Artistic Traditions

Brilliant colors, exaggerated perspective and wry humor characterize a great deal of Haitian art. Large, delectable foods and lush landscapes are favorite subjects in this land of poverty and hunger. Going to market is the most social activity of country life, and figures prominently into the subject matter of many paintings. Jungle animals, rituals, dances, and gods evoke the African past, as well as a collective fantasy of Haiti's pre-colonial state.

In a country of political oppression, one tends to speak in allegories, or descriptions of a subject "under the guise of aptly suggestive resemblance" (OED). Artists paint using a visual allegorical language as well. People are disguised as animals, and animals are transformed into people. Repeated visual cues take on great symbolic meaning; these visual translations, in turn, act as a major communication device for a population that is widely illiterate. Examples of this subversive visual vocabulary include roosters, which often represent Aristide, and the red and blue colors of the Haitian flag, which often represent his Lavalas party.

Many artists cluster in various ‘schools’ of painting, such as the Cap Haïtien school, which features depictions of daily life in the city, the Jacmel School, which reflects the steep mountains and bays of that coastal town, or the Saint-Soleil School, which is characterized by abstracted human forms and is heavily influenced by Vodou symbolism.