Haitian Art Collection Comes to Light at the MAM

Renowned Haitian Artist Edouard Duval-Carrie Speaks at MAM

Mar. 15, 2012

5:37 a.m.

Who actually knew the Milwaukee Art Museum collected one of the most comprehensive Haitian Art exhibitions in the country? Thanks to the generous gifts and refined eye of Richard and Erna Flagg, the museum participated in the city\'s “Haiti 2012: Dreams and Reality” international conference last week. A conference that showcased the country\'s cultural heritage, which still thrives with art, film and literature even after surviving severe natural disasters. <o:p /> At the MAM\'s exhibition lecture in the Haitian Art Gallery, guest Edouard Duval-Carrie (an imminent Haitian painter and sculptor who now resides in Miami) offered an English translation to this exciting walk through in the newly refurbished space. He explained to better understand Haitian art a few facts regarding the country\'s history would prove helpful, especially in recognizing the intermingling of traditional Vodou and Christian iconography. <o:p /> Duval-Carrie mentioned that Christopher Columbus originally sailed to the island under the Spanish flag in 1492. Unfortunately, very few people survived that initial visit due to disease. Later on, the French arrived and eventually landed with slaves traded from multiple ports around the African continent. This intermixed diverse cultures and peoples who initially had little in common, except the continent they came from, which included over 200 cultures in this huge canon that transported all their languages and religions.<o:p /> Intermingling and intermarrying these diverse cultures created a unique language in addition to the French called Creole. And a similar event happened in their religious practices, which formed a religion now named Vodou. This religion combined numerous gods, goddesses, practices and symbols from various African countries and France\'s Catholic/Christian doctrine. In 1804, after defining a new language and religion, the French Revolution inspired the Haitians to inaugurate the world\'s first black republic. Almost 140 years later in 1943, an American watercolor artist Dewitt Peters opened an art gallery in the small country.<o:p /> Many Haitian artists were self-taught, including the famous Hector Hyppolite, a third generation Vodou priest. Christian symbols such as the crucifixion, Joseph (in the form of St. Francis and the Dambala), and Mary were transposed from Vodou gods and goddesses to reflect the ideologies of many Catholic priests and monsignors residing in Haiti at the time and assisting these artists. Vodou spirits were thought to inhabit natural trees and vegetation and often incorporated into Hyppolite\'s paintings <o:p /> In Hyppolite\'s Adoration of Love (1947), flowers surround a crucifixion scene where women dressed in pure, white gowns circle the bottom of the cross and the painting. These virgins, and then referencing the Virgin Mary, represent love, motherhood, purity and wisdom.<o:p /> Sculptures throughout the gallery represent several of the most fascinating stories. This medium, metalwork, reflected an art directly transported from African ancestors and culture, where painting was often excluded from this tradition. Three small ironworks, Child of the Sea (1959), Three Headed Diety (1959) and Danbala (1959) display the work of Georges Liautaud. <o:p /> An ironworker, or forger of iron, achieved an elevated status in Africa, and then also in Haiti. Liautaud became revered for his spectacular iron crosses that marked graves in Haiti\'s cemeteries, and later on his own art discovered by Peters working in his own village. A true forger such as Liautaud heated and bent the iron without any other tools except for his own hands with metal found from discarded oil drums, recycled materials. <o:p /> A legendary contemporary artist created an extraordinary metal sculpture on exhibit at the entrance to the exhibition: Peristil by Serge Jolimeau (An artist selected to create an artwork for the former President\'s 2009 Clinton Global Citizen Award). His life-size, thin metal figure intricately cuts shapes and forms pierced into the design and cut with primitive tools. A figure portraying the complexity to the country\'s culture where Haitian culture defines a peristil as the temple or ceremony area to a Vodou settlement in this standing artwork that immediately commands the viewers admiration and attention. <o:p /> In the present day, after the earthquake and the resulting destruction, Jolimeau\'s art might be reborn in more monumental forms. As the country rebuilds its cities and churches, the culture attempts to have Jolineau recreate his art in forged steel, thicker and denser, to ornament the Catholic churches that were desecrated, then transforming these sculptures into major architectural artworks. Duval-Carrie states he personally hopes to assist in this endeavor, so Haiti realizes the importance of art and Jolimeau\'s work. <o:p /> These several artworks represent only a few of the marvelous pieces gifted to the museum by the Flaggs and on permanent exhibition, which have become more treasured after the earthquake\'s devastation. When at the Milwaukee Art Museum for their current show, ”Accidental Genius,” stroll through the Haitian Art Gallery to view other so called  "outsider art." Come inside this fascinating culture where the detailed text alongside the artwork, or an audio tour, informs the viewers to Haitian context and history, including their own struggle for independence. Accidental genius can be uncovered in a variety of places. Certainly this collection uncovers the “accidental genius\' specific to one culture even if gleaned from hundreds of creative hands, hearts and minds in the African tradition. <o:p /> The Haitian Art Exhibition represents part of the Milwaukee Art Museum\'s permanent collection gifted by Richard and Erna Flagg. For more information visit, www.mam.org.<o:p /> <o:p> </o:p>

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