Laurent Casimir (1928-1990)-Original Market Scene Painting - arts & crafts - by owner - craigslist (2024)

This major original work of art is by a talented Haitian artist Laurent Casimir (1928-1990). Casimir was the pioneer of a Haitian archetype, the market painting. The composition is powerful and very bold. It depicts a bustling market scene with female and male figures in a frantic motion surrounded by fruit. The artist used the abstraction/cubism style to paint the subject matter. He also used hash strokes (his specialty) intertwined with the figures. The composition has the appearance of a 3 dimensional scene in furious beehive like motion. Ivory and brown are the dominant colors with black hash strokes. The style reminds one of Canadian artist Sybil Andrews (1898-1992). It is a very impressive large painting by a top Haitian artist. Must be seen to be appreciated.
Details:
Title: Untitled (Market Scene)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 26”x38” (image); 31”x43.5” (Framed). An extra 3.5” of the bottom of the canvas, including the signature, was folded over the stretcher and is visible on the back.
Date: 1960’s-70’s
Signature: Signed on the middle bottom.
Condition: Very good
Framing: The previous owner had the canvas stretched and framed at ‘Michaels’ about 25 years ago. Ivory colored wood molding indented with geometrical shape. Unusual frame which complements the painting.
Provenance: Previous owner purchased the canvas at an antique market.

Asking price: $475.00, far below its fair market price OR BEST SERIOUS OFFER

Value: This size will likely sell for over $2000.00

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About the artist: Laurent Casimir was born May 8, 1928 into a family of peasants in Anse-a-Veau, Haiti. He moved to Port-au-Prince in the late 1940's and was introduced to the Centre d'Art in 1947 by his friend artist Dieudonne Cedor (1925-2010) where he studied art. In 1950 Laurent joined the Foyer des Artes Plastiques which had been recently founded by a group of intellectuals and modern artists who promoted social realism art. Here he studied art and graduated in 1956. Casimir was the originator of a Haitian archetype, the market painting, done initially in his trademark colors of red, orange and yellow. He started his series of detailed crowded market scenes in the sixties.
Casimir used hash strokes to define motion, posture, and the shape of people's clothing. It's said that he'd found his formula — something that sold — and he then painted the same subject over and over. In that, he's not alone. The desperate poverty in Haiti, even among some of the finest Haitian artists, encouraged painters to do whatever will bring them a bit of money. The culture of Haiti was ever present in Laurent Casimir’s abstract paintings of colorful markets, celebratory events, ethnic dancing and leisure pursuits, such as co*ckfighting. Visiting him at his house in Martissant in the mid-70's you were likely to find Casimir holding court and selling paintings in the front room. The popularity of Laurent Casimir’s artwork spawned many Haitian artists who imitated his style and subject matter. Laurent Casimir died in 1990 in Haiti.
Laurent’s artistic achievements were also recognized outside of Haiti. In the early 1970s, a Casimir´s painting appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times Magazine. His work was also published in publications such as: ‘The Naive Tradition: Haiti’, Milwaukee Art Center, 1974; Hernandez Mendez, Eugenio ‘Le Primitivisme, Haitien’, 1972; Rodman, Selden: ‘The Miracle of Haitian Art’, New York, 1974; Stebich, Ute, ‘Haitian Art’, The Brooklyn Museum, 1978; ‘A Haitian Celebration’, Milwaukee Art Museum, 1992; ‘Material Culture Direct From The Eye’: The Jonathan Demme Collection of Self-Taught Art, Philadelphia, 2014. His name is mentioned in major Haitian art books e.g.: ‘Peintres Haitiens’, Gérald Alexis, Editions Cercle d’Art, 2000.
Casimir’s work has been exhibited in Haiti, the United States, England, and Brazil. His work also featured in an exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), North Miami.
His works are part of important private and public collections of naive art, including the:
• Haitian art of the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa,
• Milwaukee Art Museum in Milwaukee, WI.
• Jonathan Demme Collection, NYC
• Brooklyn Museum Collection, NYC
The following are essays on Haitian art:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/explore-port-au-princes-triumphant-art-scene-180971274/
https://www.nytimes.com/1974/09/08/archives/haitian-primitives-from-art-form-to-souvenirs-art.html