Castera Bazile

Art Brokerage: Castera Bazile Haitian Artist: b. 1923-1965. Castera Bazile was born in Jacmel, Haiti in 1923. He found employment at the newly opened Centre d'Art in 1944 as a general maintainance man. Eventually he began to paint and in 1947 was one of the eight "primitive" painters selected to paint the landmark murals in the Trinity Episcopalian church. In 1955 he won the grand prize in an international art competition sponsored by Alcoa and in 1957 received $1000, an impressive sum, as the winner of an art contest sponsored by Holiday Magazine. He died prematurely in 1965. Issa el Saieh, the legendary dealer , a Palestinian, often pleaded guilty to killing him. It seems that when Bazile was hospitalized and needed a blood transfusion, Issa and his good friend, American Leon Shalom, both volunteered to donate blood. "That's what killed him, the blood of a Jew and an Arab mixed together", Issa bellowed. Listings wanted.