NO. 15 OF 61
Portail abstrait
Frankétienne (1936–2025)
$1,950
- Medium
- Mixed media
- Size
- 12 × 20 in
- Year
- 2004
- Price
- $1,950
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About the work
Arches of poured colour rise above thin figures. For Frankétienne, the spiral offered a way to express the movement of life. He likened its widening lines to the arms of galaxies. Here, the sweep makes a threshold of colour, and the small presences give the eye a place to pause within the flow before following it onwards.
Orange, brown, teal, red and black emerge from a dark base. A central loop has a scalloped red edge against soft olive-yellow ground. The signature and 2004 date sit at the lower right.
About the artist
Frankétienne, born Franck Étienne in Ravine-Sèche on 12 April 1936, was a Haitian writer, poet, playwright, painter and performer. He wrote in both French and Haitian Creole, and with René Philoctète and Jean-Claude Fignolé he founded the literary movement known as Spiralism. His novel Dézafi was the first modern novel written in Haitian Creole. He served as minister of culture in 1988 and founded a school in Port-au-Prince. As a painter he made abstract works, often in blues and reds. In 2010 UNESCO named him an Artist for Peace. He died in Port-au-Prince on 20 February 2025.