Captivating, provocative, intellectually stimulating—these are some of the adjectives used to describe the
art of Robergeau Duverger. Using a mixture of African and Oriental influences, with a sprinkling of German expressionism, this exciting artist has created a style that can best be described as abstract realism or abstract expressionism.
Anguish, pressures of everyday life, contemplation of world events, and past memories and thoughts of persecution in the Caribbean are the pervasive elements depicted in the most recent works of the Haïtian-born artist. Duverger says, "My work is about my life experiences." A close examination of his work reveals just that. Whether his survival of onslaughts from a group of high school toughs called "The Jolly Stompers,” silent screams when he was being robbed at knifepoint in his Brooklyn home while his relatives reveled in an upstairs living room, or exploration of deep-seated emotion, his abstract expressionism tells it all.
Duverger’s professional career began to take shape while he was still a student at Pace University, with his first job as a photography teaching assistant. After graduating cum laude in 1983, Duverger assumed the post of Adjunct Professor at Pace. In the spring and summer of 1984, he went on to explore his love of color by working as a color specialist at Marvin Kommel Productions in New York City.
In the fall of 1984, Duverger enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts program at C.W. Post School of Arts in Long Island to further pursue painting and drawing. As a graduate student there, he seized another opportunity to enhance his professional development, teaching and grading a three-credit drawing class to foundation design majors and curating and hanging the annual foundation design show.
While busy raising his family and working as a full-time art director, Duverger’s personal artistic expression took a back seat. Slowly, as his children grew, so did his return to the easel.
In 2009 the artist began a body of work, Trafficking. While human trafficking is still found in many forms around the world including the United States, this series is focused on the restaveks from his native Haïti. “Rarely do we see or hear of this in the news; it is something that is hidden right in front of us. I’m hoping that these haunting images will make it even more apparent and invoke some emotion and perhaps a call to action in all of us." Valentine New York is currently working on producing a book on the series.
Robergeau Duverger is an introspective man who enjoys expressing himself on canvas rather than through the spoken word. "I don't talk a lot. I prefer to observe what is happening around me and then share my perspective and interpretation through my art,” he says. When Rob is not painting, he spends his time doing photography and graphic design, and creating wearable art—jewelry.