Ritual Gourd depicting A Goue

Inscriptions

Inscribed, in black paint, lower center: A Goue; initialed, in black paint, upper right side: A. P.; inscribed, in black paint, on sail: Immamou

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

French Living and Learning Center, Loic Lerme, Fall 2021

Humanities 2.01, The Modern Labyrinth, Lucas Hollister, Petra McGillen, Andrea Tarnowski, Laura Edmondson, Winter 2023

Art History 20.04, Faith and Empire, Beth Mattison, Spring 2023

Spanish 60.04, Caribbean Afrodecendancies, Magdalena Lopez, Spring 2023

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

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023

Art History 40.01, American Art and Identity, Mary Coffey, Fall 2023

Creative Writing 10.02, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Fall 2023

Geography 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Emma Colven, Fall 2023

Geography 2.01, Introduction to Human Geography, Coleen Fox, Fall 2023

Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023

English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

Writing 5.07, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024

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-November 24, 2024.

Provenance

The artist, Port-au-Prince, Haiti; sold to Micaela and Jack Mendelsohn, July 1966; collection of Micaela and Jack Mendelsohn, Washington, D.C., 1966-2015; given to present collection, 2015.

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Subjects