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24841: Cosentino (comment) Andre Pierre: Attention must be paid



Donald Cosentino <cosentin@humnet.ucla.edu>


I saw Andre Pierre on Easter Monday at his compound in Croix des Missions. He was obviously near death. He was curled on the cot in his sitting room, and couldn't rise or speak. I had seen him a year earlier, when he was still painting, though nearly blind. Now the easel was gone, the paint box closed, that wonderful chair he had sat on while painting-the one all covered with painted spots like some Kongo spirit throne---was gone too. All his children disappeared, except his eager son Judson, who showed me a calabash he had just painted in the style of his father. It seemed surreal that such a famous artist would be dying without anyone taking notice. But his links to the outside world are gone now too. I met him through Rodney Flambert at the Centre d'Art, but Rodney died in 1999. And Issa, his first agent, died last year, though his portrait still hangs in the sitting room. So who is to note the death of this great artist? It seems too ironic that in this season of death celebrations, when poor souls like Terry Schiavo, who knew no one, become international celebrities, that Ganga Pierre should die alone and unmarked. Is there anyone in Haiti who can bring us word of his condition? Who can assist this mentor of Maya Deren, this re-inscriber of the Vodou pantheon? Attention must be paid to the passing of this great philosopher and artist!