Created by
Gardère, Paul Claude, Haitian American, 1944 - 2011
Subject of
Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominque, French, 1780 - 1867
Bonaparte, Napoleon, French, 1769 - 1821
Date
1999
Medium
acrylic, glitter, inorganic material and ink on paper on canvas
Dimensions
H x W x D: 49 9/16 × 67 7/8 × 4 9/16 in. (125.9 × 172.4 × 11.6 cm)
Caption
In Secret Language, Paul Gardére incorporates a decoupaged photo reproduction of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Bonaparte, First Consul portrait. Ingres painted the Napoleon portrait in 1804, the year Haiti achieved independence and shortly after Napoleon abandoned his plans to reestablish his empire in the Americas. In this piece, Gardére replaces Napoleon’s ornate desk with a Haitian drum. Although the masked figure is pointing at the Haitian constitutional papers on the drum, at the time of their creation, the Haitian people could not read, resulting in the secret language of the founding documents. Gardére also includes various veve imagery through the piece in the long, red curvilinear form that takes the place of the figure’s arm, the plaster relief on the right side of the work, and the short crosses that are scattered throughout the piece. The dominant red color of the male figure may also reference Ogoun or Ogou, the warrior loa commonly tied to the start of the Haitian Revolution.
Description
A large framed artwork composed of two separate canvases. One canvas depicts a Haitian reinterpretation of the 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte portrait, Bonaparte, First Consul and the other canvas includes an abstract background with raised plaster symbols evocative of Haitian veves.
The reinterpretation of Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres’ Napoleon portrait takes up the entire left-hand portion of the work. The portrait has a pink glittering border around its entirety. The artist has transformed the figure of Napoleon into a black man wearing a red mask that covers his entire face except his eyes and mouth. The man wears the same bright red first consul ensemble as the Ingres portrait. The figure’s left arm becomes a glittering red curvilinear form, spiraling at his feet. This imagery recalls veve drawings and Haitian sacred folk art. He has a long sword attached to the waistband on his left side. With his right hand, the man is pointing to constitutional documents which are sitting on a tall Haitian drum. The view from the window in the background shows crowded houses on a Haitian hillside. A steeple from a church juts up amongst the Haitian homes.
The canvas on the right side has white plaster symbols adhered to the orange, purple, blue, red and brown painted background. The symbols are both rigid and curving, evocative of Haitian veves, however the symbols themselves are of the artist’s own creation. These symbols are raised off the canvas. A small green frame attached to the lower right quadrant of the canvas and surrounded in blue glitter contains a piece of paper with handwritten imagery and text. The paper includes a red gridded pattern with blue dots in the center. Handwritten script reading [--scriptions / -e earthly / --ath of / --uts , the s] is jotted on top of the red and blue gridded imagery.
There are four glittering, equal-armed short crosses adhered to various portions of the entire piece. One is in the upper left quadrant, one close to the center, above the Haitian hillside imagery, one below the male figure’s feet, and a partial cross is adhered to the far-right side of the piece. These short crosses resemble veve imagery.
The verso is signed in the upper right quadrant with: “Secret Language” / Paul C. Gardére / “51 x 66” 00.
Place depicted
Haiti, Caribbean, Latin America, North and Central America
Liège, France, Europe
Classification
Visual Arts
Type
multimedia works
Topic
African diaspora
Art
Colonialism
Decolonization
French colonialism
Law
Religion
Resistance
Self-liberation
Spirituality
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Catherine Anne Gardère in memory of Paul Claude Gardère
Object number
2019.89
Restrictions & Rights
© Paul Gardère
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd50a4005bc-a7db-4fd9-a91c-697875081bb2

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

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