About the Haitian Art Collection

Harold Maass and Margaret Curtis

About the Haitian Art Collection

In 1993, Harold Maass, then a reporter for the Miami Herald, moved to Haiti to cover the aftermath of the military coup of 1992 which deposed the nation’s first democratically elected president, Jean Bertrand Aristide. 

It was a difficult and violent time. Maass found himself decompressing by spending time in the art galleries and warehouses of Port au Prince and other towns. 

He writes, “The art was uplifting. At a time of crisis, I was struck by how the painters celebrated every achievement—from the farmers who dug an existence out of the land to their ancestors who were dragged to the country in chains and won their own freedom by defeating what was then the world’s greatest military power.”