Wilson Bigaud

File:Wilson bigaud cockfight.jpg

Wilson Bigaud (29 January 1931 – 22 March 2010)[http://repeatingislands.com/2010/04/07/wilson-bigaud-has-died/ repeatingislands]. Retrieved 2 December 2010 was a Haitian painter.

Biography

Born in Port-au-Prince, Bigaud first worked with clay before becoming a painter.{{Cite book |last=Nadal-Gardère |first=Marie-José |title=La Peinture Haïtienne - Haitian Arts |last2=Bloncourt |first2=Gérald |date=1986 |publisher=Éditions Nathan |isbn=9782091615011 |location=Paris |pages=94–95 |translator-last=Bell |translator-first=Elizabeth}}

At the age of 15, he was introduced to DeWitt Peters (who in 1944 founded the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince) by Hector Hyppolite.{{Cite book |last=Franciscus |first=John Allen |title=Haiti: Voodoo Kingdom to Modern Riviera |date=September 1980 |publisher=Franciscus Family Foundation Inc. |edition=1st |location=Chicopee, MA |pages=54 |language=en}} Peters suggested he turn his talents to painting. Thus Bigaud joined the Centre d'Art, and began to paint under the direction of Maurice Borno.

Early on, he demonstrated his abilities, by quickly assimilating innovations of a sophisticated painter (balance, movement, rhythm, pattern, contrast, unity and emphasis). Together with Jacques Enguerrand Gourgue, he belongs to a select group of artists who are more than just "naïve" and "primitive".{{Cite book |last=Williams |first=Sheldon |title=Voodoo and the Art of Haiti |date=1969 |publisher=Morland Lee Ltd. |isbn=978-0234778159 |location=Nottingham |pages=25–27, 72}}

In 1950, at the age of 19, Bigaud won second place for a painting entitled Paradise, at an International Exhibition in Washington, D.C. In 1954, one of his engravings was presented in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA), and still features in the museum's collection,{{Cite web |title=Wilson Bigaud. Untitled from 10 Original Woodcuts Signed by the Popular Painters of Haiti (10 Gravures Originales signées par les peintres populaires d'Haiti). 1947 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/67328?artist_id=557&page=1&sov_referrer=artist |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}} along with a painting titled Murder in the Jungle.{{Cite web |title=Wilson Bigaud. Murder in the Jungle. 1950 {{!}} MoMA |url=https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78318?artist_id=557&page=1&sov_referrer=artist |access-date=2025-01-13 |website=The Museum of Modern Art |language=en}}

In 1951, together with Castera Bazile, Philomé Obin, Préfète Duffaut, Toussaint Auguste and Rigaud Benoit, Bigaud decorated the walls of the Holy Trinity Cathedral (destroyed during the 2010 earthquake) of Port-au-Prince, by painting murals. His contribution depicted the Marriage at Cana. These murals were some of the finest examples of Haitian art.

His works are usually realistic dramatizations of native life, and he is considered as one of the major figures in Haitian painting.

Wilson Bigaud

Biography

References

Further reading