Brothers Boscoe and Geoffrey Holder Left Kindred Legacies in Painting and Performance

Dancer, choreographer, designer, actor, painter: brothers Boscoe Holder and Geoffrey Holder wore all of these hats as they carved parallel paths through art and performance across careers lasting more than a half-century. Born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1921 and 1930 and establishing themselves in London and New York, respectively, the siblings each drew inspiration from their rich heritage and the cultures of their adopted cities to develop robust interdisciplinary practices, mirrored across the Atlantic Ocean.

“For my father and uncle, their vision was inspired by all the artistic elements. Each element influenced the other. In that respect, there was no separation,” said Christian Holder, the son of Boscoe, in an interview via email. This fluidity underpins twin exhibitions at Victoria Miro in London, on view through July 27th, and presented in collaboration with James Fuentes and both brothers’ estates. For the first time, Geoffrey’s and Boscoe’s paintings are being exhibited in tandem, highlighting the kinship between their emotive portraits of people of color.

The brothers were artistic collaborators in childhood before forging their own paths. Growing up in Port of Spain, they performed together in the Boscoe Holder Dancers, a troupe spearheaded by the elder. Boscoe later moved to London in 1950, where he formed a new group, Boscoe Holder and his Caribbean Dancers, alongside his wife and leading dancer, ​​Sheila Clarke. Meanwhile, Geoffrey ventured to New York in 1953, where he became a principal dancer for the Metropolitan Opera Ballet. Both brothers have been celebrated for their contributions to the performing arts: Geoffrey won two Tony Awards for his direction and costume design in the Broadway musical The Wiz and played a villain in the James Bond film Live and Let Die, while Boscoe’s dance troupe performed at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

From performance to painting, everything Geoffrey accomplished, Boscoe pursued first. “My father, being 10 years Geoffrey’s senior, was the original. He was the mentor—although by osmosis (there was no formal tutoring or pedagogy),” said Christian. “My father planted the seed, but Geoffrey’s oeuvre developed quite individually,” he added.

And while the younger Holder came to be better known, he gave his brother due flowers. “Geoffrey always went out of his way to acknowledge that Boscoe was his teacher or helped open the door, paved the way for him in his practices in various media and performance and painting,” said James Fuentes, whose eponymous gallery recently showed Geoffrey’s work in Los Angeles, in an interview.

The influence is apparent when the brothers’ paintings are placed in direct conversation. Boscoe’s and Geoffrey’s works share an emotive, luscious use of color, their portraits of Black subjects popping against expressive fields of color in bright reds, yellows, blues, and greens. The impact of their respective dance careers is felt in their depictions of lithe bodies in effortlessly graceful postures. Both painters frequently captured their subjects nude, posed in moments of contemplation or leisure—as in Geoffrey’s Swimmers II (1986) and Boscoe’s Fret Work (1988), both on view at Victoria Miro.

Where their work differed was often in setting or aura. “Geoffrey’s approach was influenced by the vastness and energy of the United States. My father’s work, ultimately coming to fruition in Trinidad after his years in England and Europe, has a quieter tone,” explained Christian.

Those qualities are on view in the new exhibitions. Featured works by Geoffrey, created in New York from the late 1970s to the 2000s, run the gamut of city life. They move from the quiet intimacy of domestic scenes in works such as Interlude (1986), a painting peeking through an open door into a bedroom with a naked couple, to the electricity of nightclubs, as seen in Dancer in Yellow (2006). Meanwhile, works by Boscoe—drawn principally from the 1990s and early aughts—were made in Trinidad, to which he returned in 1970, and often feature elements of the natural world. Paintings such as Male nude on yellow blanket (not dated) are particularly tender in their combination of soft, luminous colors and gentle brushwork. They convey a sense of intimacy, where the viewer feels alone with the subject.