Préfète Duffaut (1 January 1923 – 6 October 2012)[1] was a Haitian painter.

Préfète Duffaut
Born(1923-01-01)1 January 1923
Cyvadier, Haiti
Died6 October 2012(2012-10-06) (aged 89)
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
NationalityHaitian
Known forPainting
MovementVernacular art

Biography edit

Born in Cyvadier, Sud-Est, near the seaport of Jacmel, where he lived and worked.[citation needed] The painter Pauleus Vital (1918–1984) was Duffaut's half-brother, the painter Jean Charles Duffaut (*1970) is his son. Duffaut's mother died when he was two years old.

Duffaut was one of the painters, alongside important Haitian artists such as Gesner Abelard and Rigaud Benoit, at the Centre d'Art in the Haitian capital. In the early 1950s Duffaut was one of several artists invited to paint murals in the interior of the Cathedral of Sainte Trinité (largely destroyed in the January 2010 earthquake) in Port-au-Prince; his works there were titled "The Temptation of Christ" and "The Processional Road" (also referred to as the "Procession of the Crossing Guard").

Duffaut paints in the vernacular style and his oeuvre typically consists of fantastical "imaginary cities" (villes imaginaires), that often contain coastal elements with boats. The cityscapes are strongly influenced by the coastal city of Jacmel. Another recurrent theme, especially in earlier works, is imagery associated with Vodou.

Duffaut's work has been exhibited and collected widely outside of Haiti.[2][3][4] His body of paintings continues to be a strong influence on contemporary Haitian artists such as Prince Luc (Luckner Candio).

References edit

  1. ^ "Préfète Duffaut, figure majeure de la peinture haïtienne, est mort". lemonde.fr. Retrieved 2012-10-11.
  2. ^ Préfète Duffaut Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine at the Figge Art Museum.
  3. ^ "Jonathan Demme Collection: Inspiration of Haitian Art, 2009, Alliance Française New York, NY". Archived from the original on 2009-05-22. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  4. ^ The Richard and Erna Flagg Collection of Haitian Art at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

Further reading edit

  • Balutansky, Kathleen; Sourieau, Marie-Agnes (2004). Ecrire en Pays Assiege Haiti Writing Under Siege in. New York, NY: Rodopi. p. 433. ISBN 978-90-420-1753-5.
  • Schutt-Ainé, Patricia (1994). Haiti: A Basic Reference Book. Miami, Florida: Librairie Au Service de la Culture. p. 111. ISBN 0-9638599-0-0.
  • Stebich, Ute (1979). Haitian Art. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 978-0-8109-1053-9. - Exhibition catalogue of Haitian Art show at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, 09/02 to 11/05, 1978
  • Michel, Claudine; Bellegarde-Smith, Patrick (1979). Vodou in Haitian Life and Culture: Invisible Powers. Basingstoke, Hampshire UK: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 170. ISBN 978-1-4039-7162-3.

External links edit