Pierre Desir

The Poet Crucified #2, 2016

Oil on canvas board

22 x 28 inches

$5,000

The Poet Crucified #5, 2018

Watercolor on paper

9 x 18 inches

$3,000

The Poet Crucified #7, 2019

Watercolor on paper

21 x 29 inches

$5,000

"The Ancient Rain series depicts the oppression of the black artist at the hands of the criminal justice system, institutional racism, and the Eurocentric art world. It depicts the August 10,1959 arrest in the Coexistence Bagel Shop of Bob Kaufman, a mixed race poet and a black-listed merchant marine, by the San Francisco police department. The text refers to Kaufman’s poem “The Ancient Rain” and written police records of the years-long harassment of Kaufman. The painting also references a medical device that administers electro-shock, treatments Kauffman was forced to undergo after being arrested for walking on the grass."

Pierre Desir, AKA Robespierre, is of Haitian/Italian background (a union, at the time, illegal in many states) and was raised in Jamaica, Queens and Westerlo, NY. He received an MA and MFA from UCLA, and is a retired professor who taught cinematography and film/video production. He served as cinematographer on award winning films such as the documentary Bob Kaufman: When I Die I Won’t Stay Dead by filmmaker Billy Woodberry and Cycles and Compensation by filmmaker Zeinabu Irene Davis. He has made such films as The Gods and the Thief, and Satchmo, The Arrival of Gabriel on a Wing and a Half-note, which have screened in festivals and universities internationally. Since his retirement he has continued to dedicate his creative energies to his painting and sculpture which were always a focus of his film work. His work is informed by a close attachment to the beauty of the natural environment, the work of time, decay and insects, and the mysteries of the spiritual world as envisioned by the diverse people of the world. Many of his subjects are a commentary upon the oppression of black artists in America. Currently, Mr. Desir spends his days painting, sculpting, writing, and cutting the hay.