Yesterday we received the sad news of the passing of Jonathan Demme.  The news stories have rightly celebrated Jonathan's career as a film director, with an eclectic variety of films to his credit, from Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia to Stop Making Sense and Swimming to Cambodia.  To those of us traveling in the intersecting orbits of Haitian and Outsider Art, and the arts of many countries and genres, Jonathan occupied a special place.

Starting in 1986 when he first encountered some Haitian art in a small gallery in New York, Demme became a voracious collector.  Visiting Haiti many times over the last 30 years, he became a champion of Haitian art, music, culture and the Haitian people.  He was an advocate for Haiti in its darkest times:  the military juntas of the 80's and 90's, the 2010 earthquake, the cholera epidemic, and several devastating hurricanes.  He made two fine documentaries about Haiti:  Dreams of Democracy and The Agronomist (about his friend, the murdered radio journalist, Jean Dominique).  He produced Konbit, a ground-breaking album of Haitian popular music.  

For a number of years Jonathan Demme was the most prominent collector of Haitian art, and he did a lot to promote it.  He generously loaned pieces from his collection to several major exhibits of Haitian art, and produced and co-authored (with Edwidge Danticat and others)  several books on Haitian art, including Island on Fire, Haiti: Three Visions, An Apparently Unimportant event: Self-Taught From the Centre D'Art in the 1940s and 1950s, and Odilon Pierre: Atis d'Ayiti.  He donated works to the collections at Ramapo College, and the Waterloo Art Museum, among others.  He helped to rescue and restore Haitian art after the earthquake, and to get Haiti's famed Centre d'Art back on its feet after the building was destroyed.  

Jonathan first wandered into Indigo's Pine Street gallery when he was filming Philadelphia in 1993.  He became an occasional client of our Haitian art, visiting when he was filming Beloved Philadelphia and when we exhibited at the NY Outsider Art Fair.  On at least one occasion I visited Haiti just after Jonathan had swept thrugh the galleries and the Centre d'Art.  He had made quite a dent on their collections.   Later, I was able to buy a few of his treasures.  He was a curious, creative, and unfailingly warm man.  He took the time to chat, and look at the art, even when he doubtless had a lot else on his mind.  Now, as they say in Haiti, Jonathan has "gone back to Ginen".  Thank you, and farewell, friend.  

Art News has a good article on Demme's art collecting:  A Look into Jonathan Demme’s History of Collecting Outsider Art
The New York Times wrote an article on Demme's promotion of Haitian art in 1997:  A Convert Spreads the Word for Haitian Art

New York Times obituary:  Jonathan Demme, Oscar-Winning Director, Is Dead at 73