Edwin Howland Blashfield

Spring Scattering Stars, Nude allegory scattering stars from a crescent moon

1927

A young man at a crowded upper-class Haitian swimming pool attracts attention. We see him only from the back in a Magritte-like pose. The transfixed expressions of some of the nubile bare-breasted bathing beauties and one man with his hands down his pants give us a clue that the mystery man is special. This is a fascinating work packed with drama and overflowing with pent-up emotion.
Bigaud's narrative is as complex as his figural composition of lookers and swimmers. Notice the sight lines of the lookers go back to front while the two swimmers go from left to right. The twenty-two figures are contained in the rectangular shape of the pool, which is pushed to the front of the picture plane. The cars of the pool partygoers are seen in the background with one witness. He is fully clothed and is most likely a chauffeur. The fully clothed female at the pool offering food is a servant. A boxy-looking radio with a pack of cigarettes and the style of the cars give glue to the date. Most Haitian art depicts average working people. The pool party departs from that tradition and shows life of the Haitian upper class. Most likely, this was painted in Petion-Ville. The higher the elevation in Port-au-Prince the more wealthy the homes. Although the artist's painting technique may be described as naive or lacking polish.
 t's one of the reasons why the work radiates charm and interest. The painting is oversized with huge dimensions of 55 x 48 and will be a statement in any room. Wilson Bigaud is considered to be a Haitian master. The condition is good. Three repaired one-inch issues on the extreme center and upper right edge. Visible only on close inspection. Otherwise presents very well and is elegantly framed, ______________________________________ Haitian master Wilson Bigaud is renowned for works portraying everyday life and rites of passage—vodou rituals, fortune-tellers, weddings, cockfights, and carnivals—with voluminous figures and lucid colors. Born in Port-au-Prince, in 1946 Bigaud was among the first to attend DeWitt Peters’s Le Centre d’Art d’Haïti, where he studied with Hector Hyppolite...

Will good ultimately triumph over evil? Or is it a perpetual tug of war? WPA Artist Leonard Lopez paints a complex figural work addressing the theme of "the fight between good and evil. It's reminiscent of the medieval paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, where demons evoke fear and confusion to portray the evil of man. In this painting, a closeup of a young female’s erotic buttock fills the horizontal space. Engulfing the sexy nude body is a dense array of Lilliputian-like figures. The top third of the composition is crammed with floating, sexy, nude female bodies. The bottom part of the painting features a cross-section of people engaged in their diverse jobs. Mounted on the nude cheek, Artist Leo Lopez paints a victorious Red Devil with a trident. He’s holding a wealthy man in a tuxedo upside down. The supernatural powers of the Devil's red forked tail extend beyond its normal length and, like a tentacle from a sea monster, entangles many of the characters that represent society. To the extreme center right Lopez paints a Winged Venus dressed...

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In some instances, a painting will look significantly much better in person than it does digitize. This is one instance. In-person, this painting will knock your socks off. It is...