Etzer Charles (Haitian, 1945-2021)

Etzer Charles (June 25, 1945–February 20, 2021) was a Haitian artist born in Jacmel who combined a diplomatic career in France with an active life in painting and cultural leadership. He completed classical studies at J.M. Henriquez in Jacmel and at Lycée Pétion in Port-au-Prince, later graduating in economics from the Faculty of Law in Port-au-Prince. Inspired early by watching his brother paint, Charles began working as a self-taught artist in 1962. In 1975, he moved to France to study political science at the University of Paris. While pursuing diplomacy abroad, Charles continued to paint and exhibit regularly. In 1986, he helped found the National Association of Haitian Plastic Artists in Port-au-Prince and served as its president—an important contribution to the institutional support of Haitian visual arts. Charles’s paintings are rooted in realism yet borrow formal elements from surrealism. Geometric shapes interlock and twist into unstable architectural structures, visually echoing the social disorder and ambient tension of Haiti’s contemporary life. In Haiti et Ses Peintres, Philippe Michel Lerebours notes how this controlled disruption becomes a defining feature of Charles’s style and message. Art critic Gérald Alexis has also described him as “a master of the narrative style,” emphasizing how his work depicts social disturbances in Haiti. Etzer Charles died in Paris, France, on February 20, 2021, leaving a legacy of intellectually driven, socially engaged Haitian painting. Scroll down to make your selection (s).