Cecil Baugh, 96; Jamaican Ceramist Co-Founded Art School

Cecil Baugh, Jamaica’s best-known ceramist, 96, who helped found the country’s school of art and is credited with inspiring a new generation of artists in the 1960s and ‘70s, died Tuesday at his home in Kingston. He had Alzheimer’s disease.

The best-known studio potter in Jamaica, Baugh learned the art in the 1930s from traditional Jamaican women potters. He enlisted in the British army during World War II and had his first solo exhibit one year after he returned to Jamaica in 1950. He is one of the founders of the Jamaica School of Art.

In 1975, the Jamaican government awarded him the Order of Distinction, and in 1984 he received the Gold Musgrave Award for his book “Baugh, Jamaica’s Master Potter.” In 1991, the National Gallery of Jamaica opened the Cecil Baugh Gallery of Ceramics to honor his contribution to Caribbean art.