Jerome Polycarpe

Biography

Jérôme Polycarpe was born in Port-au-Prince on November 6, 1950. Before devoting himself to painting, he worked as a mathematics professor, a background that would later inform the structure and balance of his compositions. Entirely self-taught, Polycarpe began painting full-time in the 1970s, developing a unique style that combined the intuitive colour of Haitian naïf painting with an almost geometric precision. His canvases are vibrant scenes of jungles, animals, and markets, executed with brilliant contrasts and rhythmic repetition. Lions, parrots, and dancers often inhabit his world, each rendered with expressive pattern and celebratory energy. Despite their exuberance, his compositions reveal a deep sense of order-an echo of his mathematical mind. Polycarpe's work has been exhibited across the Caribbean and collected internationally. He continues to live and paint in Haiti, representing a bridge between the naïve tradition and the intellectual abstraction of Haiti's modern era. His paintings invite both delight and contemplation: geometry meeting heartbeat.