- Vente aux enchères au profit de la Smithonian Institution et de la Fondation Dallas Monnin

The Smithsonian Magazine commissioned a painting by Haitian artist Frantz Zéphirin for their  September 2010 issue cover. The work by Zéphirin is a response to Haiti’s earthquake, with symbols of the nation’s suffering and its struggle for recovery. Philanthropic birds, representing former President Clinton, President Obama and international aid agencies, deliver messages of hope to the Caribbean nation. Bags marked with dollar signs, Zéphirin says, “show that to build a new Haiti with more justice and more educational opportunities we will need a lot of money.” At the top of the painting there is a single eye: “That’s God, and you can see he is crying a little when he sees what’s happening in my country.”

The painting, “And Haiti Will Bloom Again,” will be auctioned between September 8 and September 17, with (alas!) a minimum bid of US$4,000. Fifty percent of the proceeds from the auction will benefit the Smithsonian Institution-Haiti Cultural Recovery Project and the other half will go to the artist and the Gallerie Monnin, which represents Zéphirin and plans to donate part of its proceeds to the Dallas Monnin Foundation; the foundation’s mission is to protect the environment in Haiti through reforestation, to conserve watershed areas and to conduct civic education classes for children in the Port Salut area.

Zéphirin was born on December 17, 1968, in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. He is, by his reckoning, the 24th of his father’s 48 children (born to 19 different women). Zéphirin was raised by his grandmother near her voodoo compound in Cap-Haitien before moving to Port-au-Prince at the age of 16. As a child, Zéphirin started painting images of colonial houses in 1973 with his uncle, the Haitian master Antoine Obin, but he quickly pulled away from the stylized school of the Cap artists. Since 1987, Zéphirin has shown his work at Haiti’s Galerie Monnin. His work is instantly recognizable by the human figures with animal heads, which represent his deep cynicism for the country’s ruling class. Zéphirin’s paintings are characterized by their bright colors, patterns and tightly packed compositions. Extremely prolific, Zéphirin is known for his powerful imagination and devastating social commentary. His inspiration comes from the country’s political history, events in the Bible and voodoo mythology.

ACCEDER A LA VENTE AUX ENCHERES (AVANT LE 18 SEPTEMBRE)