"Guede Nibo"
16x12 in.
oil on canvas
SOLD
Andre Pierre, born in Port-au-Prince in 1916, is the artistic and spiritual heir of Hector Hyppolite. Born into a rural agricultural family, he decided one day in his youth to devote his life to Voudou. He is a houngan, or voudou priest, and a religious painter; his art documents the Haitian religion. Almost all his paintings, as the one below, represent the symbolic appearances of these African spirits. His first paintings were done inside the hollowed gourds used to contained the blood of sacrificed animals or offerings to loas, and he later began painting on board and canvas.
The painting below was done in the mid-1960's, and was part of the collection of Col. Robert Heinl, author of the famous book "Written in Blood: History of the Haitian People."
Major parts of his life work have been the decoration of hounfors, or voudou temples, some of which have been lost forever in various episodes of dechoukage, or the uprooting violence which is a part of the pattern of Haitian history. But most his works on canvas and panels survive, leaving us a precious history of the art of this "old master" of Haitian art.
Andre Pierre is considered one of Haiti's greatest painters. Seldon Rodman, in his excellent work 'Where Art Is Joy: Haitian Art - The First Forty Years' says: "Gerard Valcin and Wilmino Domond, next to Andre Pierre himself, were the dominent figures of the second generation." Pierre's paintings rarely come on the market today, and are treasured by serious collectors of Haitian art. Pierre's art has been documented in scores of books on naive and religious art, and have decorated the covers of many of these, including Seldon Rodman's 'Artists in Tune With Their World - Masters of Popular Art in the Americas & Their Relation to the Folk Tradition.'
"Guede Nibo"
16x12 in.
oil on canvas
SOLD
To order, comment or request more information: 
|
