Tribal Art Auction at Zemanek-Münster

Zemanek-Münster will present their 79th sale of fine tribal art and artifacts on March 21 in Würzburg. The wide array of traditional works to be put before the bidders represent cultures from Central and West Africa, New Guinea, Central and South America, and elsewhere.

View the online catalogue.

Mask  -  Bembe, D.R. Congo

Bird mask  -  Dan, Côte d'Ivoire

Bird pectoral  -  Tairona, Colombia

Images courtesy of Zemanek-Münster

Tribal Art Sale - Cornette de Saint Cyr

Cornette de Saint Cyr will present a sale of tribal art and artifacts in Paris on March 9. Highlighting extracts from the collections of Franco Ignazio Castelli and Mr. & Mrs. M-O, the auction lots will comprise a range of works from Papua New Guinea, Central Africa, and elsewhere.

View the online catalogue.

Hook figure  -  Sawos, Papua New Guinea

Charm figure  -  Inyai-Ewa, Papua New Guinea

Stool  -  Dogon/Tellem, Mali

Images courtesy of Cornette de Saint Cyr

Kosmos - Rätsel der Menschheit

The great timekeepers of our earthly existence are the celestial bodies surrounding us, especially the moon and sun. Humans have been trying to explain them and decipher them for thousands of years. What is the universe, the ordering principle underlying the firmament? Kosmos - Rätsel der Menschheit (The Cosmos - Mystery of Mankind), now on view at the Museum Rietberg in Zürich, explores the great enigma that is the universe. Alongside cosmologies and creation myths from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Polynesia, those of the western world from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the Germanic peoples and the Biblical account in Genesis will also be presented, as well the history of European scientific inquiry. Based on the exhibition idea by Martin Brauen and his exhibition Visions of the Cosmos, which was shown at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York in 2009.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Museum Rietberg

L'anatomie des chefs-d'oeuvre

The Musée du Quai Branly was the first museum in the world to acquire its own 3D digital image processing system dedicated to the investigation of works of art. With the installation of L'anatomie des chefs-d'oeuvre (The Anatomy of a Masterpiece), the museum intends to provide visitors with an introduction to these new technologies in research and restoration and to present the surprising results of these new analyses. The digitisation of works with supernatural virtues is not intended to reveal their secret or their magic, which is primarily the fruit of power and the actions of those who use it in the context of a ritual, but rather to provide additional information about its history by enabling the material to speak. While this technique reveals their invisible structure, the mystery of their objects and their use remains intact, in the same way as the immaterial heritage linked to the ritual context which belongs to other fields of study. The exhibition opens March 10, 2015.

http://www.quaibranly.fr

Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cultures

Arts of War: Artistry in Weapons across Cultures is a new exhibition at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum that presents the varied beauty and craftsmanship of weapons drawn from cultures around the world. From maces, clubs, daggers, and spears, to shields, helmets, and entire suits of armor, this exhibition highlights more than 150 striking examples of deadly objects that are also extraordinary works of art. On view until October 18, 2017, it unveils the stories behind some of the most stunning war artworks ever created and reveals the passion and purpose of the people who made them.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Dagger  -  Northern India

Image courtesy of the Peabody Museum

Les rois mochica: Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancien

For its reopening, the Musée d’Ethnographie de Genève (MEG) is holding a world-premiere exhibition of the treasures from a royal Moche tomb that was excavated by Steve Bourget and his team in the summer of 2008. The hitherto unseen pieces from the Huaca El Pueblo archaeological site near the village of Ucupe on the north coast of Peru form the nucleus of this exhibition, which will be on view until May 3, 2015. It also features exceptional pieces from other royal tombs, including those of Sipán and Dos Cabezas. With more than 300 works, of which sixty are on loan from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture and 180 from European museums including those of Berlin, Stuttgart, and Schaffhausen, Les rois mochica. Divinité et pouvoir dans le Pérou ancien (Moche Kings: Divinity and Power in Ancient Peru) is an homage to one of the most important of the Pre-Columbian Peruvian civilizations, which flourished between the first and eighth centuries. The show will be accompanied by an ambitious program of related activities.

  Visit the official MEG website.

Images and information courtesy of MEG

Tribal Art Auction - Arte Primitivo

Arte Primitivo presents a new auction of fine pre-Columbian, African and tribal art and classical antiquities, including items from the Allan Stone Collection and other owners. Over 500 lots will be on exhibition in the Arte Primitivo gallery beginning February 16. All works are also viewable online at www.arteprimitivo.com

Tribal Art Sale - Lombrail-Teucquam

Lombrail-Teucquam will present a sale of tribal art and artifacts tomorrow, February 8, in Paris.  The lots will comprise an array of works from central Africa, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere, many drawn from the collection of Léo Gaget.

For more information, visit the Lombrail-Teucquam website.