Exhibition Tour of Spirit & Strength: Modern Art from Haiti at the National Gallery of Art, led by curator Kanitra Fletcher

Join National Gallery of Art curator Kanitra Fletcher for an in-person tour of the exhibition Spirit & Strength: Modern Art from Haiti. Following the tour, we will gather for coffee and conversation.

Meet: 10am in the lobby inside the 4th Street Entrance
East Building, National Gallery of Art

Art flourished in Haiti—the world’s first Black republic—in the mid-1900s. Painters like Hector Hyppolite, Rigaud Benoît, and Philomé Obin were known around the world for their images of Haitian daily life, religious traditions, and history. Their works influenced generations of African American artists. Several, including Lois Mailou Jones and Eldzier Cortor, traveled to and worked in Haiti. Spirit & Strength is the first chance to see 21 works by Haitian artists recently given to the National Gallery of Art. Get an introduction to Haitian modern art and experience the remarkable creations of some of the most prominent artists in Haiti’s history alongside works by artists building upon their legacy today. Through its art, understand Haiti’s significant yet underrecognized importance in the culture of the African Diaspora.

After the tour anyone who would like to join some of us for coffee at the espresso bar on the concourse (by the Cascade Café) is welcome.

For additional information about the exhibition and related programming see:
https://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2024/modern-art-haiti.html
 

Kanitra Fletcher is the Associate Curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic Art, Department of Modern and Contemporary Art, at the National Gallery of Art. Fletcher is responsible for guiding the museum's collection of African American art. Before joining the National Gallery, Fletcher worked at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where she oversaw the presentation of such major traveling exhibitions as Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power and Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, and organized the U.S. iteration of Afro-Atlantic Histories, an exhibition that was originally presented by the Museu de Arte São Paulo as Histórias Afro-Atlânticas in 2018 in Brazil. The exhibition was displayed at the MFA, Houston before traveling to the National Gallery of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art in 2022-2024. She is currently working on an exhibition featuring the work of contemporary sculptor Chakaia Booker that will open at the National Gallery in the spring of 2025, among other projects.

Fletcher has published essays in books and journals and presented research at international conferences on Afro-diasporic art as it relates to politics of the body, gender, and labor as well as aesthetics and the avant-garde. Institutions where she previously worked include the Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Museum of Modern Art, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art. Since 2013, she has curated an ongoing video art series for Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin’s public art program. Fletcher received a B.A. in English Literature from Rutgers University-New Brunswick, an M.A. in Latin American Studies with concentrations in Art History and Brazilian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, and a PhD in History of Art from Cornell University.

Banner image: Andre Pierre Mambo, (detail), early 1960s, oil on fiberboard, National Gallery of Art, Gift of Kay and Roderick Heller