"Hector Hyppolite"(1894-1948)

Was a Haitian painter.Born in Saint-Marc,Hector was a third generation Vodou priest,or houngan.He also made shoes and painted houses before taking up fine art painting,which he did untrained.Hector spent five years outside of Haiti from 1915-1920.He later claimed those years had been spent in Africa,scholars regard that as more likely an instance of promotional myth-making than factual.His talent as an artist was noticed by Philippe Thoby-Marcelin,who brought him to Hati's capital Port-au-Prince IN 1946.There Hector worked in the studio run by Dewitt Peters,a watercolorists and schoolteacher from the United States who had come to Haiti to teach English language as part of the Good Neighbor Policy.In 1944 Dewitt opened an art center in the capital that provided free materials.Before arriving at the Centre d'Art Hector had painted upon cardboard using chicken feathers and sold to visiting U.S. Marines because he owned no brushes.Dewitt had first noticed Hector's work in 1943 on the exterior doors of a bar Montrouis,which Hector had painted with flower and bird designs.Flowers could represent attributes of deities in Vodou symbolism,although the doors had not been explicitly religious Hector recognized interests in Vodou among art buyers and incorported Vodou themes into his work during his time at Peters's studio.Andre Breton, a leading surrealists,traveled to Haiti in 1945 with Cuban artist Wifredo Lam.Wifredo purchased two of Hector's paintings;Andre purchased five paintings and wrote about Hector's work in Surrealism and painting.Andre inccluded Hector among surrealists,Hector work was more realists and realistic and relgious than an affort to reproduce dream imagery.Nonetheless,Andre regard for Hector's work brought Hector and Haitian painting to a wider audience.In January 1947 Hector exhibited at a UNESCO exhibition in Paris and received and enthusiastic reception.The U.S. writer Truman Capote praised Hector painting because there's nothing in it that has been slyly transposed.He painted 250 & 600 paintings during the last three years of his life.Hector died in Port-au-Prince.