Encouraged by his parents, at a very early age, to look at the arts as a viable practice, Holder began his career as a musician. He began painting seriously in his teenage years and started his own dance company. He in fact began painting by using his dancers as models. He performed all over Europe in the 1950s and returned to Trinidad in the 1970s.
Holder is predominantly a figurative painter, but the Caribbean landscape as a backdrop or, occasionally, as a theme on its own, remains throughout his paintings. His work is both a celebration and an assertion of the artist’s idea of Caribbean dignity, beauty and elegance, either in the form of portraits or through the various models he has painted over the years.
The political value, objective or ethic of his work is best understood if it is seen through the cultural and political conversations of colonial Trinidad society. His imagery, whether it expresses a yearning, pathos or a series of cultural and or aesthetic proposals, should not be taken lightly. It is a world/space in which elegant dark skinned people appear at ease with themselves and their way of life.
Holder’s countless awards in his career of more than six decades include the Order of Francisco Miranda (Venezuela), the Médaille de la Cité de Paris, the Trinidad and Tobago Hummingbird Gold Medal and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West Indies. The artist lives and works in Trinidad.
