Gerard Valcin was born in Port-au-Prince in 1925. As a young man he was a tile setter, a trade that influenced his art as evidenced by his symmetrical placement of figures, blades of grass or trees in many of his paintings. He joined the Centre d’Art in 1950, and is regarded as a primitve master. His work is generally concerned with vodou imagery. He is the half-brother of the artist Pierre-Joseph Valcin and the uncle of Favrange Valcin, who paints under the name ValcinII. Artists who studied with M. Valcin include Madsen Mompremier and Dieudonne Rouanez.
He died on May 15, 1988.
![Communal Fieldworkers [Konbit], 1971](/media/Collections/Milwaukee-Art-Museum/gerard_valcin_combit.jpg)