Please view Dorothy Hood’s painting, Haiti, at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. Because I don’t have permission, I’m linking to the work of art instead of copying it here.
I visited the MFAH on a free admission day which meant that there were beautiful groups (hordes!) of children everywhere. Yes, I witnessed some touching, but more importantly I overheard people asking the kids what they thought and saw. Honestly, even if, as some certainly were, some folks were only there to have a large, air conditioned place where they could take their children for the day — so be it. Those children will see new things, imaginative things, beautiful and ugly things alike.
Dorothy Hood’s Haiti was alone on a wall. It was around a corner from a gallery space with another artwork on the way to the restroom. There was a couch in the corner where a couple were watching something on their phones. At first, I might not give the work near the restroom time. It feels too much like seeing art at Nordstrom or Neiman Marcus. But gradually this painting’s gloriously large size drew me in.
Before I read the wall text, it reminded me immediately of the Sonoran Desert. Of the canyons and mountains and swathes of rock. Once I read the text and title, the black abyss took the representation of the 150 million franc independence debt Haiti was forced to pay France.
Indeed, the painting made me feel small and insignificant. And today, as the news always brings anguishing news, I think of this abyss that threatens to swallow the rest of this painting. But it does not. It is hemmed in by rock and valleys, by cliffs, and a bit of sky.
whyever 