Jacques Desince

Jacques Desince joined the Centre d’Art (Art Center) in the 1970s.  By then, the Art Center had been in existence for 30 years.  It was organized by American painter Dewitt C. Peters who came to Haiti to teach English to Haitians and was struck by the lack of art and art schools in the country.  The Art Center brought Haitian primitive art on the world scene through a series of very successful exhibits in Paris, Washington and New York and ushered a period of tremendous interest and formidable success.  Jacques Desince, who was born in Port-au-Prince Haiti in 1946, started to paint under the direction of Haitian impressionistic artist Paul Beauvoir.  In time, Desince developed his own style and, although his inspiration is rooted in Haitian life, his rendition is modern.  This is well represented in the canvas, “Sorrow.”  We recognize objects true to Haiti such as the calabash, the hat, the headscarf, but also the melancholy with the downcast eyes and the questioning pose.  The landscape is eerie with a barren tree and desolate mountains and, except for a touch of blue and red, colors that are all in various shades of brown.


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