press release Haiti

press release
Haiti
Two centuries of artistic
creation
19 November 2014 – 15 February 2015
Grand Palais
galeries nationales
An exhibition organized by the Réunion des musées
nationaux - Grand Palais.
Placed under the high patronage of Mr. François Holland,
president of the French Republic and Mr. Michel Martelly,
president of the Republic of Haiti.
This exhibition focuses on Haitian art from the 19th century to the present day. Constructed around a core of
contemporary works, some produced specifically for the event, it presents the highlights of Haitian art history in a
non chronological approach and takes a fresh look at an art form insufficiently known in France.
The aim of the exhibition is to go beyond stereotypes of naïve painting and transcend the magico-religious and
exotic vision too often simplistically associated with Haitian art. Without ignoring the syncretic influences of Christian, Masonic or voodoo symbols on the collective imagination, the exhibition explores the extraordinary vitality
of art in which everything is metamorphosed in all circumstances and the “real country” coexists strangely with a
“dream land”.
Since the late 20th century, the teeming conglomeration of Port-au-Prince and the effervescence rippling through
Haitian society have fostered a contemporary aesthetic expressed in painting, graphic art, installations, videos,
sculpture using recycled materials…
In seven sections, including a Tête-à-tête with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Hervé Télémaque, the exhibition
leaves plenty of space for contemporary artists of all generations living in Haiti (Mario Benjamin, Sébastien Jean,
André Eugène, Frantz Jacques called Guyodo, Céleur Jean-Hérard, Dubréus Lhérisson, Patrick Vilaire, Barbara
Prézeau-Stephenson, Pascale Monnin…), in France (Hervé Télémaque, Elodie Barthélemy), in Germany (JeanUlrick Désert), in Finland (Sasha Huber), the United States (Edouard Duval-Carrié, Vladimir Cybil Charlier), or
Canada (Marie-Hélène Cauvin, Manuel Mathieu).
Visitors to the Grand Palais are greeted by a sculpture by Edouard Duval-Carrié.
After Haiti gained its independence in the early 19th century, art academies were founded by the leaders of the
world’s first black republic. Most were directed by European painters and developed the art of portraiture (Colbert
Lochard, Séjour Legros, Edouard Goldman), mostly portraying the men and women in power faced with the need
to create an historical identity. This tradition of official portraiture was later interpreted in a satirical manner to
comment on Haiti’s political turmoil.
Pierrot Barra, Untitled (detail), 1993, dolls, fabric, garlands, mother-of-pearl; 74 x 48 x 41 cm; Port-au-Prince,
Reynald Lally collection / Photo Jorge Alberto Perez
The Art Centre founded in Port au Prince in 1944 became a rallying point for Haitian artists. With their powerfully
evocative work, popular artists made their mark on the city and won recognition of their particular sensibility (Hector Hyppolite, Philomé Obin, Préfète Duffaut, Wilson Bigaud, Robert Saint-Brice…).
In a dissident vein, a new creative burst came in the 1950s with the opening of the Centre of the Plastic Arts and
the Brochette gallery. Artists such as Lucien Price, Max Pinchinat and Roland Dorcély explored abstraction and
surrealism in search of new paradigms in a time of constant interaction with American and European artists and
intellectuals.
With nearly 60 artists and over 160 works from public or private collections in Haiti (Musée du Panthéon national
haïtien, Musée d’art haïtien du Collège Saint-Pierre, Bibliothèque des Pères du Saint-Esprit, Loge L’Haïtienne
du Cap-Haïtien, Fondation FPVPOCH / Marianne Lehmann, Fondation Culture Création), France (Château de
Versailles, Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée d’art contemporain de Marseille), and the USA
(Milwaukee Art Museum), the exhibition presents art free of any rigid framework, readily mingling poetry, magic,
religion and political commitment.
Many of these extraordinarily rich works thrown up by Haiti’s agitated history – some were restored after the earthquake in January 2010 – are presented in France for the first time.
.......................................
curators: Régine Cuzin, freelance curator, founder of OCEA, Paris and Mireille Pérodin-Jérôme, director of
Ateliers Jérôme, Port-au-Prince
exhibition design: Sylvain Roca and Nicolas Groult
.......................................
open :
Thursday to Monday from 10 a.m. to 8
p.m.
Closed on Tuesday
From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m on Wednesday
prices :
12 €, TR 9 € (16-25 year-olds,), Free for
all visitors under 16.
access :
metro line 1 and 13 « Champs-ElyséesClemenceau » or line 9 « Franklin D.
Roosevelt »
publication by the Réunion des musées
nationaux - Grand Palais:
- exhibition catalogue
22.5 x 26 cm, 232 pages, 190 illustrations,
€ 39
press contacts:
Réunion des musées nationaux Grand Palais
254-256 rue de Bercy
75577 Paris cedex 12
Florence Le Moing
[email protected]
01 40 13 47 62
Sandrine Mahaut
[email protected]
01 40 13 48 51
Informations and booking on :
www.grandpalais.fr
#expohaiti
With the support of Fondation Daniel & Nina Carasso, under the aegis of Fondation de France
and Banque de la République d’Haïti