Edna Manley - "Negro Aroused" - The Art Piece

The Art Piece

While she was at London, Manley had discovered that the people of Jamaica had collected the money to buy her piece "Negro Aroused". Individuals pitched in whatever they could afford, purchasing the piece to begin a national art collection. She was highly moved by this act, partly because she claimed that it was such a difficult piece for her to create: "Negro Aroused,...was trying to create a national vision, and it nearly killed me, it was trying to put something into being that was bigger than myself and almost other than myself," Manley told Sculpture Review.

The original sculpture of "Negro Aroused" was created in 1935 and was first exhibited in 1937. From its exposure, "Negro Aroused" excited the public's imaginatio; it was acquired by public subscription and presented to the Institute of Jamaica to form a nucleus for an upcoming exhibition.

In 1977, work began to enlarge the sculpture and to create a monument to the workers of Jamaica and the Worker's Movement that was born in 1938. Edna Manley was commissioned to recreate the work in bronze, at a scale three to four times that of the original. She was assisted by several young sculptors. Prior to being shipped to New York for bronzing, the seven-foot version was destroyed in a warehouse fire.

In 1982, Manley produced a third version, closer in size to the original, but it incorporated some of the subtle changes she had introduced in the destroyed sculpture.

In 1991, the sculpture was posthumously enlarged by utilizing the "scaling up" technique of bronze foundries for the enlargement of a sculpture. The third version was selected because it was closer in size to the destroyed version. The cost was met by public subscription.