Antonio Joseph (Haitian, 1921-2016)

Antonio Joseph, one of the early masters of Haitian art, was born in Barahona, the Dominican Republic, to Haitian parents in 1921. He was one of the first to join the Centre d'Art early in 1944, studying watercolor, drawing, and sculpture under Dewitt Peters, Jason Seley, William Calfee, Robel Paris, and Paul Keene, and he rapidly developed his style. Joseph, whose work was world-renowned as early as 1952, received two Guggenheim Foundation awards in 1953 and 1957. In 1945, he participated in the "La Havane" exposition. In 1946, he exhibited in Paris with UNESCO. He exhibited in the U.S., France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Germany, and Switzerland. His work is also in the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the St. Pierre's College Museum, and the Nader's Museum of Art. Notable books on Haitian naive and primitive art cited his art. "Were it not for Picasso, Joseph might have been the inventor of cubism," states Gérald Alexis, author and art critic,c in his book Peintres Haitiens. Antonio sadly passed away on May 7, 2016.