Haitian Beatz

Philomé Obin (July 20, 1892 - August 1986) was a Haitian painter. He was arguably the greatest of all Haitian artists - his main rival for that accolade is fellow painter Hector Hyppolite.

Philomé Obin was born in Cap-Haïtien, the third child of Mr. and Mrs. Obénard Obin. He received rudimentary instruction in drawing as a boy and produced his first known painting in 1908. He was still working at his art three-quarters of a century later.

Most of the paintings of Obin’s first half-century - often on cardboard, sometimes on Masonite - are lost. They were, in any event, unappreciated by middle-class Haitians who preferred works that aped French paintings; they did not value Obin’s representations of Haitian street scenes or his visions of Haitian history. A former ambassador to France confided to this editor in 1983 that, in Paris, he had gained entry into certain Parisian circles because of Philomé Obin. He shamefully confessed that "this man was there living in the same city with me and I didn't know his worth not until I was in France." Thus, it was quite natural that the ambassador sought Obin's friendship after his tour of duty. The celebrated artist also painted murals and other decorative pieces for commercial establishments, fraternal organizations, and Protestant chapels in the beginning. (In a country sometimes described as "80 percent Catholic and 100 percent voodoo" -- it should be noted that the word voodoo means "spirit," given its West-African origin -- Obin was a fervent Baptist, who did not find the practice of voodoo appealing. He had, however, in the past flirted with occultism through the Freemasonry. As the 20th century neared its mid-point, Philomé Obin had never earned enough money for any of his work.

By 1944 the artist was in despair. "Dear God," he wrote on a small blackboard in his home, in Cap-Haitian, "the year 1944 was a bad one for Philomé Obin. Please make 1945 a better year for him." He had reason for hope. Word had reached him of the opening, earlier in 1944, of a Centre d’Art in Port-au-Prince, Haiti's distant capital. The Centre had been established by Dewitt Peters, an American Quaker and conscientious objector who had been sent to Haiti by the U.S. Office of Education as an alternative to World War II military service. Seeing the imaginative works that decorated many voodoo temples, or ounfò (French: humfor), Peters, also an artist, suspected that the country harbored much talent waiting to be discovered. He resolved to find and promote it.
Front cover of the political satire book, "Bakoulou" [The Con Man], given to Philomé Obin and signed by his good friend and fellow painter, Dewitt Peters, an American Quaker.
Dewitt Peter's signature on the inside cover of the "Bakoulou" [The Con Man] book, given to Philomé Obin.