#2811: Young/Morris dialogue on art and market continues

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: David x Young <Frelgo@interport.net>

I don't know what your time frame is, but in the late forties through the
fifties--when I came to Haiti--- they were absolutely starved of images. No
television until the mid sixties and you could not have a subscription to LIFE
magazine without it arriving in tatters, cut up for pictures by the post office
workers. In hounforts you'd see a publicity picture of some  movie star like Ava
Gardner passing for Erzulie.  Army I.D. fotos were prized possessions. To 'make
picture' was almost a necessity, which  was one motivation for Hector Hyppolite's
famous door. To be untrained does not mean unskilled. "Naïf" refers at best to a
wonderful innocence, and most certainly that was the case, shrewdly recognized by
Peters and Rodman to exploit for their own ends. That being said, no artist of
intent is ever a primitive in the categorical sense.

Today it is a dirty shame that the wonderful  innocence of Haiti has become so
cynically tarnished. Television of course has had a lot to do with it, and the
political chaos as well. And it ain't faring any better with all the blabbing
voudongs, academics and dogooders holding this great culture at bay.

David X YOung