Gérard Valcin (Haitian,1925-1988)

Gérard Valcin was born in Port-au-Prince in 1925 and died on May 15, 1988. A poor young man, his first job as a tile setter helped him support his painting until he could sell. Undoubtedly, this job also influenced his art, as one can witness his tightly geometrical placement of figures, blades of grass, or trees in many of his paintings. He joined the Centre d'Art in 1950 and is considered one of the most significant of Haiti's second generation of artists, an icon. His work, frequently concerned with voodoo imagery, flows from his rich imagination. He introduced himself to Dewitt Peters, his half-brother, Pierre-Joseph Valcin, and his nephew, Favrange Valcin (Valcin II). Gerard Valcin had formed several artists, such as Madsen Mompremier, Dieudonné Rouanez, and Louis Joseph. Today, Valcin's work is included in the permanent collection of the Musée d'Art Nader and Musee d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, and the Waterloo Museum of Art in Iowa. "Valcin has participated in most important exhibitions of naïve painting organized by Oto Bihalji-Mérin, museums of England, Germany, Zagreb, and Paris, and those organized by Mr. Georges S. Nader in Caracas, Santo Domingo, and New Jersey; he ranks in a good position in the book of Bihalji-Mérin entitled "Masters of Naïve Art" (Source: Peintures Haitiennes, Editions Delroisse, VILO)