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Gallery Experience: Haitian Art in Revolutions
September 27, 2024 | 12:00 pm–1:00 pm
Join Haitian Art Society board member Matt Dunn for a tour of Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960, where the rich cultural tapestry of Haiti comes alive within the development of modern art through the works of artists Castera Bazile, Rigaud Benoit, and Hector Hyppolite. Dunn will guide visitors through the narratives of these Haitian artists, alongside pieces by figures with deep cultural connections to Haiti, including Cuban-born Wifredo Lam and American Jacob Lawrence.
About the Exhibition
Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960 highlights works from the early half of the Museum’s collection. Working in a time of new technologies, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and rapidly expanding cities, while also responding to World Wars I and II, artists in both Europe and North America invented dramatically novel approaches to art-making. This period saw the development of abstraction in Western art, the increased use of nontraditional materials, and the rise of conceptualism—the notion that the idea behind an artwork is more important than the art object itself. Many artists used their work to comment on social and political issues; others looked inward, making art that dealt with personal expression or the problems of form. Revolutions is primarily organized chronologically, but it also opens dialogues across history, with select contemporary artworks installed in conversation with modern masterworks to demonstrate how ideas and approaches formulated from 1860 to 1960 remain critical today.
Images
Left: Castera Bazile (b. Jacmel, Haiti, 1923–1966), Boy Sketching, 1950. Oil on fiberboard. The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981 (86.270)
Right: Hector Hyppolite (b. Saint-Marc, Haiti, 1894–1948), Chez La Gorzan Dire, by 1948. Oil on paperboard mounted on wood. The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest, 1981 (86.2579)
If you have questions or a request for access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hirshhornexperience@si.edu. One to two weeks’ advance notice is recommended but not required.
