of the Indians as a simple, friendly people who would make good Christians, those who followed him abused and tortured them to produce gold and later to work on the plantations when sugar was introduced to the area."

A black man, wrists bound as a slave, is being assessed by the white man, who is responsible for his enslavement. "European traders began to demand more and more slaves in return for their goods, amongst which were firearms, which they would only sell to African rulers who provided them with slaves. By these and other means the trade in slaves increased and so did the incidence of tribal warfare and cruelty."

"A bronze cast portrait from the Court of the Oba of Benin. Many such objects of art...were looted when the British sent a military expedition to Benin in 1897. For many decades European scholars have projected the idea that these works had been influenced by the Portuguese."

Taken from the map by Abaham Creques shows the King and the 'GOLDEN ROAD TO EGYPT', from where the gold of West African was distributed to the world markets.

"In order to justify their treatment of the Indians, the Spanish settlers projected and image of the Indians as cruel, cannibalistic and monstrous, sometimes with faces like dogs' or even with no heads at all, portraying their faces on their chests."

Gordon de la Mothe was given an OBE in 2015, primarily for services to art on the Commonwealth island of Grenada, West Indies, his birthplace.