Pauleus Vital (Haitian,1918-1984)

Pauleus Vital, born in 1918 in Jacmel and deceased in 1984, was a skilled cabinetmaker and shipbuilder before he actively joined the Centre d'Art in Port-au-Prince in 1958, spurred by the encouragement of his half-brother, Prefete Duffaut. Afterward, he returned to Jacmel, where he passionately continued to paint until his untimely death on June 18, 1984. Today, he stands as one of Haiti's most renowned and influential painters. His artwork is prominently featured in the permanent collections of the Milwaukee Museum of Art, the Waterloo Museum of Art in Iowa, and Ramapo College in Mahwah, New Jersey. (Biographical information is drawn from Danticat, Edwige, and Jonathan Demme. *Island on Fire*. New York: Kaliko Press, 1995; *Allegories of Haitian Life from the Collection of Jonathan Demme*, May 19 - July 23, 2006; and *Haiti: Voodoo Kingdom to Modern Riviera* by John Allen Franciscus.)