#2794: Painting by Rose-Marie Desruisseaux : Morris comments

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From:Mysteries@aol.com

<< Rose was one of the painters who broke through the 'primitives' archtype 
so promoted by Dewitt Peters. 

David X Young  >>

I would hope that any painter trained or untrained with any quality would 
break through the 'primitives' stereotype by the sheer impetus of the vision 
therein.  I am no defender of DeWitt Peters but the socalled archetype was a 
European invention, not Haitian or North American.

What is there to break through after all?  Not the quality of the 
art.....just the colonial emphasis placed on the way it is marketed.  There 
still has not been an up to date accurate view of the self-taught Haitians.

The Chasm between trained and untrained artists in Haiti is a 
market-generated one, not an intrinsic byproduct of the work.  Had more 
trained artists been successful and the shoe on the other foot some of us 
would be crying 'elitism' and colonialistic hegemony.

The fact is that they both exist, one harkening to a cultural context and one 
in a context primarily formed by the Academy whatever its chosen subject 
matter.  Peters was less a visionary than an astute marketer.  

I never understand why one type of art has to be put down to justify another. 
 They are both part of the same world with different roots.  They both have 
their sludgy bottoms and their etherel heights.

Randall