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National Gallery exhibit opens featuring Sullivans’ Haitian art collection

by | Oct 6, 2024

John Fox Sullivan hosted a lunch for the Haitian Art Society on Saturday, Sept. 28.
John Fox Sullivan hosted a lunch for the Haitian Art Society on Saturday, Sept. 28.

An exhibition featuring Haitian art from the collection of Beverly and John Fox Sullivan opened this weekend at the National Gallery of Art, the first permanent Haitian art display in the gallery’s history.

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John Fox Sullivan hosted a lunch for the Haitian Art Society on Saturday, Sept. 28.

Sullivan, a former mayor of the Town of Washington, and his late wife, Beverly Sullivan, have been collecting Haitian art since the 1970s. Sullivan said it was “exhilarating” to see pieces they collected hanging in the gallery.

“Beverly and I have been collecting Haitian art since 1977, and it never crossed our minds for the first 45 years that any of it would end up in the National Gallery of Art,” Sullivan said in an interview Tuesday. “I’m very satisfied to see Haitian art recognized by the

. It’s a pretty big deal if you’ve been collecting it for 40 years . . . and for them to decide that our art was worthy of being exhibited.”

During the opening reception, Sullivan said it was fun to see both Haitian art enthusiasts and people who have never seen a piece of Haitian art all enjoying the exhibit.

“That’s what the whole thing is about, to have people be exposed to something that perhaps they haven’t seen before, open their eyes,” Sullivan said.

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John Sullivan with Kanitra Fletcher, associate curator of African American and Afro-Diasporic Art. “The Fight” by Jasmin Joseph is hanging behind them.

Sullivan said the gallery has displayed a few paintings by Haitian artists in temporary exhibits, but this is the first time the gallery has owned Haitian pieces as part of its permanent collection.

During a reception at the National Gallery’s East Building on Monday evening, the museum’s director Kaywin Feldman called the joint donation by the Sullivans and Kay and Roderick Heller of Tennessee a “gift to the nation.”

Background

Sullivans’ Haitian paintings become a national treasure

This week, the National Gallery of Art announced that some of the most prized paintings of the 250-piece Beverly and John Fox Sullivan collection will travel to Washington, D.C., for an exhibit slated to open in September. 

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  • Ireland Hayes

    Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.

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Ireland joined Foothills Forum as a full-time reporter in 2023 after graduating from the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication with a degree in journalism and minor in music. As a student, she gained valuable experience in reporter and editor positions at The Red & Black, an award-winning student newspaper, and contributed to Grady Newsource and the Athens Banner-Herald. She spent three years as an editorial assistant at Georgia Magazine, UGA’s quarterly alumni publication, and interned with The Bitter Southerner. Growing up in a small town in Southeast Georgia, Ireland developed a deep appreciation for rural communities and the unique stories they have to tell. She completed undergraduate research on news deserts, ghost papers and the ways rural communities in Georgia are being forced to adapt to a lack of local news. This research further sparked her interest in a career contributing to the preservation of local and rural news.