Erzulie

Label

André Pierre was a Haitian vodou priest and religious artist known for painting vodou deities. The lavishly dressed Freda is associated with love, beauty, and luxury and hails from the Erzulie, a family of loa or iwa (vodou spirits) associated with water, fluidity, and femininity. She is married to Agoué (also known as Agwé) who is represented on the other kwi (or calabash) dressed in a sailor’s uniform. He stands in the sea next to his ship inscribed with “Immamou,” which ferries the dead to the afterlife. These religious images celebrate African-descended people’s perseverance and adaptation in the diaspora.

From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7, Haiti and Its Visitors, Chelsey Kivland, Winter 2019

Spanish 60.04, Caribbean Afrodecendancies, Magdalena Lopez, Spring 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-June 16, 2024.

Provenance

Jack and Micaela Mendelsohn, Washington, D.C.; given to present collection, 2014.

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Subjects