L'Inca et le Conquistador

L’Inca et le conquistador (The Inca and the Conquistador), a new exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly, uses artistic creations by the Inca and by the Spanish to tell both sides of the story of the conquest of Peru and to illustrate the confrontations that resulted from contact between two radically different worlds. Conceived by curator Paz Núnez-Regueiro, the exhibition focuses on two protagonists, the Inca sovereign Atahualpa and the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro, whose interactions provoked a profound political, economic, cultural, and religious revolution in both of their empires. The paintings, weapons, textiles, gold objects, ceramics, maps, and engravings, mostly from the museum’s own collection, together tell this epic story and shed light on this mutual encounter with the “other.”

View the exhibition's official website.

Gold figurine  -  Inca, Peru  -  15th–16th century 

Portrait of Huayna Capac, Inca XII

Portrait of Atahualpa, Inca XIV

Male figure  -  Inca, Peru  -  15th–16th century

Fowler in Focus: The Art of Hair in Africa

The Fowler Museum at the University of California Los Angeles has opened a new exhibition presenting an array of finely sculpted combs and hairpins from Africa and its diasporas, along with the film Me Broni Ba/My White Baby by Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu. It explores the notions of ideal beauty and social status associated with hair among many African cultures. The juxtaposition of traditional hairpins and combs made from rare materials with an avant-garde contemporary film raises questions about constructions of identity in Africa from the colonial period to today.

View the official exhibition website.

Comb  -  Probably Djuka, Surinam  -  20th century

Comb  -  Asante, Ghana  -  ca 1900

Comb  -  Chokwe, D.R. Congo

Images courtesy of the Fowler Museum, UCLA

Arts du Nigeria révisites

Without aspiring to exhaustively detail the cultural production of Nigeria across its 2000-year history, the collection at the Musée Barbier-Mueller is very rich in several respects. Faithful to chronological continuity, it provides a sample of the production of the major cultural centers of Nigeria, shedding light on archaeological pieces from Nok, Katsina, and Sokoto, works from Ife and the kingdom of Benin, and Yoruba, Ijo, and Igbo objects, as well as items from the Cross River and the Benue Valley. By virtue of their rarity, certain pieces in the collection constitute “monuments” of African art. Others, by their emblematic force, are among its great “classics.” Arts du Nigeria révisites, on view through January 17, 2016, sets out to present these remarkable objects, highlighting their aesthetic qualities while explaining, by means of the exhibition's accompanying catalogue, the ethnographic context of their production and use.

To find out more, visit the official exhibition website.

Worship fan  -  Yoruba

Head depicting a woman  -  Ife

Helmet mask  -  Igbo

Head crest  -  Afo

Images courtesy of the Musée Barbier-Mueller

Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing

Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing, on view at the British Museum until August 16, 2015, features seventy-seven examples of clothing, headgear, masks, and ornaments from New Guinea to Easter Island, by way of Hawaii and New Zealand. The show’s curators place emphasis on the objects’ traditional social and cultural contexts but also examine how more recent developments associated with colonization have altered their forms and uses.

Visit the official exhibition website.

Hula dancers from the Hālau Nā Kipuʻupuʻu group, Kaʻauea, Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian Islands, 2011, Dino Morrow

Cloth  -  Hawaiian Islands

New Acquisitions at Jacaranda

Jacaranda is now offering a stunning new selection of tribal works at www.jacarandatribal.com.  Congolese and southern African wood carvings form the bulk of the objects on display, including a beautiful Sundi or Teke bust, a fine Mpondo staff finial, and headrests from the Shona and Luba. These are joined by a handsome pair of South Pacific weapons, a remarkable Ethiopian cross, and more.

For full details on these fine objects and many others, please visit

www.jacarandatribal.com

Cross  -  Ethiopia  -  ca 1700–1750

Headrest  -  Luba, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Beaded snuff gourd  -  Southeast Africa  -  Late 19th/early 20th century

Hand club, patu onewa  -  Maori, New Zealand  -  18th or early 19th century

Cup  -  Kuba, D.R. Congo  -  19th century

Lance, katoua  -   Niue  -  19th century

Pipe  -  Kuba or Binji, D.R. Congo  -  Early 20th century

Bust  -  Sundi or Teke, D.R. Congo  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Staff finial  -  Mpondo, South Africa  -  1870–1890

Headrest  -  Shona, Zimbabwe  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Horn necklace  -  Zulu, South Africa  -  19th century

Bag handle  -  Eskimo, North America  -  Late 19th century

Images ©James Worrell 2015

www.jacarandatribal.com

Le Monde Covers Parcours des Mondes 2015

This year's upcoming edition of Parcours des Mondes was the subject of a June article in Le Monde. Examining the growth and popularity of the event and the tribal art market at large, the piece featured Jacaranda amid a group of distinguished international tribal art dealers and led with a highlight of a gorgeous Tsonga headrest in our collection. 

"Quant aux prix glanés dans les différentes galeries, ils varient selon la rareté, la traçabilité, l’état de l’objet. Ainsi, Roger Bourahimou vend ses pièces « rares et atypiques d’Afrique centrale » entre 1 500 et 200 000 euros. Chez Dori et Daniel Rootenberg de la galerie Jacaranda, basée à New-York et spécialisée dans l'art d'Afrique du Sud, cet appui-tête tsonga est à 5 500 euros et ce rare knobkerrie (bâton) avec un conteneur de tabac à priser à 20 000 euros."

Read the article in French here.

Headrest  -  Tsonga, South Africa  -  Late 19th or early 20th century

Royals and Regalia: Inside the Palaces of Nigeria's Monarchs

Until August 9, the New Jersey's Newark Museum presents Royals & Regalia: Inside the Palaces of Nigeria’s Monarchs, a showcase of forty visually stunning portraits from a new series by acclaimed Nigerian photographer George Osodi. Exhibited for the first time in the US, these vibrant color photographs feature the regional rulers of modern-day monarchies throughout the country. They provide audiences with a rare and intimate look inside Nigeria’s palaces and throne rooms, capturing the personalities of the rulers, the splendor of their dress, and the details of their settings. The near life-size photographs will be shown to dramatic effect along with select examples of prestige dress and regalia from the internationally renowned collections of the Newark Museum.

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

Images and info courtesy of the Newark Museum

Shifting Values of Plaited Power

Weaving traditions used to make mats throughout the Pacific—makaloa from Hawai’i, i’e toga from Samoa, sese from Vanuatu, kabae (male dance mat) from Kiribati, jaki-ed from the Marshall Islands, as well as examples from the rainforests of Borneo, Philippines, and the Solomon Islands—are being highlighted in Shifting Values of Plaited Power, on view at the Honolulu Museum of Art through August 9, 2015. Drawn from the museum’s collection, the mats in the show highlight the region’s skilled weaving traditions. They are often ornamented with patterned, abstract designs or adorned with added fringe, feathers, or bits of yarn, each distinctive ethnic and regional identifiers. Respected and coveted as heirloom items, the common denominator between these weavings from far-flung islands is hand plaiting, done without a loom and originally made only of natural fibers such as pandanus (pandanus tectorius), rattan (calameae), and other sedge grasses.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Mat  -  Borneo  -  Mid-20th century

Jaki-ed or nieded (woman's skirt)  -  Marshall Islands  -  19th-20th century

Images courtesy of the Honolulu Museum of Art