The Miami-based Haitian American artist Edouard Duval-Carrié returned to FSU in November 2022 to present talks and participate in discussions and social gatherings with faculty and students in the Departments of Art History and Modern Languages & Linguistics. Duval-Carrié’s vibrant paintings and sculptures are renowned internationally. In 2018, FSU art historians curated an exhibition of his work in the Museum of Fine Arts, Decolonizing Refinement: Contemporary Pursuits in the Art of Edouard Duval-Carrié, that later traveled to museums around the state. Duval-Carrié’s vibrant nine-panel mixed media piece, Sugar Conventions, hangs in the department’s Rose Library in WJB.
At a public lecture on Monday evening, November 14, the artist took faculty, students, and visitors from the community through his body of work, explaining his creative and technical processes. He then answered questions from the audience about his connection to France, his process, and his next project. Duval-Carrié also met with Dr. Paul Niell’s graduate seminar “Sacred Landscapes of Haiti and its Diaspora.” Each member of the seminar, including Edouard, produced a design for a drapó (Haitian Vodou flag). MA students described their interactions with the artist:
As a Caribbeanist, the opportunity to talk with an artist of Duval Carrié’s stature is a learning experience in itself, especially when he was kind enough to join us for a class and answer our questions about his work and about Haitian art in general.– Carlos Ortiz Burgos
Edouard Duval-Carrié shared the range of inspiration of his work, which included the Haitian Revolution, Haitian people, and their historical resilience. When audience members asked how he developed his technique and what artists stimulated his ingenuity, Carrie’s responses were simply “by nature.” In an art world where an artist’s every brushstroke may be analyzed for profound meaning, Carrié explained, final products aren’t a philosophical idea to be picked and prodded. He intuitively paints from the topic spearheaded in his mind and lets the brush work its magic.– Rhamira Corbett
