Friday, July 26, 2013

Arts de l'antiquité, uen collection centenaire

Arts de l'antiquité, uen collection centenaire (Arts of Antiquity, a Centenary Collection), on view until October 6 at the Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva, reflects the passion of three generations of collectors of ancient art. Begun by Josef Mueller in the early twentieth century, the collection of antiquities at the Barbier-Mueller Museum was enriched by the acquisitions of his son-in-law Jean Paul Barbier-Mueller and of his grandsons. The pieces on display, chosen for their aesthetic quality, are ambassadors of civilization as varied as the Cyclades, Predynastic and Pharaonic Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They are landmarks in this representative tour of the artistic production of the ancient world. The panorama offered to visitors illustrates the major tendencies, the extraordinary diversity, and the vitality of the art of antiquity, from the sixth millennium BC to the third century AD.




Female figure  -  Cyclades  -  circa 2900 BC

Female figure ("Bactrian Princess")   -  Oxus civilization  -  End of 3rd millennium BC

Vase with scorpion-men  -  Southeast Iran  -  2600–2200 BC

Information and images courtesy of the Musée Barbier-Mueller de Genève


Thursday, July 25, 2013

Majestic African Textiles at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

A new exhibition titled Majestic African Textiles, at the Indianapolis Museum of Art through March 2, 2014, presents a spectacular array of royal and prestige cloths, masking and ritual garments, and superbly beaded and embellished objects from across the African continent. Featuring more than sixty pieces drawn from the museum’s extensive permanent collection and augmented with a few major loans, the show highlights a significant and diverse group of richly patterned and elaborately decorated textiles, most of which served as potent symbols of power and wealth.



Royal tunic  -  Yoruba, Nigeria  -  20th century


Man's trousers  -  Hausa, Nigeria  - 20th century

Hat  -  Yoruba, Nigeria  -  20th century

Images courtesy of the Indianapolis Museum of Art

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Een Huis vol Indonesia – De Liefkes Collectie

Ending its run tomorrow at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkerkunde is Een Huis vol Indonesia – De Liefkes Collectie (A House Full of Indonesia – The Liefkes Collection), an exhibition honoring keen-eyed collector emeritus Frits Liefkes, who was also a curator at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and who left nearly 1,000 objects from all over the Indonesian Archipelago to the Leiden Museum in 2010. The objects, ornaments, and weapons of gold, as well as the textiles, furniture, and ritual objects presented, are grouped together in three categories: body ornaments, spatial decoration, and the sacred and ritual sphere. All of the objects testify to the great aesthetic refinement of the cultures in this part of the world, ranging from Aceh in the west to Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea) in the east.

View the exhibition's official website.





Image courtesy of the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden

Thursday, July 18, 2013

J’arrive, J’aime, Je m’en Vais – Pierre Loti l’Ambigu Exotique

Through September 29, 2013, the new Atelier Martine Aublet at the Musée du Quai Branly will host a show devoted to the unique and fascinating Pierre Loti (born Julien Viaud). J’arrive, J’aime, Je m’en Vais – Pierre Loti l’Ambigu Exotique (I Arrive, I Love, I Leave – Pierre Loti, the Ambiguous Exotic) is an homage to this late nineteenth-century literary ambassador of exoticism. He was a cosmopolitan dandy who cultivated extravagance and was fascinated by the foreign cultures he encountered in the course of his travels as a naval officer. Conceived by Claude Stéfani, curator at the Municipal Museums of Rochefort, the exhibition includes archival documents, photographs, clothing, and all manner of personal effects. 

View the exhibition's official website.






Image courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly


Friday, July 12, 2013

Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa

A new exhibition on Congolese tribal art opened this week at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Shaping Power: Luba Masterworks from the Royal Museum for Central Africa brings together twenty-six transfixing pieces of Luba art on loan from RMCA in Belgium, including masks, figural works, and a range of ritual and court art. 




Memory board, lukasa

Mask  -  19th century

Caryatid stool  -  19th century

Figurative pipe  -  19th century

Bowl-bearer  -  19th century

Images courtesy of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art


Thursday, July 11, 2013

New Acquisitions at Jacaranda Tribal

Jacaranda Tribal is now offering twelve new beautiful works from Africa and Oceania.  This latest range of material contains several fine figures and containers from D.R. Congo, two ritual works from New Guinea, a lovely Fijian war club, and more. For further details on these outstanding works and many more, visit us at www.jacarandatribal.com


Gope board  -  Papuan Gulf  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Korwar charm  -  Irian Jaya  -  19th century

Headrest with crocodile skin wrapping  -  Bedja, Sudan  -  19th century

Figure  -  Bena Lulua, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Female figure  -  Akye, Côte d'Ivoire  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Janiform figure  -  Kusu, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Gunpowder box  -  Kongo, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Tukula box  -  Kongo, D.R. Congo  -  19th century

Female figure  -  Kusu, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Lidded baskets  -  Tutsi, Rwanda  -  Mid-20th century

War club, totokia  -  Fiji  -  18th or early 19th century

Beaded neckpiece  -  Zulu, South Africa  -  Early 20th century

Photography ©James Worrell 2013




Friday, July 5, 2013

Identités – Trésors Ethnographiques du Musée d’Histoire Naturelle

The Musée d’Histoire Naturelle in Lille continues to pursue its dynamic temporary exhibition projects policy with the presentation of Identités – Trésors Ethnographiques du Musée d’Histoire Naturelle (Identities – Ethnographic Treasures in the Museum of Natural History), which will be on view from June 28, 2013–January 5, 2014. Eighty-four major works from the museum’s collection, rarely seen by the public, will be featured in an exhibition that explores cultural diversity. This is an ambitious project and one that will strive to explore the foundations of the concepts of culture and plurality, and the question of the birth of ethnography as a discipline will be a focus.




Feathered headdress  -  Lakota

Drum  -  Marquesas Islands

Images courtesy of the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, Lille


Thursday, July 4, 2013

Charles Ratton, l'invention des arts "primitifs"

On view this summer at the Musée du Quai Branly is Charles Ratton, l'invention des arts "primitifs", an exhibition that offers an opportunity to highlight the view of Charles Ratton, an expert, dealer and collector who changed the history of the way “primitive” art was perceived by promoting objects which moved away from the taste for “Negro” art that had prevailed in early twentieth-century Europe. His close involvement in the museum world and his scientific curiosity, shown in the richness of his archives, helped his expertise to flourish. His activities as an expert, and the exhibitions he organized, contributed to the shift in status of works from Africa, America and Oceania: from anthropological study objects to works of art in the 1930s, then masterpieces in the 1960s, in France but also in the United States.



Mask - Côte d'Ivoire

Canoe prow ornament  -  Solomon Islands


Zoomorphic slit drum  -  Congo

Figure dedicated to Gou  -  Benin, Nigeria

Images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly