Property from a Private Belgian Collection

GABRIEL ALIX (HAITIAN 1930-1998)
Tigre
signed G. ALIX (lower right); inscribed 7399 Issa (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
40.7 x 50.2 cm (16 x 19 3/4 in)

PROVENANCE:
Galerie Issa, Port-au-Prince (no. 7399)
Acquired by the present owner in 2019

During the early 20th century an avant-garde school of largely self-taught Haitian artists emerged, known collectively as the Centre d'Art Haiti, also known as Naïve Art. The group was led by artists such as Hector Hyppolite, Maurice Borno and Philomé Obin who explored Haiti's rich culture and environment.

The present work, featuring a Henri Rousseau-esque tiger, is executed in bright and saturated colour and is characteristic of the Centre d'Art Haiti. Gabriel Alix was introduced to Hector Hyppolite in 1946 and moved to Port-au-Prince the same year where he joined the Centre d’Art d'Haïti. He is best known for his distinctive lush jungle imagery, still lifes, religious themes, voudou subjects and exotic animals.

Haitian art first began to receive attention from the Paris avant-garde in the mid-20th century when André Breton visited Haiti in 1945 to deliver a series of lectures at the Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince. During his visit Breton purchased several of Hector Hyppolite's paintings and published an essay in 1947 in Surrealism and Painting, on the topic of Hyppolite's talent. Although Hyppolite (a Voudou priest), was not painting as a surrealist, Breton was captivated by the artist's dreamlike imagery.