Edouard King Fong Wah, better known as Edouard Wah, was a renowned Haitian painter.
Background
Wah was born and raised in the country"s capital city of Portuguese-au-Prince. Wah was of mixed ancestry: his father was a Chinese immigrant and his mother was Haitian. To further enhance his natural abilities, his father had him tutored by one of Haiti"s premier art teachers during that era.
Career
At the age of seven, while attending one of the best parochial schools of the capital, he received his first formal instruction in perspective and anatomy. A few years later, Wah began utilizing mediums he hadn"t had much practice with before, notably oil, on canvas and masonite. Early in his career, he deviated from his original "naif" style characteristic of Haitian art to experiment with classical era painting.
After experimenting and subsequently mastering these styles, he ultimately settled for the modern eclectic style which he then identified himself with, despite the fact that it was introduced to him in the latter part of his artistic career.
Aside from painting, Wah"s other interests included acting which he took up as a side job to his artistic career. In 1963, Wah decided to found a cultural center "Calfou", also in Portuguese-au-Prince as a means of allowing people to experience Haitian culture, notably the arts and music
In 1971, during the peak of the Duvalier regime, he emigrated to the United States, relocating to Philadelphia where he would reside for the next thirteen years. On one of many visits to his homeland, Edouard King Fong Wah died on September 27, 2003 in his beloved country of Haiti.