Sylbert Cleve Bolton was born in St. Mary, Jamaica in 1959, moving to Wolverhampton, England to join his parents in 1970. He obtained his BA in fine art from Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1977–80), graduating as the first Black student nationally to gain a first class Arts degree. Working as an abstract painter, Bolton completed his MA at Reading University, subsequently becoming the first ever artist-in-residence at Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 1987.
Painter Sylbert Cleve Bolton was born in St. Mary, Jamaica in 1959. He spent his early childhood with his grandparents in the countryside before coming to Wolverhampton as a child to join his parents in 1970. Bolton did not have much schooling in Jamaica and when he reached England he could not read or write. He later recalled that his encounter with school ‘was a total nightmare […] You asked me about the caws, the goats, the bees […] the herbs […] and I could tell everything about it, but the academic sides of things was never for me at all’ (Wolverhampton recording). He was then put in a special school, where one of the teachers recongnised his creative abilities and encouraged him to experiment in the art room. Bolton stated that ‘From there something happened and I just could not put a paint brush down’ (Wolverhampton recording).
Bolton subsequently obtained his BA degree in fine art from Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1977–80, now Wolverhampton University), graduating in 1980 as the first Black student nationally to gain a first class Arts degree. He later took a MA degree at Reading University. Bolton produced abstract paintings, focusing on the qualities of colour and paint application. Reflecting on his practice, he declared ‘I ask my viewers to have a willingness to accept the challenge to the imagination which each work represents’ (Creation For Liberation). In 1984 he participated in the survey show, Into The Open: New Painting, Prints and Sculpture by Contemporary Black Artists, held at the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield. Three years later, he became the first ever artist-in-residence at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and had his work included in the exhibition Creation For Liberation: Art by Black Artists at Brixton Village in London. The aim of the show was to ‘give a serious look at the artistic work by men and women whose cultural expression not only draws from the Asian, African and Caribbean heritage but also from the British and European tradition’ (Creation for Liberation). In 1988 he presented a solo show, The Point of Light: Paintings by Sylbert Bolton at Birmingham's, Ikon Gallery and, in 1992, he was featured in the exhibition The Dub Factor, curated by Eddie Chambers at Christchurch Mansions, Ipswich, which sought to examine the links between 'abstract' art and a younger generation of Black artists in England, including Anthony Daley and David Somerville. Bolton’s work was also included in Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain 1966–1996 at the Caribbean Cultural Center, New York in 1997. More recently, his paintings were featured in two exhibitions at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in 2018. The first, entitled Windrush 70, displayed photographs, artwork, video and memorabilia and celebrated the 70th anniversary of the arrival of The Empire Windrush ship in 1948, bringing West Indian migrants to Britain. The second show, A Trip Down Memory Lane, offered an insight into the domestic lives of Caribbean migrants in the 1960s.
Alongside his work as an artist, Bolton also teaches at Milton Keynes College. His work is represented in the UK public domain in the collections of the University of Reading, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, and Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Sylbert Bolton]
Publications related to [Sylbert Bolton] in the Ben Uri Library