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News from
Indigo Arts Gallery
August 2024
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Fishing - Gabriel Bien-Aimé (Haiti) 2024 | Owl with Spirits - Gabriel Bien-Aimé (Haiti) 2024 | *Sorry, no cotton! (apologies to George and Ira Gershwin and Dubose Heyward). | Indigo Arts has just received a new collection of koupe fè steel-drum sculpture by Haiti's master, Gabriel Bien-Aimé. | |
Gabriel Bien-Aimé at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe last summer. | |
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This has not been an easy time for artists working in Haiti. The village of Croix des Bouquets, Haiti's renowned center for sculpture made from recycled steel oil drums, has been taken over, burned and looted by violent street gangs. Most of the artists have fled.
Gabriel Bien-Aimé has been able to set up a temporary workshop in a more remote area of the country. Working intensely for the last few months, he has produced a new body of work. In spite of the grim circumstances, his new work exudes the joy, the humor and the creativity for which Gabriel is beloved.
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The work features not just fish but dogs, cats, birds, angels, sirens, people, spirits... | |
In July I was able to assist Gabriel's fellow artist, Serge Jolimeau at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. Serge has found refuge in a different town away from Croix des Bouquets, and was able to bring his work to the market despite immense obstacles. | |
Sirene (detail) - Serge Jolimeau (Haiti) 2024 | |
Le Coq - Serge Jolimeau (Haiti) c.2020 | |
Members of a cooperative in Pastaza province, Ecuador. | |
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Per the National Gallery:
Learn about some of the most celebrated Haitian artists of the 20th century.
Art flourished in Haiti—the world’s first Black republic—in the mid-1900s. Painters like Hector Hyppolite, Rigaud Benoît, and Philomé Obin were known around the world for their images of Haitian daily life, religious traditions, and history. Their works influenced generations of African American artists. Several, including Lois Mailou Jones and Eldzier Cortor, traveled to and worked in Haiti.
Spirit & Strength is the first chance to see 21 works by Haitian artists recently given to the National Gallery. Get an introduction to Haitian modern art and experience the remarkable creations of some of the most prominent artists in Haiti’s history alongside works by artists building upon their legacy today. Through its art, understand Haiti’s significant yet under-recognized importance in the culture of the African Diaspora.
| Note: The Haitian works in Spirit and Strength were donated by longtime members of the Haitian Art Society. The Haitian Art Society will hold its annual conference in DC, to coincide with the show's opening. Events will include a symposium, lectures and tours of the exhibition and private collections. For information, contact the Haitian Art Society. | |
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A moment to remember José Francisco Borges, master of the woodcut. Borges was Brazil’s greatest living folk artist and Pernambuco’s "Living Treasure", when he passed away on July 26th. Born in Bezerros, Pernambuco, in 1935, Borges was a poet as well as an artist. He worked in the tradition of the “folheto”, or chapbook. He wrote, illustrated, printed and marketed his inexpensive pamphlets which recounted romances, crimes, comedy, tall tales and assorted pulp fiction in verse. Popular titles included “The Woman Who Put the Devil in a Bottle”, “the Football Game in Hell” and “The Prostitute’s Arrival in Heaven”. They were also known as “stories on a string” or “cordel”, for the way they were sold, pinned to a clothes line in the market.
International recognition did not come until Borges moved to carving his wood blocks in larger formats and selling individual prints. His work was exhibited all over the world, and he illustrated books for Eduardo Galeano and others.
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Folhetos by Borges and others | |
Borges carving a woodblock. Santa Fe, 2005. | |
Woodblock and prints. Santa Fe, 2005. | |
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In 2005 Borges and his son Ivan were invited to the second annual International Folk Art Market, in Santa Fe, where I met him. A few years later Jane and I were among the many that used his classic image of a wedding in the Sertao region, “A Noiva Sertaneja”, for our own wedding invitation.
Rest in Peace, Mestre.
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Indigo Arts Gallery Hours:
By Appointment, Wednesday through Friday (and some Saturdays), 12 to 6pm
Location:
Indigo Arts Gallery
Crane Arts Building., #408
1400 North American St
Philadelphia, PA 19122
215-765-1041
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Indigo Arts Gallery
The Crane Arts Building
1400 N. American St., #408
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
215-765-1041
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