Ceremony by David Cutrell

David Cutrell. Detail of Ceremony, ca. 1992. Oil on canvas board. 19.5 x 24 in. Courtesy of the artist.

A ceremony is taking place. There is a row of four chairs on a gray floor. One person is sitting, another has just started to rise from their seat. Next to the rising figure, and above the seated figure, is an angel with wings and a halo. The angel’s arms are spread wide as it holds two narrow poles. At the far right of the canvas, a person holds up a sickle. Swashes of blue and red paint frame the angel, which is outlined in gray and filled with white. The other elements in the painting are similarly outlined and filled in variations of gray, burgundy, and green. From the bottom of the canvas, small crosses and a blue vèvè emerge. The vèvè is a clue: it tell us that this is a ceremony for Èzili Dantò, a divinity of motherhood from the Haitian Vodou pantheon.