Manuel Mathieu

In the abstracted space of this painting, we see several of Manuel Mathieu's essential concerns converging. In a formal sense, elements of landscape and portraiture are coming together within the architectural structure. In a narrative sense, the content reflects Mathieu's interest in memory and personal history, and his connection with the energies that affect and protect living things. Mathieu frequently uses personal and historical photographs from his upbringing in Haiti as reference points for his compositions, blurring the lines between past, present and future. In this image, the gaze of the figure is literally looking over a barrier, extending beyond the known into the unknown, while also seeming to suggest a sort of spiritual or ancestral presence looking over us.

In Pacot, the neighborhood in Port-au-Prince where Manuel Mathieu grew up, there was a man whom people considered eccentric, or perhaps not "in his right mind." Many people, however, including Mathieu's family, considered him a friend, who sometimes played the role of protector, but at other times was uncontrollable. Mathieu recalls how dear this man was to him, and when the man died his presence stayed with Mathieu. On a trip back to Haiti before the man's death, Mathieu took a photograph of him and on the photograph wrote the question in Creole, "MANNO KOTE'W?" or "Manuel where are you?" This painting, Will, from 2018, was inspired by this man, and that photograph.