Jasmin Joseph

Artist from Haiti ( 23 Nov 1924 - 2005 )

  • Jasmin Joseph, born 23 Nov 1924 in Grande River du Nord, was working in a brick factory and sculpting in clay when his work was noticed by American sculptor Jason Seley who was teaching sculpture at the Centre d'Art. Encouraged by Seley, he joined the Centre d'Art in 1948 where he practiced sculpture and took up painting as well.

  • In the early 1950s he contributed to a mural depicting "The Stations of the Cross" and created a choirscreen of open-sculpted terra cotta for the Episcopal Cathedral of Ste. Trinité. [Both were destroyed in the earthquake of January 2010.] He abandoned sculpture after finding that unauthorized molds had been made of some of his terra cotta work and copies were being sold to profit the thief. He painted exclusively after that.

  • His work is included in the permanent collections of the Musée d'Art Haitien du College Saint Pierre in Port-au-Prince, the Davenport Musem of Art in Iowa, the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, the Waterloo Museum of Art in Iowa, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

  • Jasmin Joseph died in 2005.

[Biographic notes from Island on Fire by Jonathan Demme]

  • The Red Car by Jasmin Joseph

    The Red Car by Jasmin Joseph Dated 1973

    48 in x 15 in, Oil on Masonite, Framed

    SOLD

    • Provenance: Kristina Barbara Johnson Estate, Princeton, New Jersey.

    • Important Latin American Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, Sotheby's New York, 27-29 Nov 1984. (Lot# 420)

Publications:

  • [na]. The Naive Tradition: Haiti. Milwaukee Art Center, 1974.

  • [na]. Peinture Haitienne. Nice: Musee International d'Art Naif Anatole Jakovsky, 1983.

  • Alexis, Gerald. Artistes Haitiens. Paris: Editions Cercle d'Art. 2007.

  • Demme, Jonathan. Island on Fire. Kaliko Press, 1997.

  • Knight, Gregory G. Under the Spell: The Art of Haiti. 1983.

  • Material Culture. Direct From The Eye: The Jonathan Demme Collection of Self-Taught Art. Philadelphia, 2014.

  • McCarthy Brown, Karen. Tracing the Spirit: Ethnographic Essays on Haitian Art. Milwaukee, 1995.

  • Nadal-Gardere, Marie-Jose and Gerald Bloncourt. La Peinture Haitienne. 1986.

  • Rodman, Selden. The Miracle of Haitian Art. New York, 1974.

    -. Where Art is Joy. New York, 1988.

  • Stebich, Ute. Haitian Art. The Brooklin Museum, 1978.

    -. A Haitian Celebration. Milwaukee Art Museum, 1992.

Selected Jasmin Joseph links:

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