Showrooms

VooDoo Ceremony VoDou Ritual

Creator: Gerard Valcin
Offered by: Robert Funk Fine Art

Description
Gerard Valcin has a style that is instantly recognized as his own, which is quite challenging in Fine Art, where most artists' work looks like someone else's.
In the present work, Voodoo Ceremony, Valcin depicts the moment when a sheep is sacrificed. It is a large scene with many elements. Priestesses, called Mambo, dressed in white, African-inspired gowns, surround the sacrifice. Their repetitive shapes, which look like musical notes, are arranged in an orderly formation as drummers bang out a syncopated Voodoo beat, which will be accompanied by chanting.
A Voodoo sacrifice is a central theme of Haitian religion, which invokes spirits, lwa, and ancestors. Rituals involve offerings to the spirits, such as fruit, liquor, and animals, to show respect and ask for guidance or blessings.
Valcin shows the event in a most original way, part observational reality, part subjective creativity. To accomplish this work, he was not copying a photograph or posing subjects. His composition has nothing to do with real-life objective spatial relationships or Western linear perspective or atmospheric perspective - it is a creation of his imagination.
It is defined by the artist's own brand of perspective, combined with high-impact, graphic, rhythmic shapes and bold, punchy color.
Every part of the picture reveals a powerful, unexpected graphic design element that infuses the painting with bold vitality.
Repetitive shapes of the women in white outfits reinforce the ceremony's rhythmic nature. The trunks of two palm trees serve as a framing device, with areas of water and land alternating in a highly stylized manner.
Signed lower right on the seat of the boat
Frame size. 31.75'' x 39.75'
Provenance: Centre d'Art, Haiti, Ambassador Lane and Mrs. Sanya Bezencenet Timmons.

Valcin in past and recent Select Exhibitions: MoMA, NY (1967); National Gallery of Art (NGA), Washington DC (2024). Select Museum Collections: Milwaukee Art Museum

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Origin:	Haiti
Period:	1950-1979
Materials:	Oil on Masonite
Condition:	Good. Very good
Creation Date:	1960s
Styles / Movements:	Surrealism, Outsider Art, African American
Incollect Reference #:	835375

Dimensions

W.	24 in;	H.	31.5 in;
W.	60.96 cm;	H.	80.01 cm;

Message from Seller:

Robert Funk Fine Art in Miami offers an eclectic collection shaped by 45 years of experience, blending art with commercial perspectives. For inquiries or art advisory services, contact Robert Funk at decoypoet@yahoo.com or 305.857.0521.