A South Florida painter's work has made its way to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
The temporary exhibit "Spirit and Strength: Modern Art from Haiti” — labeled as featuring "some of the most celebrated Haitian artists of the 20th century" — includes a portrait by Edouard Duval-Carrié.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Duval-Carrié has been living and working in Miami for 25 years — and is currently Miami-Dade County’s artist-in-residence. Many of his paintings center Haitian culture and history, but the painting on display, L’Aesthete Hindu, was inspired by young people's fashion on a trip to London in the 1990s.
“It was as if they were going to a costume party, but that’s the way they dressed and that’s the way they wanted to express themselves,” Duval-Carrié said. “So I called them aesthete, and they were from everywhere.”
The plus and minus signs on the painting are also a reference to the ongoing AIDS epidemic at the time.
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Kanitra Fletcher, the National Gallery of Art’s associate curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic art, curated the exhibit.
“I knew that he was one of the most important living artists of Haitian descent, and I knew I had to have a work by him,” Fletcher said. “He’s also known for his portraiture, and so this was an excellent example.”
Duval-Carrié left Haiti with his family when he was nine years old, and grew up in Puerto Rico.
“I’m a total Caribbean character,” he said. “I’m really a student of Haiti. I try to understand everything about that place.”
In 1978, he had his first exhibit with Le Centre d’Art, one of the first major art centers in Haiti, which still exists today in Port-au-Prince.
The artists who formed the organization, many of who were common people or peasants, created a new wave of Haitian art that influenced artists from around the world, including American artists. Spirit and Strength highlights the works of many members of Le Centre d’Art and includes paintings by African American artists who were inspired by Haiti.
The exhibit also includes an “Interpretation Area” with books about the country while various types of Haitian music including méringue, Rara, Vodou music and traditional folk music play in the background.
When Duval-Carrié received the news that his work would be displayed in the National Gallery, he was “tickled to death,” he told WLRN.
“Finally, people realize that the people of Haiti have something to say, and have something to show,” he said.
Duval-Carrié added that for a long time, people didn’t see Haitian art as sophisticated or valuable.
“I always thought that these guys were extraordinary. Probably most of them were uneducated, in the western sense of the word, but they were very intelligent and very savvy and really understood what was going on in the world,” he said.
“Most of them could not speak English or French, and people talked for them, and what they said was totally wrong. And I find it infuriating.”
Duval-Carrié said one of the reasons why he creates art is to correct assumptions and stereotypes about Haiti and Haitian people.
“I’m always trying to insert Haiti in a larger context.”
Dimmy Herard, a Haitian American who moved to the D.C. suburbs from Miami four years ago, said he was thrilled to see another side of Haiti on public display when he recently visited the National Gallery.
“Me and my wife and my daughter, we’re just very excited to see Haitian culture represented at such a reputable institution,” Herard said.
“Oftentimes when people talk about Haiti, they think political violence and poverty and turmoil, and they don’t really get a chance to go beyond that narrative. And I think that that exhibition allowed the public to go beyond that.”
The exhibit, which opened last September, will close on March 9.
