KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Renowned Trinida­di­an artist Che Lovelace has been award­ed the Cheva­lier de L’Or­dre des Arts et des Let­tres (Knight of the Or­der of Arts and Let­ters) by the French gov­ern­ment. This pres­ti­gious ho­n­our, pre­sent­ed by the Em­bassy of France in Trinidad and To­ba­go on Tues­day, recog­nis­es Lovelace’s ex­cep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tions to the arts and his piv­otal role in bring­ing Caribbean vi­su­al ex­pres­sion to the glob­al fore­front.

The award was for­mal­ly con­ferred dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny at St Clair. The event was at­tend­ed by mem­bers of the Diplo­mat­ic Corps, promi­nent fig­ures from the lo­cal arts and cul­ture com­mu­ni­ty, and Lovelace’s fam­i­ly and close friends.

Lovelace, the son of pro­lif­ic writer Earl Lovelace, was born in San Fer­nan­do and grew up in the east coast vil­lage of Matu­ra. He at­tend­ed Queen’s Roy­al Col­lege, Port of Spain, and re­ceived his fine art train­ing at l’École Ré­gionale des Beaux-Arts de la Mar­tinique.

Lovelace said the beau­ty of our world lies in our dif­fer­ences. But those dif­fer­ences do not di­vide us—they en­rich us.

“Whether in France, Mar­tinique, or Trinidad, we are all en­gaged in the same pur­suit: to car­ry hu­man­i­ty for­ward, to build some­thing greater than our­selves, to move to­ward a more evolved, hu­mane and con­nect­ed world,” he said.

“I ac­cept this ho­n­our not just as an in­di­vid­ual but as some­one shaped by many hands, many voic­es, and many cul­tures. I car­ry with me the lessons of Mar­tinique, the spir­it of my Trinida­di­an her­itage, my ad­mi­ra­tion for the pan­theon of French artists that have in­spired me, and the be­lief that art—like hu­man­i­ty—is at its best when it em­braces the full spec­trum of its in­flu­ences.”

He spoke about his time in Mar­tinique – an over­seas ter­ri­to­r­i­al col­lec­tiv­i­ty of France.

“I had ar­rived, ex­cit­ed and proud to have been ac­cept­ed in­to a French art school, be­liev­ing that my high school French from QRC would car­ry me through. It did not,” he quipped.

“But as the months passed, and I slow­ly added sen­tences and ex­pres­sions to my vo­cab­u­lary, I knew I was on the verge of a pro­found jour­ney—one that would shape the per­son and artist I am to­day.”

He said Mar­tinique was more than a place where he stud­ied art; it be­came a place of trans­for­ma­tion. “I was shaped by the colours, the rhythms, and the spir­it of a peo­ple whose his­to­ry and re­silience mir­rored my own.”

It was there, he said, among the wind­ing streets of Fort-de-France, the sound of Créole voic­es, and the ever-present sea, that he deep­ened his un­der­stand­ing of art as a liv­ing, breath­ing force—one that con­nects us be­yond bor­ders.

French Am­bas­sador Di­di­er Chabert, who pre­sent­ed the award, said Lovelace was cho­sen for his con­tri­bu­tion to the arts, Fran­co-Caribbean ex­change and broad­er artis­tic di­a­logue.

“France be­lieves cul­ture is not on­ly a re­flec­tion of so­ci­ety but a force that shapes it,” he said.

“And in that spir­it, Che, you are more than an artist. You are a part­ner in the on­go­ing con­ver­sa­tion be­tween our coun­tries, a con­ver­sa­tion car­ried through colour, im­age and cre­ativ­i­ty.”

Am­bas­sador Di­di­er said it was dif­fi­cult to de­scribe the art and per­son­al­i­ty of a tal­ent­ed artist be­cause each one is unique.

“When I think of you (Che), it is a quote from your fa­ther tak­en from his won­der­ful nov­el The Drag­on Can’t Dance that comes to mind,” he said. “The quote reads, ‘All his life he had man­aged in such ways to dis­con­nect him­self from things which he couldn’t es­cape and which threat­ened to de­fine him in a way in which he didn’t want to be de­fined, and go on un­touched, un­touched by things that should have touched him, hurt him, burned him’.”