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]
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Selected Jasmin Joseph links: