Colère (Anger)

Salnave Philippe-Auguste

1908–1989, active 1958–1989

Colère (Anger), 1974

Where object was made: Haiti

Material/technique: hardboard; paint

Dimensions:
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 81.5 x 102 cm
Canvas/Support (Height x Width x Depth): 32 1/16 x 40 3/16 in
Frame Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 32 1/2 x 40 in

Credit line: Mary Lou Vansant Hughes Collection

Accession number: 2011.0314

On display: Michaelis Gallery

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Label texts

Empowerment

This vampire-like woman with a snake coiled around her appears frightful, but look closely at her expression and gesture. Is there more to her story? The figure could be interpreted as a soucouyant, a shape-shifting character from Caribbean folklore. By day, soucouyants appear as old women, but at night they fly across the sky and enter homes to suck the inhabitants’ blood. How might this figure serve as a force of resistance and empowerment?

Empowerment

The Ties that Bind: Haiti, the United States, and the Art of Ulrick Jean-Pierre in Comparative Perspective

On first glance, the subject of Philippe-Auguste’s painting appears to be evil: the woman’s fangs suggest she is a vampire and the dagger she holds suggests violent intent. Her snake-like locks of hair evoke the Greek figure Medusa. Her nudity, the snake draped around her neck, and the lush green landscape evoke Eve in the Garden of Eden, and, by extension, her historically stigmatized role as a temptress. The color scheme is also important to note. Red, green, and gold reflect the colors of pan-African ideology, and while snakes represent evil in Judeo-Christian traditions, they are used to depict the lwa (spirit) Damballah in Haitian Vodou. Damballah is commonly associated with the creation of Earth’s waters, healing, life, and intellect. In these ways, the artist’s work can be interpreted as either a portrait of Black womanhood or a statement of anti-colonial resistance and female empowerment.

The Ties that Bind: Haiti, the United States, and the Art of Ulrick Jean-Pierre in Comparative Perspective