NO. 44 OF 61
Le Masque
Tiga (1935–2006)
$5,000
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Size
- 17 × 22 in
- Year
- 2004
- Price
- $5,000
Or email Haitianartdisplay@gmail.com
About the work
An extra eye floats beside a face taking shape. For Tiga, Saint-Soleil helped people reach creative abilities they already possessed. He linked creation with the possibility of a new future for Haiti. Here, looking moves between a recognisable presence and the unexpected detail beside it, finding a meeting that stays open rather than settling into a fixed likeness.
Circular brown and cream brushstrokes form an oval. Light brows, narrow eyes and a straight nose lie over dark washes. The surface is streaked and worn-looking, with the signature at the lower right.
About the artist
Tiga, born Jean-Claude Garoute, was a Haitian painter and teacher. In Soisson-la-Montagne, above Port-au-Prince, he founded the Saint-Soleil movement with Maud Robart. The Centre d'Art dates its founding to 1973 and the Sun-Sentinel to 1972. Saint-Soleil gave artists without academic training the means to paint spontaneously, drawing on spiritual themes. As a teacher, Tiga developed a theory of artistic rotation, in which students worked in several media almost at once. The Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince holds seven of his works. He died in a Fort Lauderdale hospice in December 2006, aged 71.