Hector Hyppolite was a Haitian painter. Born in Saint-Marc, Hyppolite was a third generation Vodou priest, or houngan. He also made shoes and painted houses before taking up fine art painting, which he did untrained. Hyppolite spent five years outside of Haiti from 1915-1920. His travels abroad included trips to New York and Cuba.
Background
Hector Hyppolite was born on September 16, 1894, in the town of Saint Marc in Haiti. He was a self-made artist with little or no education who worked most of his life as an apprentice cobbler, an innkeeper, and a house painter. His roots were firmly entrenched in the traditions of the voodoo religion where, like most of his male forebears, he was a voodoo priest. Some art historians have mentioned the possibility that he may have traveled to Africa at some point in his early life.
Education
Hector Hyppolite was educated at College Emmanuel Michaud.
Career
Hyppolite's presence in Haitian arts can be traced back to painting postcards for American marines stationed in Haiti during the U.S. invasion of the island. Around 1945, Phillip Toby Marcelin, a famous Haitian writer, saw a series of paintings that Hyppolite had done to decorate a bar. Amazed by his talents Marcelin persuaded him to move to Port-au-Prince and become involved with Haiti's Centre d'Art (Art Center), which was responsible for the development of primitive painting in Haiti. Hyppolite started working at the center, where he quickly became one of its most popular artists. His art was promoted and he became the central artist behind Haiti's emerging primitive and naturalistic art movements. From the moment that Hyppolite joined the center until his death three years later, he produced a formidable number of paintings; estimates range between 250 and 600 paintings, but only about 80 of those remain today.
His art was primitive and simple in style. He has been commended for the "so-phistication of his thinking and his outstanding ability to translate a complex message into visual terms". His paintings, created with bright, strong, and forceful colors, are well balanced. His art is rudimentary and has the simplicity of school drawings, with thick lines and overblown features and traits. There are no smooth transitions or demarcations between areas within the paintings. Mistakes and lack of precision are evident in his work. These imperfections quickly become invisible due to the brilliance and impressionistic traits of the overall work.
In 1947, one year before his death, Hyppolite's work was exhibited at the headquarters of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in Paris. Although he only lived for a short period after his artistic abilities unfolded, Hyppolite enjoyed his success and the homage his fellow countrymen paid him. He traveled to Cuba, New York, and Africa to exhibit his work.
Personality
Although Hyppolite also painted secular works of an excellent quality, his most important work had religious connotations. During his process of creation, Hyppolite claimed to be in a state of hypnotic trance, possessed by the spirit of John the Baptist (Poupeye 1998). Whether this is true, the fact is that religion is central, if not inherently fundamental, to his artistic expression. As a voodoo priest, he depicted deities central to his religion; his pictures, regardless of their primitive quality, reflect the mysticism with which the painter paid homage to voodoo spirits and saints. His pictures, which often have a surreal character, evoke contemplation or fear in the viewer. The sheer simplicity of his images makes them extremely powerful.