Haiti fundraiser @ Nicole Gallery Chicago benefits Haitian artists

"In Haiti, Art Feeds Millions ” - Tiga (Jean Claude Garoute-Haitian Painter, Saint-Soleil School)

"Mirielle" by Arthur Wright expressly for this benefit; acrylic on canvas: 16" x 20"

Candace Hunter (Chlee) sent this information as she and others organize a fundraiser at Nicole Gallery in Chicago for the benefit of Haitian artists...

Dear Friend,

The Nicole Gallery, the oldest self-sustaining Black-owned gallery in Chicago, is coordinating a weekend-long benefit for the Centre d'Art Port au Prince, January 29 - 31, 2010.

Nicole Smith, the proprietor of Nicole Gallery, Chicago gained her knowledge and thirst for art from Le Centre when she was a young woman in Haiti.

Friday, January 29 - 4 until 8 pm

LIVE AUCTION/Entertainment/SALE...Nicole will be auction, "The Wash" by Haitian born and celebrated artist, Fritz Millevoix and "Two Kids and a Dog" by Chicago collage artist, Allen Stringfellow (died, 2005) and other art.

LIVE auction at 6:30!

Art for sale by some of Chicago's most loved artists, including: Joyce Owens, Shyvette Williams, Dayo, Candace Hunter (with Kendall Glover), Arthur Wright, Juarez Hawkins, Melvin King, Felicia Grant Preston, Marva Jolly, Sonja Henderson, Jesus Macarena-Avila, Gamiel Ramirez, Shahar Caren Weaver, Laurend Doumba, Nicole Malcolm, Efram Beltran, Greg Bray, Rose Blouin, Fabio Rodriguez and more!!!    Most of the art for the benefit is priced at or under $1,000.00 - savings of up to 50% off gallery prices.

SATURDAY, January 30     Viewing and Sale    11 - 5pm

SUNDAY,  January 31    Viewing and Sale    2 - 6 pm    Special Guest Artist

Make a party of it and bring your friends!!!!!

 

Nicole Gallery

230 W. Huron

Chicago, IL 60654

www.nicolegallery.com

312-787-7716

[email protected]
 

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more info on Le Centre...

The pressures that threaten survival also produce extraordinary creative talents, evidence of the determination that is in the human spirit. Haiti exemplifies this truth. Her tremendous creativity is evident in many ways - music, performance, crafts and writing - but above all painting and the visual arts. Haitian art first began to influence world culture in the 1940’s when exhibitions of Haitian “naïf” school painters were unveiled in the US and France. Today, Haitian art is found in the world’s great collections and is the subject of scholarly study. But its greatest meaning is the economic miracle art performs for the Haitian people. The Creole proverb “In Haiti art feeds millions” points to the parable of humanity’s need for beauty and ideas to triumph over misery.

The modern movement in Haitian art, often referred to as the Haitian Renaissance, arose in the 1940’s. More precisely it can be dated to May 14th, 1944, when DeWitt Peters, an American painter then teaching in Haiti opened an art center, Le Centre d’Art, in an old house in the center of Port-au-Prince. The Centre provided exhibition space and art instruction for the full range of Haitian artists - from completely untrained peasant artists to educated artists of the Haitian elite. The first exhibition was of twenty-five trained artists, but increasingly the center drew artists who were completely self-taught and worked in the 'naive' style for which Haitian art was to become known. The first of the ‘naive’ Haitian artists to bring his work to the Centre was Philomé Obin, who had actually been painting images of Haitian history and life in his home town of Cap Haitien since 1908! Certainly the most celebrated of Haitian artists was the hougan, Hector Hyppolite. He attracted Peters' notice in 1943 for the intriguing paintings on the doors of a roadside bar prophetically named "Ici la Renaissance" in the seaside village of Montrouis. Other notable early members were Rigaud Benoit, Wilson Bigaud, Prefete Duffaut, Micius Stephane, Montas Antoine and Castera Bazile. The Centre d’Art was an immediate critical, if not financial, success. It has weathered the many storms of Haiti’s politics and history.
Without pretending to a comprehensive synopsis of modern Haitian art history, some other landmark events in modern Haitian art history are as follows: 1945 - The visits to Haiti by French surrealist Andre Breton with Cuban painter Wilfredo Lam, each of whom bought several paintings by Hector Hyppolite. While somewhat self-servingly claiming the Haitian artists as fellow surrealists, Breton did a geat deal to legitimize and promote Haitian art in Europe and Latin America. That same year the Pan American Union hosted the first museum show of Haitian art in the United States. 1947 - The first purchase of a work by a Haitian naive' painter by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Museum president René d'Harnoncourt had first taken notice of the Haitian work in 1944. 1948-1949 - The painting of the magnificent murals at Port-au-Prince’s Episcopal cathedral of Sainte Trinité by Wilson Bigaud, Philome Obin, Gabriel Leveque, Castera Bazile and others, directed by Peters and the late American artist/poet/critic Selden Rodman.
The early 1950's saw the emergence of the uniquely Haitian art form of steel drum sculpture. A blacksmith named George Liautaud hammered out wrought-iron grave crosses for a living until Peters and others encouraged him to try his hand at figurative sculpture. His students and followers, including today's masters, Serge Jolimeau and Gabriel Bien-Aimé, further refined the art of hammering sculpture out of recycled oil drums. 1957 - The accession to power of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier. For the next decade he and his tonton macoutes terrorized Haiti. Most tourists and buyers of Haitian art stayed away. In spite of this several fresh artists emerged, including André Pierre, Gerard Valcin and Salnave Philippe-Auguste. 1972 - The opening of the Musée d’Art Haitien in Port-au-Prince, the first museum devoted to Haitian Art. It was dedicated tthe memory of Dewitt Peters, who had died in 1966. The death of Papa Doc Duvalier and the succession of his marginally less repressive son "Baby Doc" encouraged a new era of tourism to Haiti and greater exposure for Haitian artists. 1975 - The visit of French writer, critic and Minister of Culture, André Malraux, to the mystical artists’ community of Saint-Soleil. He became a champion of this group which included Prosper Pierre-Louis, Dieuseul Paul and Louisiane St. Fleurant. Another artist who began to work in this period was the ever-playful pastry chef turned painter, Gerard Fortuné. The 1980's brought the wider recognition of the art of the sequinned "voodoo flag" or vodou banner (dwapo in Kreyol). Previously regarded as a relatively obscure liturgical art it came into its own with such innovative artists as the late Antoine Oleyant and Josef Oldof Pierre. These and more traditional artists such as Clotaire Bazile, Sylva Joseph, and Yves Telemac were celebrated in the seminal 1995 touring exhibition The Sacred Arts of Haitan Vodou organized by UCLA's Fowler Museum of Cultural History. In the last decade the innovation has been led by woman sequin artists as Myrlande Constant and the late Amina Simeon. 1986 - The departure from Haiti of the dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc" Duvalier which unleashed forces in Haitian art as well as society which have yet to settle down. The 1990's brought the inspiring rise of slum priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the presidency in Haiti's first free election in 1991, followed by his overthrow by a military junta. His reinstallation by the US and the UN in 1994, and his recent ignominious fall are the latest chapters in this period of turmoil. ...and then came 2010 and the earthquake...the Centre is now broken bits of brick...and yet the story of Haiti will continue victoriously through Her artists and those who love Her...