WORLD BAZAAR: Haiti remains dear to artist
Jill Sabulis - For the Atlanta Journal Constitution
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
From the outside, the traditional brick home looks much like any of its neighbors nestled in a Marietta subdivision. But step through the leaded-glass front door and enter the vibrant world of Haitian artist Essud Fungcap.
It's a world of brilliant color, calla lilies, seashells and beautiful black women wearing big hats. In almost every painting is a reference to music: a cello, a keyboard, a French horn, the scattered measures of a piece of sheet music.
What does it all mean?
Fungcap is reluctant to classify his work. He begins describing his paintings with references to art through the ages.
"My art is expressionist, cubist and it's surreal all at the same time," he says. "As a whole, it could be called 'modern expressionism,' I guess."
His artistic expression always seems to allude to Haiti --- sometimes as plainly as the beautiful Haitian women, other times as obscurely as the use of water or a plant.
Although he is a U.S. citizen, Fungcap, married for 30 years with three grown children, closely follows the politics of Haiti as the island nation moves toward a presidential election in the fall.
His history with Haiti begins with his Chinese grandfather, who traveled there frequently in the 1920s looking after business interests. Despite the United States military occupation of Haiti through 1934, the entire family had moved to Port-au-Prince by 1928, Fungcap says.
His father, who used the traditional Fung-Cap spelling and had been a flutist in a philharmonic orchestra in Canton, started a laundry business, married the granddaughter of an Anglican priest and settled for good --- never to see his native China again.
Young Essud inherited the artistic gene.
"My older brother was an artist," he says. "I would watch him all day, painting ... and eventually he took me along with him to Le Centre d'Art." Both brothers studied at the widely known art school, which was founded in the 1940s and became home to several Haitian artists of note, including Hector Hyppolite, whose work hangs in museums from the J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Then came the teenage years. Despite his father's consternation, young Essud continued his painting and joined a Haitian pop band as a guitarist.
"My father wanted me to become a lawyer or doctor," he says. "But I didn't listen to him."
In the end, Essud Fungcap's choices paid off.
"Music has stayed with me," he says. "That's why it reflects in every piece of art I create."
Fungcap immigrated to the United States in the early '70s and dropped the hyphen in his last name.
After working as a graphic designer for national magazines, he made the leap to the fine arts in 1995. Fungcap and his wife, Getty, also Haitian, moved to Atlanta in 1998.
Today, the suburban faade of their home belies the busyness inside. The living room is a gallery, and steps away are Fungcap's studio and the office where he directs his publishing business, Fungcap Arts, and handles sales of his paintings and prints to galleries around the country. Prices for original art range from $300 to more than $10,000.
The artist, meanwhile, enjoys watching as potential customers gaze at his paintings, trying to extract meaning or gauge his intent.
"Art doesn't have to be self-explanatory," he says. "I'll inject something in [paintings], and I'll let you guess. It pleases me to see people standing in front of my pieces and trying to unfold the mystery."
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