The painter and poet, Seya Parboosingh (née Samila Joseph), passed away yesterday – Friday, August 13. Born in 1925 of Lebanese descent, in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. She attended the University of Iowa, where she focused on creative writing. In 1957, she met and married Jamaican artist Karl Parboosingh in New York, and began to paint under his direction.
The couple settled in Jamaica in 1958 and that same year they had their first joint exhibition at the Kingston and St. Andrew Parish Library. The close artistic partnership between Seya and Karl Parboosingh continued until the time of his death in 1975. Some of her most poignant works were visual expressions of her grief at his passing, such as the haunting In Prayer (1975), in which the marital bed became a coffin-like presence in the composition.
Seya spent most of her active life in Jamaica, and was a well-recognised member of Jamaica’s artistic community.She received the Institute of Jamaica’s Bronze Musgrave Medal for art in 1988. A celebration of her life will be held at the UWI Chapel on Friday, August 20 at 3:00 p.m.
Click here to see the National Gallery of Jamaica’s tribute to Seya, along with a few choice snapshots of her work.
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