A History of Haitian Art
Without a doubt, Haitian Art, especially
painting and sculpture, is among the most appreciated in the
world. It continues to receive critical acclaim while at the
same time enjoying some measure of commercial success. Yet,
that success comes with a history of controversy, as Haitian
artists, local and western critics have dueled over what form
of artistic expression is more authentic and therefore worthy
of consideration as characteristic haitian art.
The Beginnings
 While
most books on Haitian Arts conveniently begin their history
of Haitian Art with the Centre D'Art in 1944, there is however
clear evidence of artistic activity dating back to the Pre-Columbian
era. The Tainos would make dolls, drawings, signs (maybe the
ancestors of the vèvè in vaudou) that represented
their deities. Archeologists
also found sculptures and pots of many kinds that were wonderfully
crafted. All this indicates a vibrant artistic life existing
as part of everyday life among the Taino.
There exists a record of a former slave called Luc, from
Leogane, who, during french colonial times earned a reputation
as a painter. In the days after Independence, both Henri Christophe
and Alexandre Pétion were patrons of the arts.They
regularly entertained European artists, and also founded some
art schools at the time. In Christophe's court, foreign and
local artists alike found ample commission work.  The
main themes were to the glory of the Revolution or the Royal
family itself. One of those artists was Numa Desroches (1802-1880)
who produced one of the most intriguing paintings of that
period. It is a view of Palais Sans Souci with a spatial distribution
that reminds one of the naïve paintings of the 20th Century.
In the 1840s, the Emperor Soulouque founded an Imperial Academy
of the Arts.
Further evidence of artistic activity comes from a photograph
dated from c. 1900 that shows a shack adorned with religious
paintings. Again the style of the paintings is close to the
Primitive Art ("Art naïf") that would
become popular from the 1940s. Both paintings show that style
of painting is a long tradition in Haiti instead of being
the result of the work of any Art School.
 In
the early 20th Century a giant emerges from the northern town
of Cap-Haitien. He was Philomé Obin (b 1892-?) arguably
among the top 5 Haitain painters ever. Obin was a self-taught
painter whose main themes were scenes of every day life in
Cap-Haitien and historic scenes of the Haitian Revolution.
In many ways, his work is representative of the spirit of
the 20s and 30s when the global negritude movement would see
a local manifestation in Haiti with the Indigenist movement.
Indigenism and Modernism
Indigenism meant returning to the African roots and finding
new aesthetic values and a natural cultural identity. One of
the first painters to respond to the call of the indigenist
movement was Petion Savain.  His
style was realist and simple. Of the artists who were to follow
his style, we could note Georges Ramponneau.
Cuban and Caribbean influence were to give rise to the Modernist
movement. Modernism was most mostly embraced by the elite.
Modernist painters of note included Luce Turnier (1924-1994),
Lucien Price (1915-1963) etc. They tried to adapt modern artistic
theories to the local environment in the manner of a Wilfredo
Lam, the Cuban master.
Clearly there is a strong record of artistic activity predating
1940. Haitian artists did not learn how to paint out of the
blue, or through the intervention of some foreigners, like
some books would, but rather displayed an influence by traditions
that go way back and a have a good body of work to show for
it.
The Naive Art movement and the Centre d'Art
In the 1940s, Dewitt Peters, an American  school
teacher arrived in Haiti. Almost immediately he was striken
by the raw artistic talent displayed by many untrained and in
many cases uneducated painters he would encounter. Those were
people who never went to Art School, workers of all trades,
who would come home and produce marvels of ingenous art work.
In 1944, He founded the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince . The
Centre d'Art became the champion of the art form that would
be known as "Naïve Art", "peinture naïve" or
better called "intuitive art" (1).
Intuitive painting is characterized by vivid, raw colors, a
spatial composition and use of proportions that did not abide
by any of the laws of modern aesthetics, but rather revealed
spontaneity, freedom of expression and freshness. That art form
would attain notoriety on the world scale, especially with the
arrival of co-director Selden Rodman. Selden Rodman rejected
modernism, the leading art movement of the time, as being too
post-war, too vanguard and therefore too socially inclined.
Contrarily to what many manuals wrote, though, neither the Centre
D'Art nor Dewitt Peters invented Naïve Art.  Nevertheless,
they are credited for their efforts in having brought it to
the attention of the Western World.
The primitives of the first generation received worldwide
acclaim. Critics and collectors received that movement as
"authentic" and "unspoiled". The main heroes of that movement
were otherwise common, non artistically trained folk who had
great talent. They were André Pierre, Hector Hippolyte
(1894-1948), Castera Bazile (1923-66), Wilson Bigaud (b. 1931)
and Rigaud Benoit (b. 1911). Vaudou was prominently featured
in the works of those artists. Andre Pierre and Hippolyte
themselves were vaudou priests.
The cornerstone piece of the Primitive Art School has to
be the mural project of the Cathedral of Sainte Trinité
(Holy Trinity). For that mural, Obin, Benoit, Bazile and Bigaud
placed traditional religious motifs like the Ascension of
Christ in a very Haitian context. Characters were painted
with black faces, while drums and sacrificial animals were
featured in a few of the paintings.
The Primitive Movement was accompanied by great controversy.
Many other Haitian artists, the intelligentsia and the elite
alike resented the seal of authenticity attached to Naïve
Art. Why would only unschooled artists be recognized as authentic
Haitian artists? Even if for the wrong reasons, the generally
reactionary haitian elite of the time had a point. In earnest
what gives Western critics the right to decide what represents
true Haitian Art? What gives the Centre d'Art the mandate
to act as arbitrator, championning one movement versus others?
Haitian painters to this day have to deal with the preconceived
notion that Haitian Art is supposed to ressemble work from
that era for it to be authentic. Collectors attach high value
to the works of the masters from that era while eschewing
the work of even accomplished artists displaying more contemporaneous
trends as being unrepresentative of Haitian Art as critics
or they conceive of it.
 Well,
for better or for worse, Intuitive Art and its champion, the
Centre D'Art, became a driving force behind the Haitian Art
industry as a whole by bringing worldwide attention towards
the small nation. For one, the Centre D'Art gave a chance
to painters who otherwise would never be noticed by the conservative
art establishment of the time. It allowed vaudou artists like
Hector Hippolyte and Andre Pierre to express themselves, and
made religious art more acceptable. It provided support and
a market for generations of painters and made international
celebrities out of many. Intuitive Art became very prized
by tourists who kept alive a whole industry, even when the
quality of the art work over the years, especially what is
found on the streets, became quite questionable. Intuitive
Art from the 50s and on became a cash crop that even the elite
in turn cultivated by buying the best of the genre for display
in posh galleries.
 Therein
lies the great irony. With Haitian Art, success is often a
double-edge sword. Whenever an art form gets some kind of
critical recognition, foreign demand and foreign backing would
automatically increase. In turn, artists who many times worked
for galleries would get specific demands and feedback:"Do
more market scenes", or "landscapes are very hot now".
That sort of feedback ultimately becomes detrimental because
it hinders the natural disposition of the artist and forces
him/her to slant energies towards popular themes and styles.
They would be compelled to mass-produce art work in line with
what is popular, instead of what they were inspired to do.
Before long, many copycats and wannabes would emerge and ultimately,
the whole movement would turn into commercialism, with decreasing
freshness, originality and hence quality of production.
Aftermath of the Naive Movement
 There
were many offshoots to the Naïve movement. Philomé
Obin would create the School of Cap-Haitien that included
artists such as Sénèque Obin (1893-1977), his
younger brother.
Second generation intuitive painters include Gerard Valcin
(1925-88), Wilmino Domond, Seymour Bottex, Gabriel Alix, Gesner
Armand and Prefete Duffaut (b. 1923). The second generation
is characterized by a certain departure from the style of
the orignal masters of the 40s. Many of those artists like
Armand would through their travels learn other techniques
and would use them to enrich and solidify their original style.
This work by Bottex at the left uses vivid colors reminding
one of the originals but his use of the curve, the flatness
of his colors, the simplicity of the themes is indicative
of not just his style, but is also characteristic of the evolution
of the pimitive movement.  Another
example is Prefete Duffaut is especially famous for his mountainous
landscapes where Heaven meets Earth and the laws of Gravity
are nonexistent. Duffaut would later create the School of
Jacmel in the country's south east. Other primitives of the
second generation are famous for their depictions of jungles
with lions and tigers in a local context, or oversized fruits.
The Poto Mitan (pole in the center of a hounfor, a vaudou
temple) School of 1968 shows renewed interest in Vaudou
and Pre-Hispanic themes.
It featured Tiga (Jean-Claude Garoute b. 1935) Maud Robart
and Patrick Vilaire (b. 1942). Tiga and Robart would be at
the origin of what Andre Malraux called the most striking
experiment of magical painting he had ever seen. That was
the Saint Soleil experiment.
In the early 70s. Tiga and robart, already famous painters
who rejected the prevalent primitive movement wanted to createa
community of artists whose inspiration stemmed from pure unadulterated
haitian sources. They bought a property
in the mountains where they distributed art materials to a
group of peasants who have never painted to see what would
come out. The results were spectacular. The major artists
produced by that experiment include Louisiane St Fleurant,
Prospere Pierre Louis (1947-96), Antilhomme, Levoy Exil (b.
1944) and later on, Stevenson Magloire, son of Louisiane.
Andre Malraux, the famous french writer came to visit the
workshop and was amazed at the results. He devoted a whole
chapter of his last book l'Intemporal to Saint Soleil. Alas,
just as before success  became
detrimental to Saint Soleil. part-time artists became full-time
astists and soon, as commercialism again ensued, the school
disbanded.
There were other counteractions to Naïve Art. One of
them, Modernism wanted to adapt more established painting
styles to the local settings. In the 50s, many artists like
Lucien Price and Dieudonné Cédor broke away from the Centre
D'Art and founded the "Foyer Des Arts Plastiques" another
academy of painting. However, the movement lacked focus and
soon waned.
 One
of the few commercially successful reactions to Intuitive
Art was the School of Beauty, with Bernard Sejourne (1947-1994),
Jean Rene Jerome (1942-91), Philippe Dodard, and Emilcar Similien.
Their style was of a dreamy surrealism, where the individual
was featured instead of the group; where personal feelings
and thoughts received focus instead of the national consciousness.
The School of beauty soon lapsed intorich ornamental luxury
and commercialism as soon as success came to its members.
The Others
 A
few painters are worth mentionning although they do not seem
to fit any category. We have Bernard Wah (1939-1982), seated
somewhat at the other extreme of the School of Beauty, although
a key member, who displayed a quasi-mechanical approach to his
characters approaching the macabre or the fantastic.  Another
is Lyonel Laurenceau, master of the knife painting technique
whose portraits of simple folk were popular from the late 70s
to today. Herve Thelemaque achieved notoriety in France, while
Claude Dambreville excelled with his high contrast, flat color
scenes of women at the market.Let us mention a few masters of
iron work:  Georges
Liautaud who started out by making funeral crosses in the town
of Croix des Bouquets, Serge Jolimeau, who achieved worldwide
notoriety, John Sylvestre, and the Louis Juste brothers all
from Croix des Bouquets. Sculptors of note include Albert Mangones
who produced the famous "Marron Inconnu" statue in Port-au-Prince.
Let us also salute a great artist of haitian descent whose fame
in the 80s was as brilliant as it was short lived: Jean Michel
Basquiat, a quintessential modern artist whose work was part
Andy Warhol, part Brooklyn ghetto.
 Finally,
what of the present? The artistic production of Haitians has
never been more alive with many branches existing now, with
so many Haitians living in the diaspora. The young artists
show great promise, while some of the old masters show extra
life. But let us end by mentioning some of the accomplished
artists of this generation: Henri Dubreuil, Ernst Louis Jean,
Roosevelt François, Ernst Louizor, Valmidor... Just to name
a few. 
1- Calling the brand of Art
these untrained and uninfluenced painters practiced as naive
or primitive is generally considered being pejorative; the
term intuitive is the more correct and more accepted
qualifier for the art form.
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