Mauritius: A tribute to a Mauritian artist, Vaco Baissac (1940-2023)

We wish to pay tribute today to Vaco Baissac, an authentic Mauritian artist who recently passed away. All throughout his lifetime, he has been a great ambassador of our multi-colored island through his many paintings. Vaco Baissac simply loved colors and his paintings with fascinating colors depict the way of life on our island. Flora, fauna, landscapes, the Mauritian culture: those were the source of inspiration of this good patriot.

As a matter of fact, he was quite nostalgic of Mauritius of yesteryear, and some of his paintings are a testimony to “létan lontan” (old times), showing bits and pieces of Mauritian way of living in the olden days. Thanks to his paintings, our Mauritian sun and our Dodo happen to cross the oceans landing in Europe and other countries, where Vaco Baissac participated in several art exhibitions. We pay respect to this highly skilled Ambassador of our Mauritian society.

Above all, Vaco Baissac will be remembered for his definition of the Mauritian people: “To be Mauritian is to belong to the exquisite mix of all our communities. “, he said. A great defender of the Creole language, this artist admired the fact that our ancestors from different backgrounds, speaking different languages, were able to overcome their language barrier to meet around our “Kreol” (creole) lanquage. Vaco Baissac valued “creolité” ! An artist for whom the Creole language was such a mere “wonder” and, who was said to paint in Creole! He often claimed to be lucky and felt so grateful to live on a small island with so many different cultures, which came together under one and the same flag… red, blue, yellow and green.

To you, Vaco Baissac, our Mauritian Kreol artist, we wish to convey our heartfelt thanks. Thank you for your eye-catching vibrant heritage. Your demise will not prevent your art works from shining brightly for years on end, while coloring our environment. Your art will definitely live forever while brush in hand, from where you are, you will undoubtedly continue to color your surroundings!

North of the island, in the very heart of the village of Grand-Baie, stands his art gallery where you can find his works dedicated to the people of Mauritius. In some places around the island, if you come across vivid mural paintings of shimmering colors, you stand a good chance of facing Vaco Baissac’ s legacy.

NadElle