Haitian art show resilience

Recently, most images of Haiti have been of the destruction left by the the January 2010 earthquake. But, a new exhibition hopes to paint a different picture of Haiti, utilizing a tradition that has moved north to Pittsburgh and now has a large following in the city — Haitian art. “Haiti Rising”

A collaboration of artists

Today through Sunday

Kimbo Gallery

William Pitt Union

412-648-7815

Recently, most images of Haiti have been of the destruction left by the the January 2010 earthquake. But, a new exhibition hopes to paint a different picture of Haiti, utilizing a tradition that has moved north to Pittsburgh and now has a large following in the city — Haitian art.

This week, from Oct. 14-17, the Haitian Art Society will present an exhibition titled “Haiti Rising” in the Conney M. Kimbo Art Gallery of the William Pitt Union.

The title of the exhibition represents Haiti’s ability to rise from the disaster, Bill Bollendorf, a member of the Haitian Art Society and organizer of the event, said.

The exhibition intends to inform not only on the subject of Haitian art, but on the strength of the Haitian culture in general, according to both Bollendorf and Marcus Rediker, a professor of Atlantic History at Pitt.

“We want to educate people. We want to inform people in a positive way,” he said, “We would like the ballroom to be full.”

Bollendorf has traveled to and from Haiti at least once a year for 36 years. He adores Haitian art and feels a strong connection to its cultural significance. After his first visit to the country, he said, there was no way for him not to like the art.

“I got addicted to the art. I got addicted to the country,” he said.

In 1979 — five years after he began visiting Haiti — Bollendorf started to sell Haitian art in the Pittsburgh area. The popularity of Haitian art continues to grow in and around the city.

“I got interested in the art because you can’t not get interested when you go to Haiti,” said Bollendorf.

For this particular exhibition 30 to 35 paintings from an assortment of local Pittsburgh collections — made up of more than of 25 different artists — will fill the Kimbo Gallery. Every painting is from a local collection, including his personal one.

On Friday, Oct. 15, Rediker will lecture at 1 p.m. in the WPU Ballroom. He plans to focus his lecture on Haitian surrealism.

“I am very interested about how surrealism actually reached its highest and most influential forms in Haiti,” Rediker said.

He also said he will speak on the aesthetic of realism in Europe in comparison with the aesthetic of voodoo in Haiti. The lecture will discuss the secular versus the spirit base that Haitian art typically portrays.

Like Bollendorf, Rediker has been interested in Haitian art for a long time. He has his own personal collection of art, he said, and has been involved passionately with it for a number of years, lecturing on it in the past.

Both the exhibition and Friday lectures are free and open to the public. Anyone is able to view the art during the four-day display, as well as attend Rediker’s lecture.

At the exhibition there will be two posters for sale, said Bollendorf. Each one costs $10, and will be featured in the Kimbo Gallery during the exhibition.

All of the proceeds from the sale will benefit a project at the Smithsonian Institution called Haitian Cultural Recovery Project.

This project restores the art that the earthquake damaged in Haitian museums and churches.

Rediker hopes for the audience to see “the triumph of the human spirit under the most difficult of circumstances,” he said. “Haiti has had a hard road throughout its history.”

“It is beautiful, vivid, vibrant art that has a real power to it,” he said.

Bollendorf believes that Haiti will come out of this dark period in its history, and that the exhibition will exemplify that.

“They are strong, proud, dignified and spiritual to the point where you could almost call them magic. They believe in God, and that God will take care of them,” he said. “They believe in the spirits.”