Art aficionado and former chief curator of the National Gallery of Jamaica Dr David Boxer passed away yesterday after a long illness.

Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia “Babsy” Grange remembered Boxer as a “pioneering scholar and curator of Jamaican art…[a] passionate collector whose contributions to visual art in Jamaica are immeasurable”.In a release from her ministry, Grange said: “If ever one person was an authority on Jamaican art, it was David Boxer. Jamaican art was his life.“Under David Boxer’s visionary leadership, the National Gallery of Jamaica became a world-class art museum and a model that has been emulated elsewhere in the Caribbean.”Boxer joined the National Gallery as director/curator on December 2, 1975, just over a year after the Gallery had opened its doors. His early exhibitions, such as The Intuitive Eye (1979) and Jamaican Art 1922-1982 (1983-85), which he co-curated with Vera Hyatt for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, redefined how Jamaican art was understood, here and across the world.Among his major achievements was the development of the National Gallery’s collection, which started with 250 paintings and sculptures that were inherited from the Institute of Jamaica in 1974. Today, the collection provides an encyclopaedic overview of Jamaican art from the Taíno to the present, with more than 2,000 works of art.Dr Boxer also served as a lecturer at the Edna Manley College, where he shaped the outlook and careers of many younger artists.Grange, in offering condolence to Boxer’s family and colleagues, said he “has left an impressive legacy on which we are determined to keep building”.Boxer was a member of the Order of Jamaica.