Geroges, Liautaud, Christ on Cross, Circa 1960's, forged iron. Signed. Size: 36" x 22" x 7". Georges Liautaud was the originator and master of metal sculpture from discarded oil barrels in Haiti. His sculptures can be found in museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.

Famed Haitian artist Georges Liautaud (1899-1991) is generally credited as the source of an important movement in metal art in 20th century Haiti, and the inspiration to subsequent generations of artists. In 1955, the American watercolor painter Dewitt Peters, co-founder of Le Centre D’Art or Center of Art in Port-au-Prince, noticed some intricate iron crosses in a local cemetery. Inquiries led him to the forge where Liautaud was at work. Liautaud explained that the crosses marked the graves of Vodouists. Peters subsequently commissioned work from Liautaud, and with the encouragement to explore other representational elements, the artist brought forth a wholly new genre of art in Haiti. Liautaud cut figures from old oil drums or scrap metal, using a handsaw or chisel; the rough outline would be filed and smoothed. He also continued to use a blacksmith’s forge as the site for further innovations in the form, using metal to embody the possibilities of his boundless imagination. Vodoun (or Voodoo), the syncretic national folk religion of Haiti, animates much of Liautaud’s work, and he frequently used the spirits of Vodoun, called loa, as his inspiration.