Indigenous Beauty

Drawn from the celebrated Native American art collection of Charles and Valerie Diker, Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection at the Seattle Art Museum features 122 masterworks representing tribes and First Nations across the North American continent. These captivating objects convey the extraordinary breadth and variety of Native American experience in North America. The exhibition shows the deep historical roots of Native art and its dynamism, as well as the living cultures and traditions of Native American groups through to the contemporary era. Indigenous Beauty emphasizes three interrelated themes—diversity, beauty, and knowledge—that relate both to the works’ original contexts and to the ways in which they might be experienced by non-Native visitors in a contemporary museum setting.

For more information, visit the exhibition's official website.

Man's summer coat  -  Naskapi, Labrador  -  1840

Snow goggles  -  Ipiutak, Alaska  -  5th–10th century

Mask  -  Yup'ik, Alaska  -  1916–1918

Katsina  -  Hopi, Arizona  -  1910–1930

Images courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum

Hommage aux missionnaires ethnographes, récolteurs d'objets de la collection Afrique

On Tuesday, March 31st, from 6–7 PM, a talk will held at the Musée d'ethnographie of Geneva entitled "Hommage aux missionnaires ethnographes, récolteurs d'objets de la collection Afrique (Tribute to missionaries ethnographers, collectors of objects in the African collection)." Speaker will be Floriane Morin, curator of the Africa Department of the MEG. The objects in the collection are witnesses of local magico- religious practices , tools of everyday life and artifacts produced in the workshops of mission stations.


Visit the MEG website for information on more events.

Album d’aquarelles du pasteur Fernand Grébert. 1913-1932. 

Image courtesy of the MEG

The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky

Recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky unites Plains Indian masterworks found in European and North American collections, from pre-contact to contemporary, ranging from a two-thousand-year-old human-effigy stone pipe to contemporary paintings, photographs, and a video-installation piece. Works of art collected centuries ago by French traders and travelers will be seen together with those acquired by Lewis and Clark on their famous expedition of 1804–06, along with objects from the early reservation period and recent works created in dialogue with traditional forms and ideas. The distinct Plains aesthetic—singular, ephemeral, and materially rich—will be revealed through an array of forms and media.

For more information, visit the exhibition's official website.

Robe with Mythic Bird, ca. 1700–40. Mid-Mississippi River Basin, probably Illinois Confederacy. Eastern Plains.

Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tribal Art Sale at Auctionata

Berlin-based Auctionata will hold a sale of art from Africa and Oceania on March 31 from its “auction studio” in New York. This auction house’s mission is to utilize an interactive online presence, so while its sales function as traditional auctions, bidding is done absentee, by phone, or online. This sale features a variety of offerings, the highlight of which is a pre-WWII Senufo figure. 

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Maternity figure  -  Senufo, Côte d'Ivoire

Gbon mask  -  Senufo, Côte d'Ivoire

War club, totokia  -  Fiji

Images courtesy of Auctionata

Embodiments: Masterworks of African Figurative Sculpture

Featuring more than 120 figurative sculptures from sub-Saharan Africa, this exhibition includes both iconic and unusual objects, encompassing a diverse range of styles and spanning centuries, geographies, and cultures. All of the works exemplify the enduring interest in the human form as an artistic subject.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Byeri figure  -  Fang, Gabon

Efomba figure  -  Nkundu, D.R. Congo 

Images courtesy of the de Young Museum

PAD Paris 2015

There will be three representatives of tribal art at the nineteenth annual Paris Art + Design (PAD) show, which will be held March 26–29 at the Tuileries. Yann Ferrandin will be showing at the event for the first time, offering a selection of works representative of the level of quality and aesthetic merit he strives for all year round in his new gallery at 33 Rue de Seine. Two other participants who have long been present there, Galerie Afrique from St. Maur and Galerie Flak from Paris, will also be showing. 

For more information, visit the official PAD website.

Tribal Art Auction at De Zwaan

De Zwaan will present an auction of fine tribal art and artifacts on March 30 in Amsterdam. The range of lots will include figurative works from Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, Central Africa, and elsewhere.

For more information, visit De Zwaan.

Ancestor figure  -  Hemba, D.R. Congo

Korwar figure  -  Irian Jaya

Ancestor figure  -  Asmat, Papua New Guinea

Images courtesy of De Zwaan

Preview at Christie's Paris

Through March 18, Christie's Paris is presenting a preview of highlights from its upcoming summer African and Oceanic art sale, which will be held on June 23. Among the selections are objects from the collection of Jacques Kerchache, including the Jukun figure pictured below.

Figure  -  Jukun, Nigeria

Image courtesy of Christie's

Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa

Through a stunning selection of objects in diverse styles and mediums, Senufo: Art and Identity in West Africa introduces visitors to the Poro and Sandogo societies, the primary settings for the production and use of works of art in the Senufo-speaking region of northern Côte d’Ivoire. Drawing on recent research in Mali and Burkina Faso, the exhibition also includes sculptures not usually attributed to Senufo-speaking artists or patrons, thus shattering the boundaries of the corpus typically identified as Senufo. Featuring nearly 160 loans from museums and private collections in Europe, Canada, and the United States, the exhibition now on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art examines the shifting meanings of the term 'Senufo' since the late nineteenth century and investigates assumptions underlying the labeling of art as Senufo. 

View the exhibition's official website.

TEFAF 2015

This year's edition of TEFAF will host seven galleries specializing in tribal art. The newest addition is Galerie Bacquart from Paris, which has been selected for the TEFAF Showcase. Jean-Baptiste Bacquart will offer a number of important African sculptures with prestigious provenances. Lucas Ratton will return this year as a full exhibitor with a strong selection of works, the cornerstone of which will be a Byeri Fang figure. Didier Claes will exhibit a group of African masks from the collection of Dr. Alex Rafaeli. Anthony J. P. Meyer will show works primarily from Melanesia and Polynesia, including a fine Tongan apa’apai club. Other long-time participants that visitors will have the pleasure of seeing again will include the Bernard de Grunne Gallery from Brussels with African art, the Entwistle Gallery from London and Paris with African and Oceanic material, and Galerie 1492 from Paris, which will present Pre-Columbian art.

For more information on the event, visit the official TEFAF website.