NO. 32 OF 61
Une Famille
Levoy Exil (b. 1944)
$1,300
- Medium
- Mixed media
- Size
- 14 × 30 in
- Year
- 2011
- Price
- $1,300
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About the work
Between two smaller figures, a larger figure lifts striped arms and blue hands. Levoy Exil spoke of creation as a continuation of life. In Une Famille, that upward gesture opens the group outwards. The close arrangement keeps bringing our attention back to their company, giving each presence a part in a whole that feels held together.
A round red head contrasts with orange faces at either side. Dotted outlines edge mauve and green cross-hatching and a long orange patterned panel. Wavy lines and pink flowers fill the teal ground.
About the artist
Levoy Exil was born in 1944, either at Fermathe or at Soisson-la-Montagne, in the mountains above Port-au-Prince; published accounts differ. The son of a farmer and a market trader, he was working as a mason when he met the painter Tiga (Jean-Claude Garoute). He became one of the founding members of Saint-Soleil, the community of peasant artists organized by Tiga and Maud Robart, which André Malraux wrote about in L'Intemporel. In the late 1980s he joined the five-member group Cinq Soleils. His work appeared in Haïti: Art Naïf, Art Vaudou at the Grand Palais in Paris in 1988 and at the 2010 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.