Jacaranda Tribal Art Blog

New Acquisitions at Jacaranda Tribal

2011-12-21T14:44:00.000-05:00

A beautiful new group of African antiques is now available at Jacaranda Tribal. Ranging from snuff gourds to masks and implements of war, our diverse range of new acquisitions offer a wealth of gorgeous textures and forms from across the African continent. South African works predominate in the assemblage, joined by objects representing cultures from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, and the Congo. Seen below are a selection of this season's offerings. The full range of new acquisitions in on view at our website (link below).

Ibibio ekpo society mask

Nigeria - Early 20th century

Kota knife with sheath

Congo - Late 19th or early 20th century

Shield

Ethiopia - 20th century

Ndebele fertility doll

South Africa - Early 20th century

Zulu beadwork panel

South Africa - Late 19th or early 20th century

Zulu beaded neckpiece

South Africa - Late 19th or early 20th century

Nyakusa pot

Tanzania or Zambia - 20th century

Visit us on the web for more details on our new acquisitions and much, much more.

Happy holidays!

Winter Sale at Sotheby's

2011-12-12T20:37:00.002-05:00

Sotheby's Paris will present its winter tribal art auction on Wednesday, December 14. Featuring a wide array of outstanding works from Africa and Oceania, the sale should generate its most intense bidding around a number of gorgeous and uncommon objects from West and Central Africa. Among the auction's most anticipated offerings will be a pair of fascinating Yoruba/Nago figural groups; an impressive anthropomorphic Dan spoon; a Bangwa power figure with numerous charge niches; a compelling and unusual Lega ivory statuette; and a beautifully rendered Luluwa bust.

View the online catalogue at the official Sotheby's website.

Winter Sale at Christie's

2011-12-12T20:22:00.001-05:00

Christie's Paris will present its winter sale of tribal art on Tuesday, December 13. Showcasing a fine assemblage of African and Oceanic antiquities, the auction will be accompanied by an adjunct sale of compelling Oceanic works from the collection of Daniel Blau.
Highlights from the main sale will include a powerful Bamana female figure; a refined Fang ngil mask; a highly elegant Luba caryatid stool; and a mesmerizing Ashanti figure with outstretched arms.

View the online catalogue at the official Christie's website.

LACMA appoints curator to guide new African art program

2011-12-08T16:09:00.000-05:00

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art has named Dr. Mary (Polly) Nooter Roberts Consulting Curator of African Art to help launch a program and establish a gallery dedicated to the arts of Africa. Dr. Roberts is Professor of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, and was Senior Curator of the Museum for African Art in New York from 1984–1994 and Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the Fowler Museum at UCLA from 1999-2008.

The goal of Dr. Roberts’s appointment is to bring greater visibility to African arts in Southern California while creating programmatic linkages between LACMA and UCLA. As LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director Michael Govan states, “We have looked forward to launching a program for African art for several years and the timing seems right. We are excited to work with Polly Nooter Roberts as we explore new ways of understanding and presenting the richness of African artistic expression.”

LACMA’s growing collection of African art is diverse in form, material, and purpose. Works include masks and figures of wood and ivory, metalwork, textiles, beaded crowns, stools, and body adornments. Notable in the collection are a bronze plaque depicting a seventeenth-century official of the Benin Kingdom; a boli figure from Mali; and a selection of works from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Courtesy of ArtDaily.org and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

In Memory of William Siegmann

2011-12-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

William Siegmann, Curator Emeritus of the Arts of Africa and the Pacific Islands at the Brooklyn Museum, passed away peacefully on November 29, 2011.

Bill had a long-standing and deeply personal connection to Liberia, which began with service in the Peace Corps in the late 1960s and continued throughout his life. He taught at Cuttington University, where he also founded the Africana Museum. Bill returned to Liberia to pursue research between 1974 and 1976, which was supported by a Fulbright-Hays fellowship. Upon his return to the U.S., he served as a curator, first at the Museum of the Society of African Missions, in Tenafly, N.J., and then at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco from 1979-84.

Upon being awarded another Fulbright fellowship in 1984, Bill once again returned to Liberia. In conjunction with the West African Museums Programme, he served as Director of the National Museum of Liberia, in Monrovia, where he oversaw the renovation of the museum’s nineteenth-century building and the expansion and re-installation of its collections.

During his tenure at Brooklyn from 1987 to 2007, Bill acquired over 1600 objects for the museum, a prolific record of considered connoisseurship that is unmatched in the history of Brooklyn’s African and Pacific collections. He also organized at least eight major exhibitions at Brooklyn, including African Art and Leadership; Image and Reflection: Adolph Gottlieb's Pictographs and African Sculpture; In Pursuit of the Spiritual: Oceanic Art Given by Mr. and Mrs. John A. Friede and Mrs. Melville W. Hall; African Furniture, and Masterworks of African Art from the Collection of Beatrice Riese, as well as four separate re-installations of the African and Pacific Islands collections. He authored African Art: A Century at the Brooklyn Museum (Prestel, 2009), the first catalogue on the museum’s collection. Most recently, Bill served as a consultant to the Saint Louis Art Museum.

Bill was one of the leading experts on the arts of Liberia and Sierra Leone. He wrote extensively on the arts of masquerades and age grades in this region, and on issues in museology, collecting, and interpretation. Bill also shared his skills in collections development broadly, conducting frequent seminars on museum management and curatorial training in Europe, Africa, and South America through grants from UNESCO and the U.S. Department of State. He also taught at numerous universities in Africa and the U.S.

Bill’s considerable generosity and openness of spirit has touched many in the world of tribal art over the years. He was an invaluable resource, whose guidance and intellect was treasured. That strength, warmth, and wit remained unbowed, until the end.

A memorial service will be announced in the coming months. Deepest condolences go out to his family and his many friends around the world.

Courtesy of Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Assistant Curator - Arts of Africa and the Pacific Islands, Brooklyn Museum

Heroic Africans at the Met

2011-11-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

This fall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled a stunning exhibition highlighting eight major sculptural traditions from West and Central Africa. Focusing on canonized portraiture of storied, nigh-mythical chieftans, kings, and other larger-than-life elite, Heroic Africans. Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures traces the histories of these cultures through the chronology of the individuals they enshrined, sculpted images of whom were often the only tangible historical record left to posterity.

The masterpieces on display represent the Akan, Bangwa, Kom, Chokwe, Luluwa, Kuba, and Hemba cultures, as well as the civilizations of Ife and Benin. Equally impressive on aesthetic, conceptual, and curatorial levels, the installation offers audiences unprecedented experiences on every side. The in-depth examination of specific identities and personal histories to which visitors are treated here is already uncommon in African exhibitions, let alone one that encompasses such a wide variety of exceedingly beautiful and disparate works.

Beginning from this rare and challenging theme, Heroic Africans leads viewers through a great hall of champions, from culture-founders to queen mothers, concluding with an amazing assemblage of twenty-two Hemba commemoration figures, such an overwhelming gathering of which has never been seen before.

Visit the official website here.

Images courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and Contemporary Artists from Three Continents

2011-03-11T13:47:00.000-05:00

A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art examines the influence of the African mask on modern and contemporary art.

Works featured in this installation are highly creative imaginings of the iconic form of the African mask. The installation is a collaboration between the Museum's departments of Nineteenth Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art and Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

In many world cultures masks allow performers to adopt a wide range of characters and emotions. They can take on an endless variety of forms: human or animal; sacred or profane; dramatic or comedic. They are not meant to be experienced in isolation but rather as an integral component of celebrations, from the epic cultures to Dogon elders in Mali to popular holidays such as Halloween or Day of the Dead and numerous Mardi Gras carnivals held throughout Europe and Latin America.

It is well known that African art forms, most notably the mask, were a source of inspiration for modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain, and Henri Matisse in the early 20th century. The aesthetic of the African mask thus contributed to a redefinition of the Western visual lexicon. Considered especially alluring were its accessible reimagining of the human face and its aura of inscrutability.

This selection of works from Africa, Europe and the United States attests to the enduring relevance of the African mask in modern and contemporary art. The five artists represented here - Lynda Benglis, Willie Cole, Calixte Dakpogan, Romuald Hazoume, and Man Ray - have all used the African mask as a catalyst for creative exploration. Their works reflect on a century of viewing the mask as a disembodied form - that is, as an object in a museum removed from its original performative context.

African masks are often thought of as carved wooden artifacts, but they are an inherently complex and dynamic art form: to fully appreciate them, one must view them in motion, animated by costumes, dance and music; the various media added to their surfaces are thought to imbue them with mystical powers; and the influence of foreign materials and techniques have led to a continuous redefinition of the genre.

Responding to the sheer physicality of the mask while alluding to its spiritual quality, each of the works in this exhibition pays tribute to the powerful legacy of the African mask and its infinite potential for reinvention.

The exhibition opened on March 8th and will be on display on the 1st floor gallery between the Michael C. Rockefeller and Lila Acheson Wallace wings of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art website
Image: Portait Mask (Gba gba), Cote d'Ivoire, Baule peoples, before 1913. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Adrienne Minassian, 1997

Man Ray, "Noire et Blanche" 1926
Gelatin silver print, 8.75 x 10.75 inches
Private Collection, New York

Romald Hazoume, "Ibedji (Nos. 1 and 2) Twins" 1992
plastic can, raffia, cowries and acrylic, 16.5 x 11.75 x 3.875 inches
courtesy CAAC - The Pigozzi Collection, Geneva

Jacaranda Tribal at San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts Show

2011-02-18T17:17:00.000-05:00

Jacaranda has just returned from the annual San Francisco Tribal and Textile Arts show.

The fair, which began Thursday, February 11 and ended Sunday, February 13, is presented by Caskey Lees Antique and Fine Art Shows. The San Francisco show is one of the world's most important exhibitions and sales of tribal, ethnographic art, oriental rugs, textiles, jewelry and sculpture.

The week brings more than 100 top international art dealers from around the world to sell art and artifacts from the Oceanic Islands, Polynesia, the Middle East, Central and South America and Indonesia.

Jacaranda offered museum quality African art works, including pipes, headrests, and weaponry. The central piece to the booth was an exceptionally rare Initiation Figure from South Africa. The large, expressive figure is depicted standing, with his hands on his hips and a furrowed brow. Figurative works in such exquisite condition are unique for South Africa.

Also on display were a collection of Zulu pipes with metal inlay from the collection of British pipe collector, Trevor Barton; a Palm Wine horn from the Kuba peoples of Congo, with exceptional carving and used for drinking palm wine, as well as a number of Ndebele beadworks and Shona snuff containers.

See below for views of our booth!

Jacaranda has Moved!

2011-01-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

Jacaranda is pleased to announce the opening of our new gallery.

Please visit us at:

280 Riverside Drive, Suite 13 E
New York, New York 10025

Visits by Appointment
(212) 713 - 0465 office
(646) 251 - 8528 mobile

Email: dori@jacarandatribal.com

www.jacarandatribal.com

"The Global Africa Project" - on display at the Museum of Arts and Design

2011-01-17T17:12:00.000-05:00

"The Global Africa Project," currently on display at the Museum of Arts & Design, examines the jewelry, fashion, architecture, basketry, ceramics, painting, and design of the continent. The show presents 200 works by nearly 120 people, teams and collectives. It represents artists, designers, and artisans who produce works that represent the area.

The show aims to "explore the impact of African visual culture on contemporary art, craft and design around the world." Items on display include the work of Baltimore bead sculptor Joyce Scott and 'drapos' by Haitian artist George Valris. Photographs by J.D. 'Okhai Ojeikere of African women's headdresses and elaborate hairdos are also on exhibit, alongside crocheted hats by artist Xenobia Bailey. Other featured artists range from such well-known figures as Yinka Shonibare, MBE, Kehinde Wiley, and Fred Wilson; to Nigerian-born, London-based fashion designer Duro Olowu, and Paris-based Togolese/Brazilian designer Kossi Aguessy.

The show is curated by Lowery Stokes Sims, MAD's Charles Bronfman International Curator, and Leslie King-Hammond, Founding Director of the Center for Race and Culture at MICA. The exhibit is organized around several thematic ideas, which include: the phenomenon of intersecting cultures and cultural fusion; the branding and co-opting of cultural references; how art and design is promoted in the international market and the creative global scene; the use of local materials; and the impact of art-making on the economic and social condition of local communities. These themes will, according to the curators, "encourage audiences to discern how global African artists grapple with the commodification of art production and the meaning and value of art in society - an increasingly significant issue for nations in a rapidly changing global context."

Rare Yup'ik Mask to sell for $2.1 million at Winter Antiques Show

2011-01-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

More than 100 years ago, a Yup'ik Eskimo used wood, pigment, sinew, feather and fiber to make a mask celebrating the winds. Now, its striking appearance, rarity and influence on modern art have led its owner to ask what may be a record price for a Native American work.

The 34-inch tall "Donati Studio Mask" - known to the Yup'iks as "the mask that brought the south winds," and therefore spring and sustenance - is for sale at the Donald Ellis Gallery in Dundas, Ontario.

The Yup'iks of western Alaska made elaborate masks for their ceremonial dances, and Mr. Ellis's windmaker mask is one of a dozen bought from the tribe in 1905 by trader Adam Hollis Twitchell. He sold the mask to George Gustav Heye, a collector whose purchases became the core of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution.

But when the museum had financial trouble in the 1940s, it sold five of its Yup'ik masks. A New York dealer purchased them, for prices ranging from $120 to $160. He resold several to Surrealist artists, including the writer Andre Breton and painter-sculptor Enrico Donati, both of whom found inspiration in the masks.

Four of those five masks are now owned by museums. The most famous of the five, once owned by Mr. Breton, is on view at the Louvre; another is at the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, the private museum established by the late Swiss dealer Ernst Beyeler.

It was the famed dealer's only purchase of Native American art. Mr. Ellis says that modern art collectors, rather than Native-American-art collectors, buy many Yup'ik works because of their relevance to 20th-century art. "These are conceptual works of art," he says.

The Italian-born Donati worked in the U.S. for many decades, dying in 2008 at the age of 99. The Donati Studio Mask is by the same Native American artist and has the same provenance as the Breton mask.

Mr. Ellis is asking just above $2.1 million, a sum fetched a few years ago for a war helmet of the Tlingit - another Pacific Northwest tribe - at a Connecticut auction. People knowledgable about Native American artworks generally consider that total a record.

The mask will be on display at Donald Ellis gallery's booth at the Winter Antiques Show, running January 21-30.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, Judith H. Dobrzynski

Kennedy Center President to Meet with African Art Leaders

2011-01-07T14:10:00.001-05:00

Michael M. Kaiser, the President of the Kennedy Center, announced Wednesday that he is transporting his arts management in February to five countries in Africa.

As an extension of the training programs at the center, Kaiser plans to hold meetings in Nairobi, Kenya; Lagos, Nigeria; Zanzibar, Tanzania; Kampala, Uganda and Harare, Zimbabwe.

Those nations have had participants in the center's training sessions in Washington. "They all expressed a need for more training in those countries. And I thought we had ignored the central part of Africa," Kaiser said.

Kaiser has conducted sessions in Egypt and South Africa, some of the 70 countries that have participated in the center's outreach.

The center itself has only spotlighted performing arts from Africa in a three-year festival, African Odyssey, that ran from 1997 to 2000.

The issues are very similar to ones Kaiser encountered when he held a national listening tour in all 50 states called "Arts in Crisis." "The resources are different," he explained. "In the United States many people are expected to support the arts. That is not so in Africa. There is very little individual fund-raising. And that's true in most countries of the world."

Most of the countries he is visiting, Kaiser said, "do not have a lot of government support and the question is how do you put funding together. Funding, marketing and artistic issues are very central." Many organizations are supported by funders from Europe.

The travel is scheduled for February 7-14. The program is privately supported by the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the center.

Source: Washington Post Online

Brooklyn Museum to Return Pre-Columbian Objects to Costa Rica

2011-01-03T17:06:00.000-05:00

The Brooklyn Museum is preparing to return about 4,500 pre-Columbian artifacts taken from Costa Rica roughly a century ago.

Costa Rica had made no claim to the objects, which were exported in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Minor C. Keith, a railroad magnate and a founder of the United Fruit Company. And there were none of the conflicts, legal threats or philosophical debates that sometimes accompany arguments between museums and countries that claim ownership of antiquities in their collections.

Instead, the museum simply decided that its closets were too full, overstuffed with items acquired during an era when it aimed to become the biggest museum in the world. So it offered the pieces to the National Museum of Costa Rica, which accepted but has yet to raise the $59,000 needed to pack and ship the first batch.

The objects that the Museum plans to let go are primarily made of ceramic and stone; they include bowls and other vessels, figurines, benches and ceremonial metates, or grinding stones. They are among 16,000 artifacts, some made of gold and jade, that Keith and his workers found on his Costa Rican banana plantations. About 5,000 of these pieces ended up in Brooklyn. The museum's plan to transfer some of the collection to Costa Rica was first reported in ARTnews.

The museum plans to keep some of the most valuable pieces, including gold and jade animals and anthropomorphic figurines and pendants. It is unlikely that many of the items being returned have ever been exhibited, although the museum’s records are not precise in that regard. Earlier efforts to give them to Costa Rican and American museums were unsuccessful.

“It’s exciting to find a home” for the objects, the museum’s curator of the arts of the Americas, Nancy Rosoff, said. “Hopefully they can come up with the money.”

The decision to part with most of the Keith objects is part of a culling of the Brooklyn Museum’s collection that has been under way for a decade. Museum officials once estimated the size of its collection as 1.5 million items, although they are revising that downward as records become computerized.

The goal of the culling is to remove works that are not being exhibited or do not fit the museum’s mission, and to reduce storage costs and to conserve staff members’ time. Kevin Stayton, the Brooklyn Museum’s chief curator, said it was an effort, at a time of strained budgets, to make sure that “we’re not overextending ourselves.”

The largest group of items to leave the Brooklyn Museum so far is its collection of costumes, 23,819 that were transferred to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009. About another 4,400 objects have been deaccessioned already, including 983 Keith pieces. Ms. Rosoff said she expected ultimately to transfer 90 percent of the museum’s Keith objects to Costa Rica.

Like many American museums founded in the late 19th century, the Brooklyn Museum had an almost insatiable appetite for material. Known in its early years as the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, the museum was conceived as Brooklyn’s answer to the Metropolitan, and then some, with departments focused on natural history and the sciences as well as on art. It was designed to be the largest museum in the world, but after Brooklyn was consolidated into New York City in 1898, the effort lost momentum, and only a sixth of the planned structure was finally built.

The museum acquired the Keith collection in 1934, five years after Keith’s death. Keith, who was born in Brooklyn, had gone to Costa Rica in 1871, at 23, to join his brother in building a railroad from San José to the Caribbean Sea. During the project’s construction — which took two decades — Keith also established himself as one of the biggest growers and exporters of bananas in Central America. It was on one of his Costa Rican plantations, called Las Mercedes, that his workers first came across pre-Columbian gold ornaments, spurring the start of his collecting.

When the Brooklyn Museum first contacted the Costa Rican museum several years ago about the possibility of transferring most of its Keith objects, it received no response, so it reached out to American museums that had their own Keith collections: the American Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian. Perhaps unsurprisingly, since the Brooklyn Museum was planning to keep the cream of the collection, the other museums were not interested.

The Brooklyn Museum reached out to the Costa Rican museum again last year and that time got a positive response — though, in the absence of money to ship the objects, it leaves the timing of a transfer up in the air.

Since beginning a review of the Keith objects in Brooklyn several years ago, Ms. Rosoff has tackled only the ceramic materials and has not gotten through all of those. Among the objects she has chosen to keep are a vessel ornamented with the head, feet and tail of a tapir (a hoglike mammal with a long snout) and another piece, of unidentified function, embellished with a sculptured figure of an armadillo. The objects being sent back to Costa Rica are not of exhibition quality, at least not in an art museum, Ms. Rosoff said, but do have potential value to students and researchers.

To the Costa Rican museum, though, the transfer seems to be of primarily symbolic importance. Sandra Quirós, director of the National Museum of Costa Rica, said in a telephone interview that the museum did not have immediate plans to display the objects, even if it found the money to ship them. Instead the items would probably go into storage, where they would be available to researchers. She was enthusiastic, however, about regaining part of the country’s cultural patrimony.

“This wasn’t an initiative of ours — it came from outside — but once we were informed of it, of course it was of interest because this is part of Costa Rica’s history,” she said, speaking through an interpreter.

In some ways the transfer is not unlike the Metropolitan Museum’s recent decision to return to Egypt 19 artifacts from Tutankhamen's tomb. In that case the Met concluded that the objects had come to the museum in violation of an agreement intended to keep the contents of the tomb in Egypt. However, the objects’ minor significance — some were little more than bits of wood — made the return seem to be partly an easy way to garner some goodwill with Zahi Hawas, the forceful secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt.

Ms. Quirós said there were no legal issues surrounding the Brooklyn Museum’s ownership of the objects, since they left the country before a 1938 Costa Rican law restricting export of archaeological artifacts. Still, she said, she looked forward to repatriating the pieces whenever the museum could find the money.

Source: The New York Times

Benin Mask is Withdrawn from Sotheby's Auction After Online Protest

2010-12-29T17:50:00.000-05:00

A rare £4.5 million West African ivory mask, believed to have been looted by the British during a 19th century invasion of Benin (in present-day Nigeria), was withdrawn from a Sotheby's sale slated for February. The withdrawal was in response to online protests regarding claims of cultural patrimony and demands for repatriation.

The mask, one of the last great masterpieces of Benin sculpture remaining in private hands, is believed to have been worn by the "Oba" or king of Benin on ceremonial occasions. It depicts the head of the queen mother of the Edo peoples and has a refined and untouched surface, which has been well treated with palm oil.

The protests were organized and led by the Nigeria Liberty Forum (NLF), an activist group of Nigerians and friends of Nigeria. The group describes themselves as "UK-based Nigerian pro-democracy group." The protests began last week on social networking sites and an online petition circulated by the group. Local government officials in Nigeria have publicly condemned the sale and criticized the current owners.

"It is a shame that in this time and age individuals continue to plunder and abuse the culture and heritage of a defenseless people just because they can," NLF's letter to Sotheby's stated. "To this end we request that you withdraw the items from the sale forthwith as the true ownership is far from settled. We would also like to request that you go a step further and advise your clients to return these items back to the Nigerian people where they rightfully belong."

The mask was one of several items to be sold at Sotheby's in London by the descendants of Lt. Col. Sir Henry Gallwey, a vice consul of a British protectorate in Nigeria who took part in the 1897 invasion of Benin when the British deposed the king and burned and looted the city. They auctioned off much of the objects to pay for the offensive. Several pieces, including a mask similar to the one withdrawn from Sotheby's auction, were ultimately placed in the British Museum.

Sotheby's official statement:

“The Benin Ivory Pendant Mask and other items consigned by the descendants of Lionel Galway which Sotheby’s had announced for auction in February 2011 have been withdrawn from sale at the request of the consignors.”

Rare, Newly Re-Discovered African Art Masterpiece to be sold at Sotheby's London in February 2011

2010-12-21T11:13:00.000-05:00

On February 17 2011, Sotheby's will sell a rare, newly re-discovered, 16th century ivory pendant mask depicting the head of the Queen mother from the Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria along with five other rare works from Benin collected at the same time.

Only four other historical ivory pendant masks with related iconography of this age and quality are known – all of which are housed in major museums around the world. All of the ivory masks are widely recognized for the quality of their craftsmanship, for the enormous scale of Benin’s artistic achievement and for their importance in the field of African art. Produced for the Oba (or King) of Benin, these ivory pendant masks are testament to the Kingdom of Benin’s golden age when the kingdom flourished economically, politically and artistically.

The masks rank among the most iconic works of art to have been created in Africa. The mask to be sold at Sotheby’s in February is estimated at £3.5-4.5* million. It had been on public view in 1947 as part of a loan exhibition at the Berkeley Galleries in London entitled ‘Ancient Benin’, and then again in 1951 in ‘Traditional Sculpture from the Colonies’ at the Arts Gallery of the Imperial Institute in London.

The mask and the five other Benin objects will be sold by the descendants of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey (in 1913 he changed his name to Galway) who was appointed deputy commissioner and vice-consul in the newly established Oil Rivers Protectorate (later the Niger Coast Protectorate) in 1891. He remained in Nigeria until 1902 and participated in the British Government’s “Punitive Expedition” of 1897 against Benin City. The faces of the five known pendant masks have been interpreted widely by scholars of Benin art as that of Idia, the first Queen Mother of Benin.

The mother of the Oba Esigie (c. 1504 – 1550), Idia was granted the title of Iyoba (Queen Mother) by Esigie in recognition of her help and counsel during his military campaigns. Idia remains a celebrated figure in Benin, known as the ‘only woman who went to war’. The masks were created at least in part as objects of veneration. The worn and honey-coloured surface of the offered mask attests to years of rubbing with palm oil, and surface as well as the style of carving is most similar to the example in The Seattle Art Museum.

The mask comes to auction together with: a highly important carved tusk made with a group of other similarly carved tusks for the altar of an Oba who lived in the 18th century. The imagery presented depicts emblems of power and strength which are related to the life of the Oba himself. The iconography is specific, and can be seen repeated across many arts forms in Benin, including the well-documented bronze plaques. The collection also includes two richly carved ivory armlets which incorporate many of the panoply of motifs used by the artists of the Igbesanmwan, the Royal Guild of ivory carvers.

As with most ivory carvings, these were more than likely made for an Oba, as he would have had complete control over the production of works of art made from precious ivory. Also in the collection is a rare bronze armlet, cast with Portuguese figures in an openwork motif. The earliest appearance of the Portuguese in plaques and free-standing figures and bracelets in the 16th and 17th century was undoubtedly calculated by the Benin to add considerable prestige to the Oba and his courts demonstrating that his power extended beyond the confines of his own people.

Finally, the collection includes a very rare bronze sculpture of a type historically identified as tusk stands. The twisted and hollowed form of this stand suggests it served the same function as the more familiar bronze commemorative heads, as a stand for a carved ivory tusk on an altar created to honour a former ruler.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium

Source: ArtDaily.org

"Art of Central Africa" at Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore

2010-12-20T13:46:00.000-05:00

Congo River: Arts of Central Africa is now on display at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. Known as the 'river that swallows all rivers," the Congo today links the nations of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon. Drawing from the Musee du quai Branly and other European collections of African art, Congo River: Arts of Central Africa is the first exhibit of its kind to be held in Southeast Asia.

Central Africa is home to various Bantu-speaking peoples with a shared past. The artistic heritage of this region has often been studied as the art of disparate groups of unrelated cultures. These cultures are nevertheless linked by themes that stretch across a region that is 5,000 times the size of Singapore. Themes include heart-shaped masks, reliquary figures for ancestor veneration and female representations.

The exhibition links diverse cultures as well three modern nations, whose rich artistic traditions are explored. The show features beautifully crafted sculptures, masks and ancestor figures, and highlights their importance in ceremonies, rituals, and dances. The visual power of these objects have long impressed collectors and artists, and the exhibition also displays works by Pablo Picasso, who in the early 20th century was strongly influence by African art as he developed his modernist style.

A full range of programs for families, adults and students will be held in conjunction with the exhibition.

Source: Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore

New Acquisitions at Jacaranda Tribal!

2010-12-15T17:23:00.001-05:00

Jacaranda Tribal is now featuring our newest acquisitions on the gallery website. The new objects are a remarkable survey of artworks that have been produced in the southern region of Africa. Highlights from the selection include a rare and early zebra shield made by the Shangaan peoples of South Africa. The thirty-eight inch high shield is made of zebra hide, which is found on east African shields but rarely seen further south.

Also featured are a variety of South African pipes, which range from beautifully beaded Xhosa pipes to a rare Xhosa wood pipe with figurative lead onlay ornamentation. An exquisite 19th century Zulu horn pipe features elegant carving in the classic amasumpa decoration.

Vessels include a small wooden bowl which depicts three ducks in the various stages of diving below the water surface. The bowl was most likely used for food storage by members of the Lozi tribe of Zambia. A lidded South Sotho pot is an extraordinary example of the elegant wood and pokerwork craftsmanship of the Lesotho carvers.

Visit www.jacarandatribal.com to view all of the new acquisitions.

Photo: Rare 19th Century Zebra Hide Shield, Shangaan, South Africa

South Sotho Pot with Lid - Lesotho

Xhosa Wood Pipe with Lead Onlay - South Africa

Zulu Horn Pipe - South Africa

"African Artistry in Iron and Clay" at The Birmingham Museum of Art

2010-12-13T15:35:00.001-05:00

A new exhibition at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama features approximately fifty-five works of African ceramics and iron art, including vessels, musical instruments, currency objects, sculpted figures, staffs, tools and ritual objects. The objects come primarily from the countries of Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Iron and clay are extremely important materials and media in West African culture. They are valued not only for their practical use in the fabrication of essential tools, weapons, currency, and vessels, but also for their spiritual potency. Objects made of iron and clay play important roles in rites of passage, healing rituals, divinations, governance, religious practice, and conflict mediation. Many myths and legends recount the importance of the blacksmith and the potter in African society.

Throughout Africa, blacksmiths are generally born into their occupational specialty, and may only marry women from other blacksmith families. While the men smelt and forge iron, the women in their families specialize in ceramics, creating vessels for daily use and ritual objects. It is fire that transforms raw clay and iron ore into the secular and sacred objects that are essential to the well-being of African communities. This specialized occupational knowledge is jealously guarded by these men and women, who acknowledge that it was originally imparted by a divine source, usually as part of a sacred covenant.

The ceramics in this exhibition are only loan to the Museum from The Dick Jemison Collection. Jemison, an artist who divides his time between Birmingham and the American Southwest, is interested in tribal arts around the world. The iron objects in the exhibition were given to the Museum in 2004 by Mort and Sue Fuller, of New York.

The exhibition is on view through March 2011.

Source: The Birmingham Museum of Art

Spirits and Headhunters: Art of the Pacific Islands at Bowers Museum

2010-12-10T14:28:00.000-05:00

Photographer Chris Rainier guest curates this ongoing exhibition of art from the South Pacific at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, California. Spanning the geographic region collectively referred to as Oceania, this comprehensive exhibition highlights masterworks from the three cultural regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Particular focus is placed on New Guinea, land of the headhunter, and the rich artistic traditions infused into daily and ritual life.

The exhibition includes more than 150 unique pieces including larger than life masks, objects associated with the secretive Sepik River men's house, magic figures and tools of the shaman, spectacular-crafted personal adornments, weapons of warfare, stunning shell and feather currency, masterfully crafted feast bowls, and the most precious of human trophies taken in retribution and reverence.

Melanesia, which includes the world's second largest island, New Guinea, is an island that has been explored by Bowers Museum President Peter Keller and Bowers Board Member Edwards Roski on 10 month-long expeditions over the last decade.

"Oceania is significant for Californians since it is our neighbor and is an area where there is still much to be learned," Mr. Keller says. "This is part of our strategic plan to build a significant Oceania collection in an area of the world where we can make a difference."

This comprehensive exhibition will become a permanent exhibit at Bowers Museum.

Source: Bowers Museum website

International Tribal Art Book Prize awarded on November 29th

2010-12-08T08:10:00.000-05:00

The second annual International Tribal Art Book Prize was delivered on November 29th at Sotheby's Paris. The awards went to Congo River by Francois Neyt (Published by Fonds Mercator Branly) and Man Ray, African Art, & the Modernist Lens by Wendy A. Grossman (Published by International Arts & Artists).

An international jury of magazine editors, tribal art scholars and collectors chose the winners based on strict criteria, including the quality of evidence presented, the interest of the topic at hand, iconography, the quality of printing, and accessibility to a wide audience. This year's candidates must have been published between October 2009 and September 2010. The prize is awarded to one French book and one English book each year.

The books shortlisted include Teotihuacan: City of Gods, Exhibition at the Musee du Quai Branly, edited by Felipe Solis; Benin: Collection Visions of Africa by Barbara Plakensteiner; The Arts of Africa by Dr. Roslyn Adele Walker; and White Gold, Black Hands: Ivory Sculpture in Congo Vol. 1 by Marc Leo Felix et al.

Last year's winners were Quai Branly Museum - The Collection, edited by Yves Le Fur and published by Skira Flammarion (French title) and James Cook & the Exploration of the Pacific, edited by Adrienne L. Kaeppler and Robert Fleck and published by Thames & Hudson (English title).

Source: www.prixelivretribal.com

Rare Luba Caryatid Stool sells for €5.4 million at Sotheby's Oceanic and African Art sale in Paris

2010-12-01T13:34:00.000-05:00

A rare Luba Caryatid Stool from the collection of Harry Bombeeck was the top lot at Sotheby's sale of Oceanic and African Art sale in Paris, fetching fa remarkable €5.4 million. The sale totaled €8.5 million.

The 51 centimeter-high seat is an outstanding work by the important sculptor of the royal court of the kingdom of Luba, known as the Master of Buli. This caryatid stool has been in the collection of notorious African art collector and dealer Harry Bombeeck since the late 19th century and has not been exhibited in over 65 years. The stool once served as ceremonial object most likely used by the council of elders when they presided over court cases in the Luba kingdom.

Other top lots included a Male Figure from the Turamarubi Group of Papua New Guinea, which sold for €360,750. The figurative wood sculpture of a muscular male figure with red seed eyes was estimated to sell for € 400,000 - 600,000. A 43-centimeter high Senufo Female Figure sold for €294,750, nearly double the high estimate of €70,000 - 10,000.

The sale of works from a private New York collection preceded the Oceanic and African Art auction, with a respectable 82% of the 49 lots finding buyers. The sale totaled €3.3 million. The auction's highlight was the Magnificent Fang Head from Gabon, which fetched €912,750. The work was offered for sale from the collection of Parisian African art dealer Paul Guillaume.

New! Video Preview for Sotheby's African and Oceanic Sale

2010-11-29T16:18:00.001-05:00

Video Preview for Sotheby's African and Oceanic Auction in Paris !!

Masterpieces of African art are today recognized as being amongst the world's greatest art treasures. The majority was created by anonymous artists who did not sign their work. Concerned with the question of artistic individuality among African sculptors, art historians have attempted to identify the particular characteristics of individual 'master-hands'. Join Marguerite de Sabran, Head of Department, Paris, as she shares the story of this Luba female caryatid stool by the "Master of Buli."

Watch the video

Christie's African and Oceanic Sale features works from Kahane Collection

2010-11-29T11:54:00.000-05:00

Christie's will offer works from the legendary Swiss dealer Isidor Kahane in its African and Oceanic auction this Wednesday, December 1 in Paris. (See our preview here)

Directly following the sale of works from the Kahane Collection are 81 lots of African and Oceanic art. Top lots include a 35 cm-high Maternity figure from the Congo, depicting a mother seated with her legs crossed, and carrying her young child in one arm. In excellent condition with a fine wood petina, the work is estimated at 60,000 to 90,000 euros.

Also of note in the Oceanic offerings is a Maori Nephrite Pendant from the collection of legendary Oceanic art merchant, William O. Oldman. The pendant is made of nephrite, a rock in the jade family indigenous to the rivers of New Zealand. It depicts the hei tiki, most likely poised (arms on thighs) to preform the ritual dance preceding the Maori War, the Haka. The 9.5 cm-high pendant is estimated to sell for 15,000 - 20,000 euros.

For more information or to request a catalog, visit www.christies.com.

"African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting" at Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

2010-11-23T09:03:00.000-05:00

Toussaint Louverture et la vielle esclave
by Ousmane Sow, 1989

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art is displaying its acquisitions from the past decade in a new exhibit with a towering sculpture as its centerpiece.

The sculpture of Haitian leader Toussaint Louverture was created by Senegalese artist Ousmane Sow in 1989 to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution. Toussaint Louverture led Haiti's freedom struggle against slavery and French colonial rule. It is a life-size, heroic and fairly naturalistic mixed media sculpture that captures the global connections of African art. It was acquired last year at auction in France.

The museum is featuring more than 100 works in "African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting." It opened Friday, November 19th. The exhibit pays tribute to the extraordinary variety of individual works of art that have come into the museum as gifts or purchases. Together, these artworks represent 10 years of building a permanent collection that embodies the diversity and outstanding quality of Africa's arts.

The collection of the National Museum of African Art has been formed through careful curatorial selections and the generous gifts of many individuals - from specialized art collectors and talented artists to former ambassadors, Peace Corps volunteers and missionaries.

The exhibit includes examples of modern and contemporary African works of art - paintings, works on paper, sculpture and mixed media works by some of the continent's most recognizable artists. It features African masks, figures, containers and jewelry, as well as a briefcase created from discarded aluminum used to make soda cans.

The exhibit will be open through December 2011. The National Museum of African Art is located in Washington, D.C. at 950 Independence Avenue.

Source: National Museum of African Art website

Preview: Sotheby's Paris - Oceanic and African Art Auction featuring works from an Important New York Collection

2010-11-22T13:52:00.013-05:00

Lot 27, Magnificent Fang Head,
Gabon, 34 cm
Estimate 500,000 - 700,000 EUR

Sotheby's Paris will hold two important sales of Oceanic and African art on November 20th totaling 152 lots - "A New York Collection" (Lots 1-49) at 4 PM and "Oceanic and African Art" (Lots 50-152) at 5 PM.

The recognition of African sculpture as art dates to the beginning of the 20th century, when a handful of men from both sides of the Atlantic brought about a decisive change in our perception these important sculptures. If it was in Paris that Modern artists discovered what was then termed "Negro Art," it was in New York, in 1935, that it was first presented as art to the general public. In 1935, African Negro Art, one of the most groundbreaking exhibitions of its time, opened at the recently founded Museum of Modern Art. James Johnson Sweeney, Director of MoMA, solicited the collaboration of the renowned Parisian dealer, Charles Ratton, in selecting the objects from both French and American collections.

From 1935 to the present, the connections between New York and Paris have continued to link Modern and African art. The dynamic relationship between the two fields is at the core of the New York Collection up for auction. The 49 sculptures were selectively acquired in New York and Paris over the last 30 years and have lived side by side in this collection with a unique selection of Modern drawings and Indian sculptures.

The most iconic African object in the collection is a Fang Reliquary Guardian Head from Gabon (lot 27, Estimate 500,000 - 700,000 EUR), exhibited at MoMA in 1935 and formerly in the collection of Paul Guillaume. (Guillaume was a successful modern art dealer and avid African art collector, as well as the African art advisor to important American collector Alfred Barnes.)

Many sculptures from the collection, including the exceptionally dynamic form of the Mumuye figure (lot 33, Estimate 180,000 - 250,000 EUR), directly link to the vocabulary of Cubism and are intimately connected with the development of Modern Art movements.

Lot 54, Exceptional Male Figure, Turamarubi Group,
Turama River, Papua New Guinea, 96 cm
Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 EUR

Following the auction "A New York Collection," is the Oceanic and African Art sale. The top lot is the "Master of the Buli" sculpture (lot 97, Estimate Upon Request) from the collection of Harry Bombeeck. Also of note is a superb Bamana figure (lot 82, Estimate 200,000 - 300,000 EUR), which dates to the 15th-16th century. It is connected with the history of one of the first West African empires, the Mali Empire, which invaded the Niger Valley and spread its rule over the Bamana kingdoms. The statue represents a 'cult mother,' her status as a woman at the root of creation underlined by the head-scarf tied in the shape of a shan hat, which was reserved for the use of high ranking priests.

Lot 54 (Estimate 400,000 - 600,000 EUR) is one of the most outstanding examples of the art of Papua New Guinea. Dating to the 17-18th century, this commanding and masterful figure is a striking example of the unique and highly rare art of the Turamarubi people. It is part of a group of highlights from the John and Marcia Friede collection of art from Papua New Guinea.

For more information and to request a catalog, visit www.sothebys.com.

Lot 97, A Masterpiece of the "Master of Buli,"
Luba Caryatid Stooll from Harry Bombeeck, 51 cm x 30.5 cm
Estimate Upon Request

Source: Sotheby's website

New book for Collectors! "Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art"

2010-11-17T16:41:00.000-05:00

A new book about the important collection of Polynesian dealers Mark and Carolyn Blackburn is now available for purchase. Titled, "Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art," the book is an account of the Hawaiian couple's impressive Oceanic art holdings, compiled by Smithsonian curator Adrienne Kaeppler.

Polynesian War Club Artifacts

The 448-page book profiles more than 1,000 objects from the Blackburn collection. Mark Blackburn, owner of Mauna Kea Galleries of Honolulu, began collecting nearly 40 years ago. Always fascinated with the stories of the many voyages of Captain Cook, he purchased his first artifact, a Maori hei-tiki, at a flea market in Hamburg, Germany. He has been avidly collecting ever since.

On display in the book are sculptural pieces, paintings, photographs, bark cloth, paddles and clubs, drums, tools, bowls, weapons and more. The geographic spread of the collection is vast, covering the Pacific Ocean region from Hawaii to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to Aotearoa (New Zealand), and the many islands in between.

The selections in this book are drawn from the geographic and cultural areas of Polynesia. The work profiles objects from all over and features some of Blackburn's favorite items: the Maori pieces of Hawaiian sculpture.

The book was compiled by Adrienne Kaeppler, Chief Curator of Oceanic ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and designed by award-winning Hawaiian designer Barbara Pope. Featuring 804 color illustrations, descriptions and annotations, the book makes public for the first time what is (according to Kaeppler) - "probably the best private collection of Polynesia in the world."

Items from the Blackburn collection have been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a number of prominent museums and galleries around the world.

The book is available for purchase at amazon.com.

Decorated kapa cloth; Hawaii.
Barkcloth, pigments, approx 1 m x 1.5 m.
Late 18th-early 19th century.

Six Works from Kahane Collection up for sale at Christie's Paris on December 1

2010-11-15T16:16:00.002-05:00

Christie's will offer works from the collection of legendary dealer Isidor Kahane on December 1 in Paris. Though best known in the art world for his contributions in the field of Indian and Southeast Asian art, Kahane was a passionate collector of African art. These six exquisite works from his private holdings are estimated to sell for $3.1 - $3.7 million.

This important collection has been living quietly in Switzerland for the past thirty-five years. The works for sale represent a variety of fine 19th century ceremonial and ritual items from Western Africa.

The top lot is a Baga Shoulder Mask. The nearly 50 inch-high Dmba is carved from a single piece of wood. It appears to mark important occasions dealing with personal and/or communal growth, marriages, births, wakes, agrarian rites and hospitality ceremonies. Worn by a single dancer of great strength and technical skill, the shoulder mask has a hallowed domed under the chest to rest on the dancers head, with two eyeholes between the breasts. The legs are pierced at the bottom for the attachment of the raffia ring (which served as sort of girdle to keep the mask in place). Among the Baga, Dmba represents an idea of the ideal. The work is estimated to fech $1.1 - $1.6 million.

Also featured is a Fang Male Reliquary Guardian Figure. The seated figure, with muscular legs and arms holding a vessel. The work from Gabon is one of the most symbolic styles of African art. With well-balanced proportions and barrel-like chest and neck, the statute is the iconic Fang style. It is estimated to fetch $680,391 - $952,547.

Isidor Kahane began his career as a textile designer in Zurich in the 1940s. Influenced by renowned Modernist collector and fellow textile businessman, Gustave Zumsteg, he began to gather knowledge to build his own collection. Inspired by the Modernist work, Kahane looked to the purist form of their inspiration - African art.

Kahane and his wife, Elly, moved to New York City in the later 1940s, after World War II. They immersed themselves in the New York arts scene and purchased their first major work of African art in 1958.

The "Six Chefs-d'Oeuvre d'Art Africain de la Collection Kahane" sale will take place at Christie's Paris on Wednesday, December 1 at 3 pm.

Extraordinary Tribal Art from Africa up for Auction at Gray's Auctioneers & Appraisers

2010-11-08T13:43:00.000-05:00

Hare Headdress from the Baga Sibondel peoples

A single owner sale of Tribal Art from Africa courtesy of a private New York Collector is on offer at Gray’s Auctioneers & Appraisers. The sale takes place November 18 at 1pm in Gray’s auction showrooms in Cleveland, Ohio. Simultaneous online bidding will be offered by Grays Live Bidding, together with telephone, absentee and live in-person bidding.

This magnificent collection features strikingly tall brass Oba figures from Benin (The Oba were the traditional kings of the Benin people), intricately carved, ornate headdresses from the Baga peoples of Guinea; figures, masks, carvings, stools, drums, Queen figures, maternity figures, animal figures and many more from the Yoruba, Igbo, Bamana, Songye, Mende, Dan, Lobi, Baule, Grassfields of Cameroon, Fang, Yaka, & Luba peoples to name but a few. This auction of 361 lots delights and awes those that know and love the tribal art of Africa as well as the un-initiated. The auction house is an explosion of color and creativity and Gray’s has opened up for two full weeks of exhibition for viewers to view the art in person from November 4 - 18. A fully illustrated catalogue is also available online.

Notable lots include a colorful and ornately carved, box form Hare headdress with figures from the Baga Sibondel peoples; a brass standing figure of an Oba holding a staff & sword, Benin style; a 51-inch tall Brass Maternity Figure holding Children in each arm, from the Grassfields of Cameroon; a Brass Figural Throne also from the Cameroon, featuring multiple tiers of figural supports standing at 43 inches tall; and a mixed media, Bush Spirit Mask, from the Kran of Liberia. It is an oversize mask made of wood, fiber, metal and pigment with a spiked beard, bulging eyes, metal teeth and overhanging fiber brow. Standing at 19 inches high and 14 inches wide with eyes bulging and mouth agape with teeth bared this ferocious mask is one of the principle highlights from this striking New York collection.

The complete illustrated catalog can be found on Gray’s website at www.graysauctioneers.com or please call 215-458-7695 for additional information.

Los Angeles Asian & Tribal Arts Show - November 12-14, 2010

2010-11-01T15:51:00.001-04:00

The Los Angeles Asian & Tribal Arts Show is set for November 13th and 14th at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. It is the show's 20th anniversary.

The show features the most prestigious and prominent gathering of Asian and tribal galleries in Southern California, featuring internationally acclaimed gallerists that showcase authentic items from all over the globe. This year, LAATA will showcase a collection of works by adventurer and fine art photographer Mike Glad. Vanishing Cultures is a photographic exhibition documenting the exotic and remote places that Glad encountered while trekking through Yemen, the wooded monasteries of Myanmar and villages of Pakistan.

The show is produced by the celebrated Art Show team Caskey & Lees; producers of The San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show, The San Francisco Arts of Pacific Asia Show, The New York Ceramics Fair, The New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show and The Los Angeles Asian & Tribal Arts Show.

The LAATA will open with a wine and cheese preview reception and silent auction to benefit the Fowler Museum of Cultural History's Textile council on Friday, November 12th, 2010.

General Show Hours:
Saturday, November 13, 11 am - 7 pm
Sunday, November 14, 11 am - 5 pm

This year's exhibitors include:
MB Abram Gallery, CA
Appleby International Arts, CA
Walter Arader Himalayan Art, NY
Arts of Central Africa, FL
Bead Castle, CA
Neil Becker, NY
Breen/Graham, CA
Caracola, CA
Caravanserai, TX
Cassera, NY
Craig DeLora Tribal Art, NJ
Dennis George Crow, CA
Dimondstein Tribal Art, CA
Dragon House, CA
Ever Arts Antique Furniture, CA
Flambeaux, CA
Philip Garaway, CA
Marion Hamilton, CA
Michael Hamson Oceanic Art, CA
Hayden & Fandetta Rare Books, CA
Honeychurch Antiques, WA
Indoarts, CA
Japon Gallery, CA
Mark A. Johnson Asian & Tribal Art, CA
Oumar Keinde African Art, Senegal
Fily Keita Tribal Art, CA
Stella Krieger, CA
Lao Design, NJ
Lotus Gallery, TX
Joe Loux, CA
Galen Lowe, WA
Maestros de Taxco, CA
Kip McKesson, Tanzania
Orientations Gallery, NY
Primary Source, CA
J.R. Richards Asian Art, CA
James Stephenson, NY
Sutterfield Tribal Art, CA
Sujaro/Gallery of African Art, CA
TAD Tribal Art, NM
Vigraha Fine Art, AZ

Visit www.caskeylees.com for more information and show updates.

Irma Stern painting sets sales record in London

2010-10-27T14:04:00.000-04:00

Irma Stern's "Bahora Girl"

An Irma Stern artwork fetched 2.4 million pounds in London this morning, setting a new world record for sales of South African art at auction, Bonham's said.

The painting, titled "Bahora Girl," was sold to a South African who was present at the auction in London, said Bonham's head of press, Julian Roup.

Bonham's, a privately-owned British auction house, held the previous record for South African art sold at auction for a Pierneef artwork, which fetched 950,000 pounds.

"Bahora Girl," according to Bonham's website, was an image from Stern's time in Zanzibar where she was "powerfully affected" by the beauty of the local Indian women.

The oil-on-canvas painting dates back to 1945 - the painting was estimated to fetch between 600,000 and 900,000 pounds.

Source: South Africa Times

California Fundraiser for the National Museum of African Art

2010-10-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

National Museum of African Art (exterior)
Image courtesy of LA Times

Last Saturday the National Museum of African Art held a fundraiser in Santa Monica, California. The event took place at M. Hanks Gallery.

The fundraising soiree was organized by the Sanaa Circle, a recently formed support group comprised primary of African-American lawyers, according to museum spokesman Eddie Burke. Their goal is to raise money and awareness for the museum. Hosts for the event included Camille Cosby (a National Museum of African Art board member and spouse of Bill Cosby) and her brother, Eric Hanks (owner of M. Hanks Gallery, a venue for African American art). Tickets to the cocktail reception were $250 per person.

Museum director Johnnetta Betsch Cole was the evening's keynote speaker. Cole became director last year after a storied career as president of two historically black women's colleges, Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., and Spelman College in Atlanta.

The question of why a major museum dedicated to the art of Africa and located in Washington, D.C. needs to solicit funds from California raises concerns for many. Spokesman Burke says the party was not just for funds but to raise nationwide awareness.

The African art museum is competing with the National Postal Museum to avoid last place in attendance among the Smithsonian's museums on the National Mall. In 2009 it drew 403,000 visitors and the postal museum had 349,000; this year, through September 30, the African art museum had tallied 229,000 visitors and the postal museum 259,000. Last year, according to Smithsonian budget documents, the African art museum had a budget of about $6 million, with $905,000 of that raised from donors.

Two major Los Angeles museums collect and display African art -- the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Fowler Museum at UCLA. However, officials at those museums do not feel encroached upon by African art museum events in the area. They understand that the African art museum is the "national" museum and must solicit support from all over the United States. "No feathers ruffled," says Melody Kanschat, LACMA's president. "We all understand that museums compete for the attention of potential donors and collectors who might be persuaded to make gifts of works of art, and it's all to the greater good."

And the task before the National Museum of African Art is a great one. According to the Smithsonian's website and its strategic plan for 2010 to 2015, the $761.4 million it currently receives from the federal government covers about 70% of an annual budget of more than $1 billion. To meet its goals through 2015, it projects needing to rake in as much as a third more money than it does now. Less than half of the additional funding is expected to come from the federal government.

Source: Mike Goehm for the Los Angeles Times (October 15, 2010)

Important Sale of African, Pre-Columbian, Oceanic and Native American Art on Saturday, October 23

2010-10-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

A Kota reliquary guardian figure 'Mbulu Ngulu'; Kota, Gabon

Dan Ripley’s Antique Helper will present animportant auction of African, Pre-Columbian, Oceanic and Native American art and artifacts on Saturday, October 23rd.. Gathered from several distinguished collections, including an important New York collection, many selections from this auction are the subject of scholarly works. Many have been exhibited, many are listed in the Yale archive of traditional African art.

Recognizing the importance of this sale, Antique Helper has enlisted the services of Scott Rodolitz, A 25-year veteran in the fields of African and Oceanic art. Rodolitz has managed galleries and worked as curator for a number of public and private collections. He worked at the Russian Academy of Scientists and is one of only a handful of Americans to become a member of the St. Petersburg Union of Scientists. Mr. Rodolitz has worked as World Wide Director of African and Oceanic Art at Bonham’s New York. Among his writing credits, Rodolitz co-authored Remnants of Ritual: Selections from The Gelbard Collection of African Art, along with Ethnographic expert Arthur P. Bourgeois. A number of the fine African pieces in this auction were featured in this book, including the fantastic copper covered Lwalwa mask.

According to Rodolitz, the October 23 auction offers a rare chance for enthusiasts at all levels to augment their collections. This presents a unique buying opportunity for beginning collectors. They will be able to bid on items in comfort, knowing that the objects of interest were truly created for traditional purposes, and are not merely copies crafted for the tourist trade.

“There’s something for everyone in this sale, at every price point,” says Rodolitz. “A particular focus was to make sure that all levels of collecting will be represented in this sale. Anyone can come and find objects that are traditional and within their price range.” Prices will range from the low hundreds to thousands.

While the sale will offer a wide survey of cultures from Sub-Saharan Africa, from Mali to South Africa, there will be a strong emphasis on material from Central Africa. This region, according to Rodolitz, offers the greatest cultural and is most popular among collectors of Ethnographic art. “You are not really talking about a single art form or a few art forms,” he says. “… You are dealing with hundreds of different peoples who all have different styles of art work…. There’s an endless range of styles.”

Reasonably estimated items such as Dogon and Kuba masks, as well as a large number of Zairian sculptures, all from provenanced collections, will be quite the attraction for new collectors. Additionally, there are shields from New Guinea and other objects collected from the vast area from Indonesia to Papua New Guinea and theSolomon Islands. A number of pieces were collected during the early Harvard medical expeditions of the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Other items of note from the Oceanic region include a representational canoe house support from the Solomon Islands, a large ceremonial ancestral facemask from New Guinea and a Wood Lark Island canoe prow. Among the Tribal Art offerings will be weapons, objects of material culture, ritual masks, and carvings.

Of special note is an important Yoruba offering bowl, almost certainly carved by an artist named Agabonbiafe. This bowl boasts an exceptional provenance, having been exhibited in a number of museums. According to Rodolitz, “This bowl is one of the few examples where we know who the carver was. Agabonbiafe was a known and famous carver among the Yoruba, and his work is in museums and other important collections world-wide..” Another item of special interest is a Lega mask from the Gelbard Collection. A wonderful, small Fang figure that sold in a French gallery circa WW II still boasts the original labels on the base. A fine Baule mask, an exceptional Dan spoon and a Kota reliquary guardian figure, sold at Sotheby’s. Not to be missed is an extremely important Bakongo helmet mask, which appeared in Raoul Lehuard’s 1989 volume, “Art Bakango: Les Centres De Style, Vol. III, Les Masques”--the definitive study on Bakango masks. A handful of Zairian objects, formerly in the collection of a United States diplomat, and a Dan mask given by a missionary in the early 20th Century reflect the diversity of the backgrounds of early collectors.

Native American and Pre-Columbian art and artifacts include pottery, beadwork and baskets, as well asPeruvian textiles. A totem pole, ca. early 20th Century from the Pacific Northwest would be an impressive addition to any collection.

The auction will take place at 10 AM, Eastern Standard Time, on October, 23. There will be a preview and reception on Friday, October 22, from 4-8 PM.

For more information, or for estimates for individual items, please view the auction catalog, which will be available at www.antiquehelper.com, or call (317) 251-5635.

Source: ArtfixDaily.com, www.antiquehelper.com

New Exhibit! From Head to Toe: African Adornment

2010-10-08T10:23:00.000-04:00

Bronze Bracelet - Nigeria

Jacaranda Tribal is pleased to announce a new exhibition, "From Head to Toe: African Adornment."

Highlighting the African tradition of adornment, the show features objects for sale from Jacaranda Tribal's collection. The African tradition of adornment is a strong and beautiful display of a rich and storied cultural history. For African people, adornment is not just beautifully crafted decoration, but conveys values, beliefs and status. These ornaments play vital roles in the ritual and ceremonies of many African cultures.

African adornment is most often associated with ivory and beadwork, however ornamentation extends beyond jewelry to include hats, belts, amulets, scarves, hairpins and more.

Piercing and exaggerated forms are a popular element of adornment amongst most African tribes. The lips, noses and ear of both men and women are pierced so that they may wear ornaments to enhance their features, to show their tribal identity, and to protect them from dangers such as evil and supernatural forces. Increasingly larger discs (usually circular and composed of clay or wood) are inserted into a pierced hole, effectively stretching it. The pair of colorful and decorative ear plugs offered for sale by Jacaranda Tribal are made of soft wood with finely worked mosaic overlays.

Also featured is a collection of decorative South African snuff containers. The taking of tobacco, either as snuff or for smoking, was a formal part of many feasts and considered an important communal event. Among southern African ethnic groups, tobacco has associations with procreation, and creating favorable conditions for growth and fertility. Many snuff containers, like the necklaces for sale in Head to Toe, were worn as ornaments and decorative extensions of the owner's costume.

Highly representative and incredibly beautiful, African adornment exemplifies the fascinating culture and craftsmanship of the content. To view the exhibit, please visit www.jacarandatribal.com

Zulu Beaded Belt - South Africa

Sotho Straw Hats - Lesotho

Ivory Lip Plate - Ethiopia

Native American Art Advocate Ralph T. Coe Dies

2010-09-26T15:02:00.000-04:00

Ralph T. Coe, 1929-2010
Photo: NY Times

Ralph T. Coe, a former art museum director and a private collector who played a central role in the revival of interest in Native American art, died September 14th at his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico. He was 81.

Ted Coe, as he was known, was director of the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1977 until 1982. But as an art student in 1955 he was transfixed by a small Northwest coast totem pole that he spotted in a shop on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. It was the start of a 55-year fascination that Mr. Coe would share through major exhibitions he curated, his writings and eventually his donations.

“He was kind of the beginning player, enormously significant in the growth of appreciation of Native American art in the 20th century,” Julie Jones, the curator in charge of the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, said on Thursday.

After seeing that totem pole, Mr. Coe began collecting and studying Native American art, ultimately assembling a collection of more than 1,100 objects, some of which dated from prehistoric times. It included ceremonial and utilitarian pieces, among them kachina dolls, decorated blankets, war bonnets, baskets, masks, pipes, ceramic jars, weapons and lavishly beaded garments.

To gather the objects, Mr. Coe roamed from reservation to reservation in the United States and Canada, learning about their symbolism and the techniques of their artisans. He lived with the Passamaquoddy of Maine, the Winnebago of Wisconsin, the Osage of Oklahoma, the Shoshone of Wyoming and other tribes.

Mr. Coe’s research culminated in two landmark exhibitions. The first, “Sacred Circles: 2,000 Years of North American Indian Art,” opened at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1976 and traveled to the Nelson-Atkins a year later. The second, “Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 1965-1985,” was the first major exhibition dedicated to the work of contemporary Native American artists. It was shown at the American Museum of Natural History and nine other museums beginning in 1986.

By then, Mr. Coe had resigned as director of the Nelson-Atkins to immerse himself in collecting and spending time on reservations.

“It was a beguiling world of color and visual excitement, of pungent and humorous people,” he said in 1986. “To me, the Indian world became the real world. I changed a pinstripe suit for a pair of jeans. I said, ‘I’m just not good anymore at 12 cocktail parties in 14 days. I want to take off.’ ”

Ralph Tracy Coe was born in Cleveland on Aug. 27, 1929, one of three children of Ralph and Dorothy Coe. His father, who owned an iron factory, was a collector of Impressionist paintings and a trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mr. Coe, who is survived by a sister, received his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1953 and his master’s from Yale in 1958, both in art history. A year later he was working at what was then called the Nelson Gallery of Art.

In 2003 the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted an exhibition, "The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art,"which placed on view a promised gift of nearly 200 works from Mr. Coe’s collection. They included works by 20th-century artists, an indication of his determination to show that Indian art is a living tradition.

“There is an idea of the dying American Indian, and we keep counting them out,” Mr. Coe said of the modern works. “But I keep wondering, if we have counted them out, why is all of this here?”

Source: NY Times

The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art
Photo: Amazon

Christie's Interior Sale features fine Nguni Pipes

2010-09-22T17:40:00.000-04:00

Christie's London "Interior: Masters & Makers" sale concluded today, fetching nearly £300,000. The auction featured 132 lots from the pipe collection of British appliance magnate, Trevor Barton.

A circa 17th century Sinhalese Ivory Double-Pipe Case sold for £51,650 at the Unusual Smoking Pipe sale, far surpassing the £8,000 - £12,000 presale estimate. The work was the sale's top lot.

Ivory pipe cases, Austrian Meerschaum pipes, and 18th century tobacco figures were among the top lots.

A large Austrian Meerschaum Pipe (circa 1875) sold for £7,500. The ivory pipe, carved as the head of a young lady carrying a porte-monnaie and wearing an elaborate wrist corsage, was projected to sell for £2,000 - £3,000. William Bragge's drawings of his rare pipe collection, expected to sell for £2,000 - £4,000 failed to find a buyer.

The sale was from the collection of renowned "Pipe Man," Trevor Barton. Owning what was arguably the finest, most wide-ranging collection of pipes and smoking memorabilia in the world, Barton was a familiar figure in the stalls of the Portobello and Bermondsey markets of London.

Barton's pipes come from all over the globe and reflect over fifty years of passionate pipe collecting and a lifetime of a travel. He was a leading member of the exclusive "Academie Internationale de la Pipe."

Several fine Nguni pipes from Southern Africa were included in the sale. Dating from 19th century, the works were finely inlaid with lead and depict objects such as clocks, cannons and trains. Others featured more traditional subjects, carved human figures.

Results from the sale can be found at Christie's website, www.christies.com

Source: Christie's London

Photo courtesy of Christie's London

Africa meets Africa - Ndebele Women designing Identity

2010-09-16T20:04:00.000-04:00

An Ndebele Resource!

Africa meets Africa: Ndebele Women designing Identity focuses on the history and visual cultural expression of the Ndzundza and Manala Ndebele.

In this project, the authors explore the knowledge contained in the sophisticated design landscape of Ndebele women, which has informed their homestead design beadwork and has informed their homestead design, beadwork and painting. They look at the design language as art, but also in terms of the history and heritage that produced it. Going one step further, they also mathematically explore the elegant symmetry and proportion of Ndebele design.

A fifty-two minute documentary film by Guy Spiller (script by Andre Croucamp) introduces Zimbabwean Ndebele speaker Siphiwe Khumalo, who comes across Ndebele painting for the first time in Johannesburg, and then investigates the people who make the colorful designs. She talks with to such academics as Ndebele historian Dr. Sekibakiba Peter Lekhgoathi of the History Department of the University of the Witwatersrand, and Professor Peter Rich, who studied Ndebele homestead architecture. Siphiwe undertakes a journey to rural KwaMahlanga, Mabhoko and the surrounding area, to the homes of the master painters Esther Mahlangu and Francinah Ndemande, as well as attends contemporary Ndebele cultural festivals. Finally, she interviews Mathematician Dr. Chonat Getz, who explores the remarkable symmetry and proportion in the design language that Nbebele women use in their homestead architecture and painting.

The sixty-four page book (in full color), designed by Anina Kruger, unpacks the history of the Ndzundza and Manala Ndebele in more depth.

The book is available for purchase on Africa Meets Africa website, www.africameetsafrica.co.za.

The Africa meets Africa Project explores the southern African cultural heritage in the belief that educators and students in South African schools can find solutions to contemporary learning problems in the knowledge and skills contained in familiar forms of cultural expression around them. This integrated approach to learning serves all of South Africa's educators, as current curriculum statements call for a process of holistic learning - and specifically for an engagement with the cultural context of learning areas such as the Arts, Mathematics, Language and History.

'Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins' at Keene State College

2010-09-13T11:27:00.000-04:00

From carved serving bowls to ceremonial masks, art is interwoven into the African way of life, as shown in an exhibit set to run from Friday, Sept. 3, through Sunday, Oct. 31, at the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College.

“‘Art of Africa: Objects from the Collection of Warren Robbins’ depicts how life and art come together in African culture,” curators said. “The exhibit presents more than 60 objects, including sculpture, textiles, beaded clothing and jewelry, which broadly represent the creativity and diversity of artistic expression of nearly 30 cultures of sub-Saharan Africa. Accompanied by a video on African masks and dance, the exhibition illustrates the broader cultural context in which these art forms were created and used.”

Robbins was founding director of the National Museum of African Art, now a branch of the Smithsonian Institution. He discovered African art while serving in the American Diplomatic Service in Germany and Austria from 1950 to 1960. Robbins visited an African art dealer’s shop near Hamburg, where the African objects immediately captured his interest and imagination. He returned to the United States with 32 objects, the beginnings of a collection that later grew to include 5,000 pieces. Robbins opened the Museum of African Art on Capitol Hill, with the hope it would help “foster a deeper understanding of African culture, its history, its values, its creative tradition,” and its relevance to lives of contemporary Americans.

Originally collected by European explorers and ethnologists as academic specimens or curios, African sculpture had, by the end of the 19th century, begun to accumulate in European natural history museums and with dealers in antiques and the “exotic” arts.

“At the beginning of the 20th century, a handful of European artists in France and Germany were intrigued by the unique forms and styles of African art and began to draw creative inspiration from them,” curators said. “The aesthetic significance of African art became highly appreciated and respected in Europe and served as a catalyst for the artistic revolution that ushered in modern art around the world.”

“Art of Africa” is from the collection of the Robbins Center for Cross Cultural Communication and organized by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.

The Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery’s hours are Sundays through Wednesdays from noon to 5 p.m.; Thursdays and Fridays from noon to 7 p.m.; and Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m. It will be closed Monday, Sept. 6. There is no admission fee. The gallery is located on Wyman Way on the Keene State campus. For more information, call 358-2720 or visit www.keene.edu/tsag.

Source: New Hampshire Union Leader, Keene State College

South African Photographs: David Goldbatt at The Jewish Museum

2010-09-09T11:40:00.005-04:00

In congruence with the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, Jacaranda Tribal reminds its readers to begin the New Year by visiting the must-see David Goldblatt exhibition ending soon at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan.

David Goldblatt (b. 1930) is one of South Africa's most highly regarded photographers. As both a citizen and photographer, he was witness to apartheid's infiltration into every aspect of South African life. The exhibition includes 150 black and white photographs by Goldblatt that focus on South Africa's human landscape in the apartheid and post-apartheid eras. Very precise captions written by the artist accompany each photo in order to convey context and critical information about the image. His photos do not look at the large events or the public face of violence; rather they focus on the world of ordinary people and the minutiae of everyday life, illuminating the depth of injustice and the character of the people who imposed it and who struggled against it. Goldblatt's Jewish identity is germane to his work. The anti-Semitism that he frequently experienced made him especially sensitive to the deep humiliation and discrimination suffered by blacks under apartheid, informing his artistic vision as well as his attitude toward his country.

South African Photographs: David Goldblatt is presented simultaneously with South African Projections: Films by William Kentridge. The exhibition is on display until September 19th at The Jewish Museum, 1109 Fifth Avenue at 92nd Street.

Source: The Jewish Museum Website

Image: "The farmer's son with his nursemaid, on the farm in Heimweeberg, near Nietverdiend in the Marico Bushveld. Transvaal (North-West Province)" 1964

African Art Museum Again Delays Opening of Site on Fifth Avenue

2010-09-06T09:59:00.001-04:00

Citing construction delays, the Museum for African Art said on Friday that it had pushed back the planned opening of its new Manhattan home by about six months, from April 2011 to September or October of that year.

The museum will occupy the lower floors of a 19-story condominium building, designed by Robert A.M. Stern, on Fifth Avenue between 109th and 110th Streets. The museum’s president, Elsie McCabe Thompson, said that the building’s developers, Brickman and Sidney Fetner Associates, had failed to complete the core and shell as expected several months ago, and that they were now planning to do so in the next few weeks.

In the meantime the museum’s construction consultants, engineers and architects decided that they could not finish the interior in time for a spring opening.

“It’s a complex situation — I don’t want to lay blame on any one entity,” Mrs. Thompson said. “There’s a lot of factors,” she continued, adding, “It’s quite common.”

Roderick O’Connor, a principal of Brickman, however, said in a phone interview that there had not been any significant delays on its part.

Mrs. Thompson said fund-raising was not a factor in the delay. As of June, the museum had raised only $71 million of the $95 million it needed to pay for construction. Mrs. Thompson said she had since raised an additional $4.5 million. Asked if the museum was considering a phased opening, she said, “I promised a full building, and I’m going to move earth to make it happen.”

Mrs. Thompson, the wife of the former mayoral candidate William C. Thompson Jr., has been pursuing a permanent home for the museum since she took it over in 1997. She first envisioned building on the site a decade ago. The plans were delayed for several years by the withdrawal of the museum’s original development partner, Edison Schools.

Since the museum partnered with Brickman and Sidney Fetner Associates, the opening has been postponed further. When the museum unveiled Mr. Stern’s designs in 2007, it said it would open its new home in late 2009. The date was later pushed back, partly because of the discovery of a quicksandlike layer of sediment under the site.

Mrs. Thompson said she still hoped to open with the planned slate of exhibitions, including a retrospective of the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui and a show of African- and African-American-made baskets.

The museum, which was founded in 1984, has been credited with presenting groundbreaking exhibitions, but it has sometimes struggled financially. Mrs. Thompson and members of the board have said they expect that moving to such a prominent location, on the upper end of Museum Mile, will help attract a large audience, as well as donors and corporate sponsors.

The long journey toward a permanent home, however, has come at some cost to the museum’s visibility. It closed its gallery in Long Island City, Queens, in 2005, though it has created traveling exhibitions and mounted some shows in other spaces since then.

Source: The New York Times

By: Kate Taylor

Zemanek-Münster's 62nd Tribal Art Auction This Saturday

2010-09-02T21:40:00.007-04:00

Zemanek-Münster's 62nd Tribal Art Auction takes place this Saturday, September 4, 2010.

The auction features a substantial amount of authentic old objects from Africa, America and Oceania. Over 500 objects are featured in the catalog, with highlights from Gabon, Nigeria, Mali, the Ivory Coast, Congo and Indonesia.

A special section is reserved for the region of East Africa, and in particular, Tanzania. Some 200 objects, all a part of the former exhibition "Tansania - Glaube, Kult und Geisterwelt" are included. The exhibit, shown in 2007 in the "Kultur-und Stadthistorische Museum" of the city of Duisburg and in 2009, in the "Haus der Volker," Schwaz (Austria), displays works from the private collection of Ralf Schulte-Bahrenberg.

Schulte-Bahrenberg (1934-2010) was responsible for organizing local jazz festivals in his native Germany. He was best known for his role as co-organizer of the German concerts of pop music sensations- The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

The tribal art auction house Zemanek-Münster, is located in Würzburg, Germany. Established in 1978, they are Europe's only auction house specializing exclusively in non-European, fine tribal art. Holding four auctions a year, Zemanek-Münster features a variety of works of the Luba, Baule, Lobi, Senufo, Songye, Fang and Punu tribes, as well as works from Oceania.

The auction takes place Saturday at 2 pm at their location in Würzburg.

Source: Zemanek-Münster

"The Global Africa Project" at the Museum of Arts and Design this fall

2010-09-02T19:03:00.007-04:00

An unprecedented exhibition exploring the broad spectrum of contemporary African art, design, and craft worldwide, The Global Africa Project premieres at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) this November. Featuring the work of over 60 artists in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean, The Global Africa Project surveys the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world. Through ceramics, basketry, textiles, jewelry, furniture, and fashion, as well as selective examples of architecture, photography, painting, and sculpture, the exhibition actively challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic or identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design without making the usual distinctions between "professional" and "artisan."

On view from November 17, 2010, through May 15, 2011, The Global Africa Project is co-curated by Lowery Stokes Sims, the Museum's Charles Bronfman International Curator, and Leslie King-Hammond, Founding Director of the Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Visitors and scholars can track the development of the project and participate in an online discussion of key issues related to exhibition through an interactive and behind-the-scenes blog on MAD's website.

"The Global Africa Project charts important new territory in the field by actively looking beyond restrictions of traditional art historical groupings, including medium, geography, and artistic genre," states Holly Hotchner, the Museum's Nanette L. Laitman Director. "By many measures, this exhibition is entirely unprecedented and it is a landmark moment in our history. As a museum that has long challenged the hierarchies separating art, craft, and design, we are delighted to introduce these new explorations of contemporary African art and aesthetics."

The exhibition will showcase a diverse group of creators, including artists who are experimenting with the fusion of contemporary practices and traditional materials, and design collectives that are using their creative output as engines of local economic change. Featured artists and designers range from well-known figures such as Yinka Shonibare, Kehinde Wiley, and Fred Wilson; to fashion designer Duro Olowu, who is an important presence in the London fashion scene, and Paris-based Togolese/Brazilian designer Kossi Aguessy, who has collaborated with Renault, Yves Saint Laurent, Cartier, and Swarovski; to the Gahaya Links Weaving Association, a collaborative of Hutu and Tutsi women working in traditional basketry techniques in Rwanda. The Global Africa Project will be accompanied at MAD by a special installation, Are You a Hybrid?, curated by designer Stephen Burks. Exploring the impact and influence of Africa on contemporary design, it will be on view from February through April 2011. The installation is part of the MADProjects exhibition series, which explores emerging trends and innovations in the design world.

“Given the nomadic, even migratory, nature of artistic careers today, the interesting challenges of presenting an exhibition like The Global Africa Project are indicated in its very title,” stated curator Lowery Stokes Sims. “The exhibition addresses important questions of how these designers, craftsmen, and artists grapple with issues of commodification in art production, and the meaning and value of art in contemporary society.”   “No longer are these artists viewed as part of the periphery of the main stream art world," Leslie King-Hammond added. “This work redefines a new center of creativity and innovation for the twenty first century.”   In order to present the various dimensions of the work of African artists and artisans worldwide, The Global Africa Project will be organized around several thematic ideas: the phenomenon of cultural fusion; promoting competition on the creative global scene; fostering the use of local materials; supporting artisans and craftsman; and impacting the economic and social condition of local communities. In addition to providing a broad framework for the exhibition’s organization, these themes will encourage The Global Africa Project’s audiences to discern how global African artists grapple with the commodification of art production and the meaning and value of art in society—an increasingly significant issue for nations in a rapidly changing global context.

Source: Museum of Arts and Design website

Image: "Sweet Grass Basket" by Mary A. Jackson (1999)

"Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria" Begins at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

2010-08-30T15:59:00.009-04:00

Exhibition Reminder!!

The critically acclaimed exhibition Dynasty and Divinity: Ife Art in Ancient Nigeria begins its four-venue U.S. tour at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, on September 19, 2010. The exhibition was most recently at the British Museum, London, where the work was hailed as "humanely observed and crafted with genius" and as the kind of art "whose greatness pre-exists and survives us." (The Guardian)

The exhibition has been co-organized by the Museum for African Art, New York City, and the Fundación Marcelino Botín, Satander, Spain, in collaboration with the Nigerian National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

Schedule:

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, September 19, 2010 - January 9, 2011

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 12 - May 22, 2011

Indianapolis Museum of Art, July 8 - October 9, 2011

Museum for African Art, New York City, November 11, 2011 - March 4, 2012

Exhibition:

Devoted to the art of Ife, the ancient city-state of the Yoruba people of West Africa (in present-day southwestern Nigeria), Dynasty and Divinity features more than 100 extraordinary brass, terra-cotta, and stone sculptures, ranging in date from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries. Many of the works have never before been on display outside Nigeria.

Through a great diversity of objects, the exhibition reveals the remarkably creative range of Ife art. Included are handsome idealized portrait heads, exquisite miniatures, expressive caricatures of old age, lively animals, and sculptures showing the impressive regalia worn by Ife's kings and queens. Together, these illuminate one of the world's greatest art centers and demonstrate not only the technological sophistication of Ife artists, but also their rich aesthetic language.

The University of Iowa Museum of Art presents Ere Ibeji: Yoruba Twin Figures from the Collection of J. Richard Simons

2010-08-26T10:00:00.039-04:00

Opening Thursday September 2, 2010
On view through October in Iowa Memorial Union's Black Box Theater

Ere Ibeji: Yoruba Twin Figures from the Collection of J. Richard Simon features the extraordinary 300-piece twin figure collection of UI Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Industrial Engineering J. Richard Simon. In the Yoruba culture of southwest Nigeria, twins are believed to be spirited, unpredictable, fearless, and agents of good luck. However, there and elsewhere in Africa, twins suffer a high mortality rate. With fragile health, one or both twins may fail to survive and after death, the mother commissions a six-to-eight inch ere ibeji, or twin figure, to be cared for just as a family member for generations to come.

Professor Simon has been collecting ere ibeji for over two decades and currently has one of the largest collections in the world. He has generously promised his figures to the University of Iowa Museum of Art.

Two events will be held in conjunction with the exhibition: Christopher Roy's gallery talk on September 16 and a symposium, Images of Twins: ere ibeji of Nigeria's Yoruba people, on October 8. Participants include: Professor John Pemberton, Amherst College, Professor Marilyn Houlberg, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and George Chemeche, artist and collector, New York.

Ere Ibeji: Yoruba Twin Figures from the Collection of J. Richard Simon is curated by Christopher Roy, UI art history professor and Elizabeth M. Stanley, Faculty Fellow of African Art.

Source: University of Iowa Museum of Art

Dallas Museum of Art Opens African Masks: The Art of Disguise

2010-08-23T11:52:00.001-04:00

DALLAS - The Dallas Museum of Art will present a significant look at African visual culture through African Masks: The Art of Disguise, a new exhibition of approximately seventy works of art exploring the highly developed and enduring art of the African mask and revealing their timeless beauty, function, and meaning. Centered on the DMA’s distinguished collection of African art, acclaimed as one of the top five of its kind in the United States and which has set precedents since its inception 40 years ago, African Masks: The Art of Disguise features several works of art from the Museum’s collection that will be displayed for the first time. Significant works from other museum and private collections are also included in the exhibition.

African masks serve as supports for the spirit of deities, ancestors and culture heroes, which may be personified as human or animal, or a composite. Masked performances, held on the occasions of thanksgiving celebrations, rites of passage and funerals, often entertain while they teach moral lessons. In African Masks: The Art of Disguise, a variety of masks from sub-Saharan Africa offers a range of types, styles, sizes and materials and the contexts in which they appear. Carved wooden masks will be featured along with masks made of other materials including textiles, animal skin and beads. Because the mask is frequently only one part of an ensemble, full masquerade costumes will also be displayed, and the masks will “come to life” in performances recorded on film and in contextual photographs.

On view August 22, 2010 through February 13, 2011 in Chilton Gallery I, African Masks will be accompanied by an all-new smARTphone tour highlighting 19 masks in the exhibition and a visit “behind-the-scenes.” Visitors will be encouraged to view 10 additional masks in the Museum’s Arts of Africa galleries on the third level; they are among the 150 objects from the collection that are currently on view at the DMA.

“Our extraordinary African art collection is a particular point of strength and pride for the Museum, and with African Masks: The Art of Disguise, we take an in-depth look at the collection and present an innovative new way of looking at it,” said Bonnie Pitman, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. “Through the use of the smARTphone tour, which includes cultural information, videos and behind-the-scenes interviews, along with more information about the works of art, this exhibition offers the visitor a dynamic experience.”

“Connoisseurs of African art and tourists collect masks, preferably carved wooden ones. Africans consider the entire masquerade—the object that conceals the head and the costume that covers the body—to be the “mask.” The person within this ensemble is also part of the mask! This exhibition celebrates the art of both the sculptor and the costume maker,” said Roslyn A. Walker, Senior Curator of the The Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific and The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art at the Dallas Museum of Art and the exhibition curator. “The African masquerade is a multimedia interactive experience that involves not only the sculptor but also the costume makers, dancers, musicians, spirits and audience.”

African Masks is divided into four sections and includes these highlighted works of art:

Masquerades are multimedia events that often include not one but several masked dancers embodying various spirits. On display for the first time is Chihongo face mask from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola: Chokwe peoples, made of wood, basketry, fiber, feathers, tukula, kaolin and iron; and Egungun costume from the Republic of Benin (former Dahomey): Yoruba peoples, made of cloth, appliqué, wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, animal claw or beak, sequins, animal fur and animal hide, and vinyl.

Human Disguises, including Four-face helmet mask (ñgontang) from Gabon: Fang peoples, made of wood and paint; and Forehead mask (mbuya type) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Central Pende peoples, made of wood, pigment and raffia fiber.

Composite Disguises, featuring a Water spirit helmet mask (Obukele) from Nigeria, Delta area: Abua peoples, made of wood, pigment and paint; and Mask (kifwebe) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Songye peoples, made of paint, fiber, cane and gut.

Animal Disguises, including Mask (gye) from the Côte d’Ivoire: Guro peoples, made of wood, paint and sheet metal; and Elephant mask (mbap mteng) from Cameroon: village of Banjoun (?), Bamileke peoples, made of palm-leaf fiber textile, cotton textile, glass beads and palm-leaf ribs
Two other masks that have never been on display before include Face mask (gle or ga),Dan peoples, Côte d’Ivoire or Liberia, made of wood, fiber and pigment; and Helmet mask (Lipiko), Makonde peoples, Tanzania, made of wood, beeswax, human hair and pigment.

Visitors will be able to explore and experience the exhibition with moving footage sound, and a smARTphone tour featuring Dr. Walker, Exhibition Designer Alan Knezevich, art collectors and performers, as well as a mask and animal connection featuring animals from the Dallas Zoo. The tour can be accessed by visitors on Wi-Fi–enabled smartphones and media players at DallasMuseumofArt.mobile.

African Masks is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art and curated by Roslyn A. Walker, Senior Curator, The Arts of Africa, the Americas, and the Pacific and The Margaret McDermott Curator of African Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. Dr. Walker is also the author of the newly published book The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, the first catalogue dedicated to exploring the Museum’s collection of nearly 2,000 objects—acclaimed as one of the top five of its kind in the United States. Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the collection, which began with a gift of more than 200 objects from DMA benefactors Eugene and Margaret McDermott, the catalogue draws from both historical sources and contemporary research to examine over 100 figures, masks and other works of art that represent 52 cultures, from Morocco to South Africa.

Source: Dallas Museum of Art

African Art World Nestled in Tenafly

2010-08-19T22:27:00.001-04:00

TENAFLY, N.J. — You can count the number of American public museums devoted entirely to African art on a few fingers.

There’s the National Museum of African Art in Washington. And the Museum for African Art in New York, reopening in a new Fifth Avenue home next spring. And there’s a third you’ve probably never heard of, the African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers here.

This museum is small and unorthodox in its setting: a stained-glass-windowed hall attached to a Roman Catholic church. But it’s the real African deal, with a collection covering the continent, top to bottom, coast to coast, old to new.

If you’re in New York City, you’ll have to cross the George Washington Bridge to find it. But if you’re looking for visual magic — a Yoruba dance mask with a mini-zoo on top; a brocaded body-wrap from Ivory Coast that seems to float on air; or a 10-foot-high figure of the 1960s Malian soccer hero Salif Keita dressed in team colors and cut from a single tree — you’ll have come to the right place.

And a pretty place it is, the leafy residential campus of a religious order called the Society of African Missions, but better known as the SMA Fathers, with the initials being the order’s name in Latin, Societatis Missionum ad Afros.

The order was founded in Lyon, France, in 1856 by Melchior de Marion Brésillac. A precocious young cleric, he was made a bishop at 29 and set up a network of missions in India before traveling to Africa to do the same. His time there was brief: six weeks after arriving, he died of yellow fever.

But his order was long-lived. It set down roots in present-day Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia and Tanzania and maintained headquarters in Europe and the United States. The Tenafly seminary, which opened in 1921, was intended as a training center for African-American clergy. The racial politics of the time thwarted that plan, but two decades later, after an infusion of immigrant Irish priests, Tenafly became the SMA’s American home base.

Part of the order’s mandate was to embrace and preserve indigenous cultures. Among other things, this entailed acquiring art wherever it was found in Africa but also commissioning African artists to create new pieces based on Christian themes. One priest, Father Kevin Carroll (1920-1993), an anthropologist and photographer, requisitioned such work from some of the most celebrated Yoruba sculptors of the day.

During a century and a half, the SMA amassed some 50,000 items and built museums to hold them: two in France and one each in Italy and the Netherlands. The Tenafly branch, installed in its present setting in 1980, is now incorporated as a nonprofit institution technically independent of the order and has its own modest holdings of around 1,000 objects. Some came through missionaries, but many were donated by a generous group of local private collectors who have also backed a series of strong thematic exhibitions during the tenure of the museum’s director, Robert J. Koenig.

These donations account for much of what’s in the current show, the first of two year-long permanent-collection displays. They are defined by geography, one of several artificial categories used to package African art for consumption, others being tribes and traditions. But when you have holdings of limited examples of many different kinds of things, what other presentation can you use?

Anyway, geographic delineation is quite approximate here: “Guinea Coast and the Sudan” is really Chad to South Africa. The exhibition labels avoid hard-and-fast alignment of peoples, places and styles. And overarching themes, when introduced, are lightly applied. On the whole this is a show about object-by-object variety.

There are plenty of so-called classic sculptural types. Dan masks from Liberia have Valentine-heart faces exquisite and inscrutable enough to make sense on the streets of Goldoni’s 18th-century Venice. Equally familiar and enchanting are helmet masks carved for Mende women’s societies in Sierra Leone: petite of feature, high of forehead, demure of expression, each an ideal of feminine beauty.

Dogon dance masks depicting birds, antelopes, rabbits and people are the exact opposite of demure. With their paint-freckled surfaces, fiber wigs and movable parts, they’re a chorus of cawing, braying, snuffling, singing beings, visual art as visual noise. You can imagine what they would have looked like on costumed performers in constant motion, twirling, dipping and raising dust.

Baule sculptures of spirit-spouses, embodying the significant others each of us has in the metaphysical realm, are less kinetic in concept but warm up whatever space they’re in — originally the home where they were kept and petted and coddled. The museum has examples of spirit-spouse figures that, set side by side, seem worlds apart but together demonstrate how meaningless, in terms of valuation, distinctions between classical and contemporary can be.

One figure is traditional in appearance, upright, commandingly grave, nude except for a cotton loincloth. The other is a modern urbanite version of the same model but in this case a female figure dressed in shorts and flip-flops, her face fixed in a self-possessed stare. Is one a more authentically superior being than the other? No. They are both, like the towering statue of Salif Keita nearby, high-maintenance spiritual celebrities. In future relationships, they’ll be calling the shots.

As with most Western collections of art from Africa, the one here is made up primarily of wood sculpture. But is this the medium historically most favored in Africa itself?

We’ve come to think so only because we see more carved figures in museums than we do other sorts of things. So it’s nice to see some of those other sorts of things in this show.

There’s metalwork, in which the continent is unbelievably rich, including wrought-iron Yoruba diviner’s staffs fitted with circlets of celestial birds; ponderous silver belts that are the wearable sculptures of the nomadic Tuareg in Sudan; and Ghanaian brass gold-weights, matchbook-size, covered with intricate patterns.

And gold-weights, in turn, seem to have inspired design in another medium, textile weaving. All the brocade on the ethereal Ivory Coast body-wrap take the form of small patches of luminous patterning, no two patches alike. This fabulous textile is now, of course, behind glass, though at some point, decades ago, someone who had reason to feel proud must have worn it, taken it off, put it aside, perhaps tossed it across a bed like the elegant Senufo one in the show, or draped it over a stool, like the timeworn Mossi example in the same display case.

With those two items, we’re back to wood sculpture again, this time as furniture. But in Africa even furniture has a spiritual life: beds and stools absorb the essence of their owners’ souls. Keeping that in mind, the installation of African art in a hall beside a church in a seminary starts to make perfect pan-cultural sense. It certainly makes this museum like very few others.

Source: The New York Times

By: Holland Cotter

Magic Masks, Curvy Women From Congo Bewitch in Paris: Review

2010-08-18T10:00:00.021-04:00

Congo doesn't have the best reputation.

If the two countries sharing the name of Africa’s second- longest river, the (formerly French) Republic of the Congo and the (formerly Belgian) Democratic Republic of the Congo, pop up in the news, you can bet it’s about civil wars, refugees, abysmal poverty or shameless corruption.

“Fleuve Congo: Arts d’Afrique Centrale,” an exhibition at the Musee du Qui Branly in Paris, presents a more attractive image of that unfortunate region.

The Benedictine monk Francois Neyt, emeritus professor at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, and curator of the show, spent more than 20 years in Africa. He casts his net wide. Besides the two countries mentioned, he includes their neighbors -- Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and parts of Angola -- an area eight times the size of France, stretching from the Atlantic to the Great Lakes in East Africa.

The political frontiers and tribal wars notwithstanding, Neyt is convinced that the vast, outwardly fragmented region shares a common cultural heritage. As proof, he points to cross- border myths, therapeutic rituals, songs and dances.

He also emphasizes sculptures. The 170 pieces, on loan from Belgian and French museums as well as private collectors, are supposed to demonstrate the common roots of the art produced by the Fang in Gabon, the Luba in Katanga, the southernmost part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the Chokwe in Angola.

‘Powerful Women’

Neyt exemplifies his theory with the help of three types of sculpture: masks in the shape of a heart, reliquaries with the bones of ancestors and “powerful women.”

The masks are used on various occasions -- initiation rites, circumcisions, necromantic ceremonies and dances. Some are white, others red or ochre. Some have a second pair of eyes, a symbol of prophetic vision. One, representing a sprite of the rain forest, has six eyes.

The guardian figures containing bones of ancestors serve more or less the same purpose as relics of Christian saints: They are believed to possess magical powers protecting against bad luck and evil forces. They come in a confusing variety of shapes; one has the face of a python.

A widespread feature is the diamond-shaped posture of the arms. The figures also are used as title deeds.
The third section is the least convincing. It’s true that the matrilineal transmission of power was the rule in the ancient kingdom of Kongo. Still, it’s hard to believe that “powerful women” with curvaceous bodies and elaborate hairstyles are specific to the Congo region.

Never mind. You can easily enjoy the exquisite beauty of the sculptures without buying into Father Francois’s theoretical edifice.

Just follow the example of Pablo Picasso, who was bowled over when he saw, in 1906, a statuette from the Congo region that his friend Henri Matisse had bought at a curiosity shop on Rue de Rennes. A display case documents the craze for “art negre,” as it was then called, and how the Paris art market responded.

“Fleuve Congo: Arts d’Afrique Centrale,” which is sponsored by Total SA, is at the Musee du Quai Branly, Paris, through Oct. 3. Information: http://www.quibranly.fr or +33-1-5661-7000.

Source: Bloomberg Online, Muse
By: Jorg von Uthmann

Through African Eyes at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Explores African Artists' Perceptions of Westerners

2010-08-16T11:39:00.012-04:00

A groundbreaking visual examination of how African artists expressed the dynamic interactions between African cultures and Europeans and Westerners will open Sept. 25 at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Through African Eyes: The European in African Art, 1500–Present, on view through Jan. 9, 2011, will feature 95 works of art exploring 500 years of contact.

The exhibition, which debuted this past spring at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), is the first to give a wide perspective of the African point of view of Europeans, from first encounters and trade relations, to European settlements and colonization, through the contemporary years of post-independence. Sculptures, masks, utilitarian objects, textiles, photographs and paintings lent from more than 30 museums, institutions and collections give a riveting visual commentary on artistic perceptions from more than 20 African countries.

“These works express an incredible diversity of response to white people, spanning the gamut of emotion from admiration to resentment,” said Leesa Fanning, associate curator, Modern & Contemporary Art, at the Nelson-Atkins, who served as curator for the Kansas City venue.

The exhibition was initiated and curated by Nii Quarcoopome, who leads the Department of Africa, Oceania and Indigenous Americas at DIA. As a child in the 1960s in Ghana, he witnessed first-hand the complex relationships between Africans and white Europeans and Americans.

“At the heart of the exhibition and its accompanying catalogue is the desire to give agency to African voices; indeed, the title, Through African Eyes, primarily obtains from this thinking,” he said. “After all, what good is African art and history without the African voice?”

The works of art generally take three forms. First are the portraits of specific Europeans or images that represent a particular moment in time; next are images of white people as a metaphor or allusion to authority, power, brutality, wealth, literacy, etc.; and finally, there are utilitarian objects that Africans used to denote European or Western culture, such as guns, books and eyeglasses.

“At first, because Africans encountered Europeans only as occasional visitors to their communities, white people remained exotic characters,” Quarcoopome wrote in the catalogue. “But once Europeans decided to settle among Africans, African attitudes changed toward them as a people and culture. Increased familiarity eroded much of the initial fascination and enabled Africans to more fully assess the racial and cultural differences.”

The exhibition is organized in seven sections:

Strangers and Spirits: Histories passed down through generations of Africans tell of various reactions to first meetings with Europeans. The arrival of the Portuguese around 1450 created a sensation. In many African cultures, whiteness is traditionally associated with the supernatural and spirits. African sculptures with white pigment surfaces are instantly recognized by Africans as representing spirits. With their pale skin, the Portuguese were first thought to be supernatural beings. This sculpture represents an ancestor spirit. It was used as a grave marker and it functioned as a mediator between the living and the dead. The figure has filed teeth characteristic of Yombe peoples but wears European-style clothes.

Traders: Direct partnerships between Portuguese traders and African kingdoms resulted in a long-lasting impact on African arts and cultures. African artists incorporated European imagery, imported materials and goods. Objects in this section show the European as a trader of goods and slaves–lucrative for some, destructive for others.

Settlers: Although European settlers lived apart from their African neighbors, Africans observed them closely. These works reveal the results of those observations, such as the sculpture of the couple walking their dog (first page of release) by the Yoruba artist Thomas Ona Odulate, who documented colonial life in his carvings. In African culture, dogs perform functional roles, such as hunting and providing protection. With this sculpture, the artist makes a commentary on the European lifestyle – dog walking as a leisure activity – and represents an African stereotype of European culture in which love for dogs trumps that for humans.

Spirituality and Technology: Africans usually admired and welcomed European technologies. Artists here reflect the desire to own or be associated with European technology, but also express caution about its use. This work, Fantasy Coffin, a sculpture of a Mercedes Benz from 1996 by the Ghanaian artist Ben Kane Kwei, would have been commissioned to celebrate a life of wealth and achievement, provide an elegant ride for the deceased in the afterlife and fulfill the lifetime fantasy of owning such a car.

Education: The introduction of Western teachings created tensions within African societies, and many Africans saw access to Western education as a way to influence and resist European ways of understanding the world.

Colonizers: In the late 1800s representatives from 12 European countries divided Africa into colonies and established themselves as masters. Works here reveal how African artists expressed their attitudes toward colonizers from resistance to alignment. Between the 1950s and 1960s, as Africa’s boundaries were redrawn and independent nations appeared, artists created works of art reflecting on the era of colonization with feelings that ranged from deeply critical to nostalgic.

Westerners: African artistic interpretation of the West continues today. This section features art forms that reflect the ongoing complex interaction with the world.

This exhibition has been organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts. Generous support has been provided by the Friends of African and African American Art, the DTE Energy Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. In Kansas City the exhibition is supported by The Helzberg Fund for African Art.

Tour planned for Gaddafi's summit hits problems

2010-08-09T15:58:00.007-04:00

Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Brussels is worried about sending its collection of wooden sculptures to Africa

BRUSSELS - A planned tour of a major exhibition of African art to Libya, currently on show in Belgium, is now under threat. Masterminded by Tanzania-born British architect David Adjaye, the show was due to open in Tripoli for the European-African summit in November, hosted by Colonel Gaddafi.

"Geo-graphics: a Map of Art Practices in Africa, Past and Present," at the Bozar centre in Brussels (part of the "Visionary Africa" festival until September 26), has at its heart 220 pieces of traditional African art (16th to 20th century), loaned by the Royal Museum for Central Africa in the Brussels suburb of Tervuren and Belgian private collectors. These are joined by contemporary art from eight organizations in Africa, as well as architectural photographs by Adjaye of 17 African capitals.

The main challenge has been to send the wooden sculptures from the Royal Museum on tour. The plan was that the museum would lend around a quarter of its 120 works currently at Bozar to Tripoli, and then to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) and four further African venues. This was a generous move in light of a situation in 1967, when it lent sculptures

to the national museum in Kinshasa (Congo) and 90 out of 114 works were stolen.

Now the Tervuren museum wants to make a fresh start in developing relations with Africa. Curator Anne-Marie Bouttiaux told us the traveling show is "very important, so I will fight for it." She added that traditional art from sub-Saharan Africa has never been exhibited in Libya.

But the €300,000 pledged by the European Commission for the first three venues of the African tour is insufficient, and it is proving hard to find venues with appropriate environmental and security conditions. None of the Tripoli museums seem suitable, so the organizers are looking at government buildings associated with the summit.

The director of the Visionary Africa festival, Nicola Setari, said: "Although there is an ambition to present traditional art, that is proving beyond our capacity." Hopefully photographs and some contemporary art will still go to Tripoli, along with a smaller selection of traditional art, but much will depend on what Gaddafi's authorities can provide in support.

Source: The Art Newspaper

By: Martin Bailey

Art Exhibit examines photography's role in the changing perception of African items from artifacts to art

2010-08-09T11:44:00.010-04:00

The University of Virginia Art Museum will present "Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens," a groundbreaking exhibition exploring the pivotal role of photography in changing the perception of African objects from artifacts to fine art, from August 5 through Oct. 10.

The exhibition brings to light photographs of African objects by American artist Man Ray (1890-1976) produced over a period of almost 20 years. In addition to providing fresh insight into his photographic practice, the exhibition raises questions concerning the representation, reception and perception of African art as mediated by the camera lens.

Featured are more than 50 of Man Ray's photographs from the 1920s and 1930s alongside approximately 50 photographs by his international avant-garde contemporaries such as Charles Sheeler, Walker Evans, Alfred Stieglitz and André Kertész.

For the first time, a number of these photographs are presented alongside the original African objects they feature. The juxtaposition offers a rare opportunity to encounter first-hand how various photographic techniques of framing, lighting, camera angle and cropping evoke radically different interpretations of these objects. Books, avant-garde journals and popular magazines also on display illustrate how these photographs circulated and promoted ideas about African art and culture to an international audience.

Curated by photo historian and author Wendy Grossman and organized into four sections, the exhibition frames the objects and images within diverse contexts, including the Harlem Renaissance, Surrealism and the worlds of high fashion and popular culture.

African Art, American-Style

The first section presents an overview of the embrace of African art in the United States in the first decades of the 20th century. Images of African objects by American photographers, ranging from the New York avant-garde to artists of the Harlem Renaissance, reveal different understandings of African art and culture. The photographs shed light on issues of identity, gender and colonialism influenced by the country's history of slavery, segregation and disenfranchisement.

African Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Examining different print contexts in which photographs of African objects were reproduced, this section demonstrates how advances in print technologies in the first decades of the 20th century and the burgeoning of mass media played a critical role in transmitting the vogue for African art. At the crossroads of art and documentation, the works in this section reveal how the camera lens served as a prism though which a large audience first experienced African art.

Surrealism and Beyond

Photography's controversial status as an art form and its ability to blur boundaries between dream and reality enhanced its appeal for Man Ray and his fellow Surrealists. Several of Man Ray's photographs and works by artists active in Germany, England and Czechoslovakia reflect the Surrealists' preoccupation with myth, ritual and the unconscious. This section explores how African and other non-Western objects functioned within the Surrealist world view.

Fashioning a Popular Reception

The intersection of vanguard taste, fashion and interest in African art is epitomized by the works in this section: Man Ray's now-iconic photograph "Noire et blanche"; his series of fashion photographs "Mode au Congo," featuring models in Congolese headdresses; and images of writer, shipping heiress and collector of African objects Nancy Cunard. As the works in this section illustrate, Man Ray created images representing the intersection of African art, photography and high fashion.

Exhibition Catalog

A fully illustrated, 184-page catalog accompanies the exhibition. Written by Grossman and edited by Martha Bari, with contributions by Ian Walker, Yaëlle Biro, Poul Mørk, Rainer Stamm, Thomáš Winter and a number of prominent African art scholars, the catalog is published by International Arts & Artists and distributed by University of Minnesota Press.

"Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens" was organized by International Arts & Artists of Washington, D.C. The exhibition was funded in part by grants from the Terra Foundation for American Art, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Dedalus Foundation.

International Arts & Artists is a non-profit arts service organization dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, arts institutions and the public.

Source: newsleader.com

'A Brave New World' at the African Art Museum

2010-08-05T12:29:00.004-04:00

August 9, 2010 - April 24, 2011

The National Museum of African Art celebrates its 2008 acquisition of the mesmerizing, video-based artwork 'Brave New World II' (by Theo Eshetu) with a small, focused installation of contemporary works from its permanent collection that examines the theme of travel. In this new world, grainy film footage of dancers performing in a restaurant in Bali join stencils of body builders and prints named after Bob Dylan tunes to give vision to the very real, global experiences of African artists.

Source: African Art Museum website

Nigeria's art collectors: A niche new market

2010-08-01T20:35:00.006-04:00

In a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria's business capital, Yemisi Shyllon lives in a house full of bronze statues of African tribal rulers and brightly colored beadwork landscapes. He may be Nigeria's biggest art collector, with some 6,000 pieces by his count. "I don't go out much," he says, "I have enough to look at here."

Mr. Shyllon, who runs an engineering company, is one of a small circle of Nigerian businessmen who own huge collections of local art. Sammy Olagbaju, a 70-year-old retired stockbroker who has lived in London and New York, is another avid collector. One Lagos-based banker has over 600 pieces.

With 250 ethnic groups and around 150 million people, Africa's most populous country has many sources of artistic inspiration. A number of artists from western Nigeria use the bright colors and beadwork of the Yoruba, south-east sometimes look to their region's uli style, with simpler drawings on walls or pots.

The collectors say their government cares little about preserving this artistic heritage. They share the cynicism of many Nigerians, who think the politicians are more eager to grab a share of the revenues of sub-Saharan Africa's biggest oil producer. Instead, the collectors prefer to put their own money into gathering and cataloguing thousands of works of art. "For me, this is a philanthropic act," says Mr. Olagbaju, who notes that Nigeria's top public galleries struggle with power cuts that leave masterpieces gathering dust in the dark.

More recently, these collectors have realized that they have also been canny investors. Their hobby has started to attract foreign attention - and cash. At an auction of African art in New York in March, the five most expensive lots were Nigerian. A painting by the late Ben Enwonwu went for $91,000.

Some buyers are speculating that the Nigerian works are still undervalued. Giles Peppiatt, director of contemporary African art at Bonhams, a British auction house that hosted the New York sale, says prices will rise in this niche market.

Auctions are also happening in Lagos, where oil and banking have made a few very rich, though most people still live in grinding poverty. "There's a lot of money in Nigeria," says Mr. Peppiatt. "And though it might sound cynical, money and art are inextricably linked."

Source: The Economist Online

William Kentridge, the South African artist drawing apartheid

2010-07-28T09:23:00.008-04:00

One of South Africa's best-known artists, William Kentridge makes unsettling work about apartheid -- and he is now making a name for himself internationally.

Kentridge's art, which has chronicled South Africa's shift from an apartheid to a post-apartheid society, evokes the tensions and memories of the former regime and reflects the inequalities of modern life.

His work is inspired by a love-hate relationship with the gritty realism of his home city Johannesburg, South Africa's commercial capital.

His body of work defines a generation and, as such, is some of the most sought after and expensive South African art, collected by major institutions around the world.

His work is multidisciplinary, and includes films and drawings, puppet shows and theatre. He has been shown at The Louvre in Paris, and recently finished directing an opera for New York's Metropolitan Opera.

"The Nose," by Russian composer Shoshtakovich was performed to much acclaim earlier this year and showcased Kentridge's knack of incorporating sculptural an filmic elements into stage direction.

His personal and social commentary on South Africa's problems can make for uncomfortable viewing, but, for Kentridge, it's crucial.

"For that not to be in the work would be a surprise or an avoidance, or a pretense that it's not there," he told CNN.

Many of Kentridge's pieces portray the plight of the powerless and oppressed in South Africa. A recurring character in his work is Soho Eckstein, a fat cat South African property tycoon, who he refers to as his "alter-ego," and downtrodden black workers turn up again and again.

Kentridge's style is also distinctive: His stark, bold charcoal drawings are characterized by frenetic bold black strokes.

He also transforms many of his drawings into short animated films, using an idiosyncratic technique known as "stop-action animation."

He will draw, erase and rework the same piece many times. Before he erases each version, he photographs it. Each photograph becomes a scene in the animated short film.

He says his art is a constant work in progress and he rarely knows what the finished product will be. "You gradually arrive at the image, rather than know in advance and simply put it down," Kentridge said.

Born to a prominent Jewish family of lawyers in South Africa, 54-year-old Kentridge studied political science and African studies before training under the renowned mime artist, Jacques Lecoq in Paris in the 1970s.

He displayed his feelings about the two cities wryly in the title of his first animated film, "Johannesburg -- Second Greatest City After Paris."

"This is where I've lived for 55 years," he said, explaining how the city inspires him. "[It] is a city that deconstructs itself the whole time, it's busy erasing itself the way you erase a drawing."

He admits to wondering why he has decided to make the city home.

"There's certain sections of the city you drive down and think, why on earth do I choose to spend my days in this part of the world," he said.

"And there are other days when you see extraordinary things and you think, this is remarkable."

Source: www.cnn.com

By: Robyn Curnow

Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermes Collection

2010-07-27T20:35:00.008-04:00

On Display: September 4, 2010 - December 5, 2010

An exhibition of spectacular jewelry and historic photographs from Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia, Desert Jewels presents never-before-exhibited pieces of stunning North African jewelry and late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photographs by some of the period’s most prominent photographers.

Collected over three decades by Xavier Guerrand-Hermès,Desert Jewels illuminates the diversity and beauty of traditional North African jewelry design. Ornate necklaces, bracelets, rings, and earrings show the inventive compositions and dazzling creations of North African jewelry designers and silver workers. Crafted from combinations of silver, coral, amber, coins, and semiprecious stones, the exquisite collection includes wedding necklaces, hair ornaments, bracelets, earrings, and fibula used to keep veils in place. The jewelry shows both the common threads that run through North African societies and local variations in materials and motifs.

North African jewelry came to the attention of Western collectors in the nineteenth century, when North Africa’s historic monuments and archaeological sites were being explored, visited, and, in some cases, pillaged. The most important photographers of the day, including the Scotsman George Washington Wilson, the Neurdine brothers from France, and the Turkish photographer Pascal Sabah, visited the region and photographed landscapes, architecture, markets, and people adorned in their jewels.

Organizer - Desert Jewels: North African Jewelry and Photography from the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection is organized by the Museum for African Art, New York

Sponsors - This exhibition is supported, in part, by the Robert Lehman Foundation.

Curator - Dilys Blum, The Jack M. and Annette Y. Friedland Senior Curator of Costume and Textiles

Location - Spain Gallery, Perelman Building

Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art

http://philamuseum.org/exhibitions.391.html

Birmingham Museum of Art exhibit links African-American, African ancestry and tradition

2010-07-05T10:45:00.000-04:00

Pattern, Costume And Ornament In African And African-American Art. The Birmingham Museum of Art. Through Sept. 12.

Described as “connecting cultural ancestry, tradition, community and personal identity,” this small, powerful exhibition is a tantalizing introduction to African and African-American art.

Jeff Donaldson’s portrait of himself and family is done in collage. It explodes from a center pattern like a small sun. The artist is seated and flanked by other members of his family. There is a medieval quality to this beautifully balanced composition, a feeling of power and permanence that is highly tactile and vibrant.

Clotaire Bazile’s “Vodou Flag” is a symmetric composition that uses stitched satin fabric, sequins and glass beads that merge African historical imagery with symbols from foreign influences to produce a delightful wall hanging. Odili Donald Odeta’s “Night Door” is a large abstract work covered with slab-like interlocking geometric figures. Nick Cave’s “Sound Suit” is a body covering that harkens back to witch doctor regalia. A fine black mesh fabric covers a mannequin. White crotchet doilies and bright buttons drip from the figure like strings of jewels.

A photograph of a woman in her room is a mute, expressive statement about life during apartheid in South Africa. Poverty and pride are expressed in this woman’s driving will to bring color and decoration into her life.

“Mining the Museum” offers a photographic selection from the Maryland Historical Society. The collection of 20 photographs of 19th century homemade dolls is aching, yet charming. It speaks volumes about making do with virtually nothing. Lucy Marie Mingo’s “Pine Burr Quilt” is a marvel of stitchery. Carrie Mae Weems’ self-portrait photographs are a calm indictment of subtle racism. Weems wears a patchwork dress that is both handsome and revelatory, showing pride and ingenuity about the world in which she lives.

This eclectic selection of works increases this gallery’s growing reputation for quality and finely-honed sense of purpose.

“Exploding Hummer” is an astonishing work by Srdjan Loncar that seems inspired by today’s headlines. Out of a “kiddy kar” model of a black Hummer a gigantic plume of oily reddish-golden, billowing substance rises to become a heavy, morbidly dense black cloud of smoke. The piece, created over a year ago, appears as if it were done yesterday.

Kelli Thompson’s “Blake on Fur” is a vibrant photo of a young girl with a dangerous sunburn. Monica Zeringue draws young girls in a dream-like state while Andrew Au creates robotic insects floating in space. Matt Posey uses pixel technology to create a skull-like image while Jennifer Purdum’s silk screen on wood images recall the medieval meanderings of Hieronymus Bosch.

Source: www.al.com
By: James R. Nelson

California African American Museum Exhibition of Leading Los Angeles Artists

2010-07-04T10:40:00.001-04:00

The contemporary art exhibition organized by the California African American Museum (CAAM), which opened March 22, was scheduled to close in mid-June, but will remain on display through Friday, July 30, announced Woody Schofield, CAAM’s deputy director. “This exhibition has proven extremely popular and we are delighted to be able to extend the time that these works will be on view in this excellent downtown space,” he said.

The exhibition presents outstanding work by leading California artists who are members of the California Artist Coalition of Los Angeles. The art is on display at the 7+FIG Art Space gallery in the 7+FIG retail center middle level at Ernst & Young Plaza, 735 S. Figueroa Street. The showcase is open from 12 noon to 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday, as well as on the Thursday LA Downtown Art Walk evenings during the run of the show, May 13, June 10 and July 8. During the Art Walk, the gallery will be open from noon to 9:00 pm and artists will be on hand to welcome guests. Guests can also enjoy free beer, wine and snacks from 5pm to 9pm on the Art Walk evenings.

More than 20 member artists of the California Artist Coalition of Los Angeles have work on display in the 7+FIG Art Space, which is available through courtesy of arts>Brookfield Properties. This exhibition is part of a unique program created by Brookfield Properties to sponsor art in the unique public spaces of Brookfield Properties’ downtown Los Angeles buildings and to provide a venue that supports local, LA-based artists and arts organizations. The artworks on display include paintings, sculpture, photographs and assemblage. Among the nationally known CACLA artists are Artist Lane, John Outterbridge and Richard Mayhew.

There will be special 7+FIG Kid’s Club programs on several upcoming Saturdays, May 22, June 26 and July 24 from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm in the 7+FIG Art Space, where youngsters can produce their own works by stretching their creative muscles under the helpful eye of artist Teresa Tolliver.

Robert Shapazian dies at 67; founding director of Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills

2010-07-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Robert Shapazian, who ran the Gagosian Gallery for a decade, is seen on a trip to Mali. Since traveling the world alone at 20, he continued to globe-trot and liked to visit African tribes.

Robert Shapazian, a scholarly art dealer who started importing art at age 13 and went on to become the founding director of the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, has died. He was 67.

Shapazian died of lung cancer Saturday at his Los Angeles home, said Robert Dean, a friend.

"Robert just kind of sailed under the radar a bit," said Dean, who also was a colleague at the Gagosian. "He's more like a poet's poet, if the poets were collectors. He both influenced and inspired a lot of people."

When leading contemporary art dealer Larry Gagosian hired him in 1995 to oversee the launch of a West Coast outpost, he praised Shapazian's knowledge of photography, 1990s art, and artists Andy Warhol and Marcel Duchamp, The Times reported at the time.

Under Shapazian's direction, Gagosian shows were "always provocative," adding "a 'big time' dimension to the local scene," online magazine Artnet said in 2004. The magazine gave as an example the gallery's survey of black-and-white Warhol paintings derived from advertising.

Shapazian ran the blue-chip venue for a decade, advising collectors to do as he did: Don't invest for monetary gain but follow "ideas and feeling," he said in a 2008 interview.

Business tycoon Eli Broad was one of Shapazian's primary clients, Dean said.

From 1986 until its closing in 1994, Shapazian was director of the Venice-based Lapis Press, founded by artist Sam Francis to publish fanciful, limited-edition artists' books.

Many titles were experimental, resulting in "books with an unusual degree of presence," Shapazian told The Times in 1993.

The texts were often obscure, evocatively illustrated and of the highest quality while aiming to amuse.

An example of Shapazian's playfulness was evident in philosopher Jean-Francois Lyotard's study of Duchamp. The Lapis release was covered in green velour, the same material Duchamp used for his 1934 work "The Green Box."

Robert Michael Shapazian was born in 1942 in Fresno to Ara and Margaret Shapazian.

Since he liked art, he started buying antique objects from Thailand when he was 13. He sold some of them to galleries and museums while starting his own collection, which grew to include Asian art, 18th century French furniture and illustrated Russian books.

After earning a bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley in 1964, Shapazian studied English literature at Harvard University, earning a master's in 1965 and a doctorate in 1970. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on pastoral poetry and painting in the Renaissance.

He had worked in his family's agricultural business in Fresno and built a collection of experimental photography that critics considered extraordinary.

In recent years, Shapazian taught writing and art to at-risk youths, friends said.

Since traveling the world alone at 20, he continued to globe-trot and liked to visit "very traditional tribes in distant places in Africa," he once said.

His contribution to the arts and literature had been recognized by the French government, which named him a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.

Shapazian is survived by a sister.

Tribal Art: A Paris Exhibition That Wears Many Hats

2010-07-02T10:32:00.000-04:00

Items from the “Voyage in My Head” exhibition at Maison Rouge in Paris. From left: a warrior’s headdress from Papua-New Guinea, and a bird headdress from Cameroon.

For true hat lovers, the hottest place in June, most years, is Ladies’ Day at Ascot, London’s high society horse racing venue, when the spectators’ area is awash in hats of every color, shape and description. This year, however, Ascot comes second to the Maison Rouge Museum in Paris.

Through Sept. 26, the museum, a stone’s throw from the Bastille Opera House, is showing “Voyage Dans Ma Tête” (“Voyage in My Head”), an extraordinary exhibition of ethnic and tribal head-wear collected by the museum’s founder and president, Antoine de Galbert.

Over the past 15 years Mr. de Galbert has scoured the world, searching out unique and rare examples of the tribal hatter’s skills. The result is more than 400 decorative pieces, assembled from feathers, bones, beads, pearls, crocodile scales, monkey skulls and human hair, all collected from the four corners of the globe.

“My first purchase was a Papuan headdress of Cassowary feathers,” Mr. de Galbert said recently. “It was too small to be worn by a human, it belonged to a statue.” That piece is in the show, alongside tribal tiaras, crowns, hoods and helmets from Amazonia to India by way of Africa, Asia and the Pacific islands: headgear for every ritual, from religion to seduction to war.

Mr. de Galbert created the Maison Rouge in 2004, transforming a 27,000-square-foot former industrial space into a hyper-modern, minimalist set of exhibition rooms surrounding an art library and cafe. The style is cutting-edge contemporary, with a penchant for shows, like this one, that escape from the glass vitrine into the domain of installation art.

La Maison Rouge, 10 Boulevard de la Bastille; (33-1) 40-01-08-81; lamaisonrouge.org. Admission is 7 euros, or $8.64, at $1.23 to the euro.

Source: The NY Times
By: Claudia Barbieri