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 in the neighborhood who people thought of as eccentric, or sometimes even not in his right mind. Many people though, including Manuel's family, considered him a friend, who sometimes played the role of protector, but also was sometimes uncontrollable. Manuel recalls how dear this man was to him, and when the man died his presence stayed with Manuel. On one of Manuel's trips back to Haiti before this man died, Manuel took a photograph of him, and on the photograph put the sentence in creole, "MANNO KOTE'W?" or "Manuel where are you?" This painting, Will, from 2018, was inspired by this man, and that photograph.