<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Pierre Augustin<\/strong><\/p> Pierre Augustin (1945 – 2014)\u00a0 favored haunting portraits of the Vodou deities and also did some monumental historical paintings. In the 1970’s he exhibited at the Galerie Monnin and at the Centre d’Art. He was a favorite of Selden Rodman’s and his work appeared in several of Selden’s books. Pierre Augustin faded from prominence in the 1980’s and his paintings today are rare.<\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Augustin, Pierre<\/span><\/i>, the Haitian Art Society.<\/span><\/p>\n Pierre Augustin, The Old Houngan<\/em>, 1977, oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Rosina Becker do Valle<\/strong><\/p> Becker do Valle (1941 – 2000) was born in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. She was a housewife until 1955 when she took up painting as a hobby, subsequently enrolling in a painting course in the Modern Art Museum of Rio De Janeiro. She is a very well known artist in Brazil and exhibited internationally. Becker do Valle painted up to the age of 86, and is considered one of the figureheads of the Brazilian naive art world.<\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Rosina Becker do Valle<\/span><\/i>, the Gallery of International Naive Art.<\/span><\/p>\n Rosina Becker do Valle, St. George Slaying the Dragon,<\/em> 1976, oil on board, 30 x 22 inches, Rodman Collection, gift of Larry Kent, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Belkis Ay\u00f3n<\/strong><\/p> Belkis Ay\u00f3n (1967 \u2013 1999) was a Cuban printmaker who specialized in the technique of collography. Ay\u00f3n created large, highly detailed allegorical collagraphs based on Abaku\u00e1, a secret, all-male Afro-Cuban society. Her work is often in black and white, consisting of ghost-white figures with oblong heads and empty, almond-shaped eyes, set against dark, patterned backgrounds. <\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from<\/span> Art and Artists: Tate Modern.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Belkis Ay\u00f3<\/span>n, Santeria<\/em>, n.d., Collaograph, Haiti, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Roland Blain<\/strong><\/p> Roland Blain (1934 – 2005) was born in Port-au-Prince. He was a member of the Foyer des Artes Plastiques, an organization of modern artists that broke away from the Centre d’Art in the early 1950’s. He began his studies with Joseph Jacob there in 1959. He was also a professional musician for a decade, during which he abandoned painting to play the trumpet and form his own orchestra. He returned to painting around 1969 and continued to produce art until the late seventies, when his eyesight began to fail.<\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Blain, Roland<\/span><\/i>, the Haitian Art Society.<\/span><\/p>\n Roland Blain, Jungle Foliage<\/em>, n.d., oil on canvas, 30 x 24 inches, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Murat Brierre<\/strong><\/p> Murat Brierre (1938 – 1988) joined the Centre d\u2019Art in 1957. Mentored by Georges Liautaud, he was one of Haiti\u2019s most prominent metal sculptors. His sculptured subjects reflected Christian and Haitian Vodou themes, primarily female nudes, embracing couples, devils, mermaids, and birds. Brierre exhibited in the United States, Mexico, and Jamaica. The National Pantheon of Haiti displays his sculptures.<\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Stivenson Magloire, <\/span><\/i>Myriam Nader Art Gallery, New York.<\/span><\/p>\n Murat Brierre, Demon Riding Cow<\/em>, n.d., forged iron, 36 x 26 x 1 inches, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Marcial Camilo Ayala<\/strong><\/p> The Mexican folk artist Marcial Camilo Ayala (1951 – 2017) was a Nahau from the village of San Agustin Oapan in the Rio Balsas valley located in the Mexican state of Guerrero. He began as a street artist painting amates<\/em> (an indigenous Nahau tradition of painting on bark of the Jonote tree). Then in 1972, American art collector Edmund Rabkin discovered him in Taxco, and encouraged Marcial to paint more. The idea spread to his two brothers, Juan and Felix, and they became well-known artists by the late 1970s.<\/p>\n Adapted from Florida Memory via the Institute of Museum and Library Services.<\/p>\n Marcial Camilo Ayala, Electricity Comes to Our Village<\/em>, 1979, oil on board, 16 1\/2 x 24 1\/2 inches, Mexico, Thompson Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Andr\u00e9 Dimanche<\/strong><\/p> Andr\u00e9 V. Dimanche (1901 – 1988) has been described as a mountain man who sculpted twisted tree roots into haunted presences. Sculptures carved by Dimanche, who had only a short training in woodworking and carpentry, were a revelation. The Haitian artist received an award for his work at the Fine Arts Pavilion of the 1949 exhibition celebrating the Bicentenary of the city of Port-au-Prince. Being self-taught, Dimanche never felt constrained to comply with academic rules of anatomy. <\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Where Art is Joy, Ruggles de Latour, New York, <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>About the Artist: Indigo Arts Gallery.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Andr\u00e9 Dimanche, Fallen Angel,<\/em> 1970, carved wood, 33 x 16 x 11 1\/2, Haiti, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Ras Dizzy<\/strong><\/p> Ras Dizzy (1932 – 2008) is one of the most important painters to emerge from the second generation of self-taught Jamaican artists born from 1930 to 1949. Dizzy was a poet before he became an itinerant artist.\u00a0 He wandered the island with his paintings under his arm to display and sell to people. Inspired by his culture, he references a prophetic location called Sheffield as his visual home ground. He uses deep color to depict subjects like reinvented palm trees, mysterious market women, cowboys, fantastical boats, extremely detailed horse races, Rastafarians, and even demonic beings he calls monopolys. Each Dizzy painting is a rich pool of contrasting color that resolves into meditative abstractions. <\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>THE BUSH HAVE EARS: LEONARD DALEY & RAS DIZZY<\/span><\/i>, Calvin-Morris Gallery.<\/span><\/p>\n Ras Dizzy, At the Races<\/em>, 1993, Tempera on cardboard, 13 x 19 inches, Jamaica, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> LaFortune F\u00e9lix<\/strong><\/p> Lafortune F\u00e9lix (1933 – 2016) began his working life as a farmer and Vodou priest who painted his own temple with images of the lwa. Upon seeing these paintings Pierre Monosiet, the late curator of the St. Pierre College Museum of Haitian Art, commissioned F\u00e9lix to create some works on masonite board and provided him with art materials. In his later years, the artist lived in St. Marc and continued painting atmospheric Vodou subjects. <\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Kafou: Haitian Art and Vodou<\/span><\/i>, Nottingham Contemporary<\/span><\/p>\n LaFortune F\u00e9<\/span>lix, Mambo with Telephone Poles<\/em>, 1980, oil on Masonite, 23 1\/2 x 24 inches, Haiti, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Kamante Gatura<\/strong><\/p> From Kenya, Kamante Gatura (1912 – 1985) was the \u201chouse-boy\u201d remembered in Isak Dinesen\u2019s book, Out of Africa<\/em>. This true tale of Karen Blixen\u2019s life on an African coffee plantation tells how Gatura entered Karen Blixen\u2019s life as a young boy when he was crippled by a severely infected leg. She arranged medical treatment and Kamante eventually became her cook and close friend. He drew upon the prey and predator relationships of the animals around him, along with the fables he heard at the Karen Coffee Farm School, to create a most unique body of work. <\/span><\/p>\n Adapted from <\/span>Major Collections<\/span><\/i>: The Kohler Foundation.<\/span><\/p>\n Kamante Gatura, The Hunt<\/em>, n.d., colored pencil and ink on paper, 15 x 20 inches, Kenya, Rodman Collection, Ramapo College of New Jersey<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n <\/i><\/i><\/i><\/span> Hector Hyppolite<\/strong><\/p> Hector Hyppolite (1894 – 1948) is the most celebrated artist from Haiti. He worked as a house decorator and a third-generation Vodou priest before moving to Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, in 1945. Hyppolite then paid daily visits to the newly founded Centre d’Art. That same year the Surrealist leader Andr\u00e9 Breton traveled to Haiti, purchased five of Hyppolite’s paintings, and promoted Hyppolite in his writing and through a traveling exhibition. In the few short years before his death, Hyppolite produced hundreds of paintings. Many were executed in household enamel and a brush made of chicken feathers. Hyppolite\u2019s works are in the collections of many major museums including the Museum of Modern Art.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Dark-toned](\"https:\/\/www.ramapo.edu\/berriecenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/152\/2025\/10\/augustin_oldhougan-scaled.jpg\")
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