The Haitian Art Collection at Bryant University was created by the donation of 20 Haitian paintings from Bryant College alum Gladys Kinioan Lujan '56. As a Foreign Service Officer secretary, Gladys started collecting Haitian art in the 1960's. She amassed a collection of over 80 paintings and donated 20 of them to Bryant in the late 1990's and early 2000's. An exhibition of the Haitian Art Collection was held at Bryant College Hodgson Memorial Library in 1999. For this exhibition Gladys Kinoian Lujan created the following explanation of the background of Haitian art:
"The essential element in Haitian art, music, and dance is voodoo, in all its mysticism and mystery, which can be traced back to the slaves who were forcibly imported from Africa by the French in the 18th century.
Unlike Haitian music and dance which have long been a part of Haitian peasant life, painting and sculpture have emerged and flowered into a national movement only within the last several decades.
It was in 1943 that the Haitian artistic instincts were discovered. An American, DeWitt Peters, came to Haiti to teach English as an alternative to military service during W.W.II. Peters did teach for a few months, but because of his keen artistic eye and his recognition of immense creative talent among the Haitian peasants, he became the catalyst behind the Haitian art movement.
Peters discovered the paintings of Hector Hyppolite (now acknowledged as the "master" of Haitian primitive art) shortly after he arrived in Haiti, while driving through the coastal town of Mont Rouis. He was struck by the boldly painted doors on a shack over which hung a painted sign "Ici La Renaissance" (Here the Renaissance). Although he didn't stop that day, he was intrigued by the bold colors and designs on the doors. After the Centre d' Art opened, he decided to locate the artist, who turned out to be a "houngan" (Voodoo priest), and who is said to have used chicken feathers and house paint as his materials.
Thus began the art movement that has showcased the extraordinary talents of generations of gifted Haitian artists, both primitive (naive) and modern.
In her book, "Haitian Paintings, Art and Kitsch," Eva Pataki tells of a "1948 Rockefeller Foundation Grant to three Haitian artists connected with the Art Center. In the same year, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York purchased paintings from Philome Obin and Jacques-Enguerrand Gourgue, one a stylized and immensely popular naive painter, the second, much younger, an immensely popular surrealist painter." In 1951, the Museum of Modern Art bought "Murder in the Jungle" and "Paradise" by Wilson Bigaud, who was to become one of the most famous Haitian primitive painters.
All three artists were chosen among a group of Haiti's best known and most gifted artists to paint murals in the Holy Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Port-au-Prince. Finished in 1951, these murals attracted world attention and also launched a number of primitive artists who became internationally famous."
