Insecta - Le royaume des insectes

Enter the strange universe of insects through Insecta - Le royaume des insectes, a temporary exhibition conceived and realized by the Royal Museums for Art and History and currently on view at the Royal Palace of Brussels. Insecta invites visitors to discover the many representations of insects in the world of art, literature and cinema, and to admire the treasures of Belgium's federal collections, revealing hundreds of works of art dating from prehistoric to modern times and hailing from Egypt to Belgium, Africa and Asia.  Open through September 6, 2015.

For more information, visit the exhibition's website.

Art Gèlèdè, miroir d'une société

The Musée Africain of Lyon is currently showing an exhibition showcasing the art of the Gelede tradition. Devoted to the honor of women, Gelede are the most important spectacles in the Yoruba-Nagos culture, mainly located in eastern Benin, southwestern Nigeria and eastern Togo. The Gelede tradition was born in Benin in the late eighteenth century, and is still very much alive today among the Yoruba, Nago and Fon cultures. The exhibition features thirty masks and objects from the Jean-Yves Augel collection.

For more information, visit the official website.

Image courtesy of the Musée Africain de Lyon

Giant Masks from the Congo at the Belvue Museum

On view until September 2 at the BELvue Museum in Brussels is Giant Masks from the Congo – A Belgian Jesuit ethnographic heritage, a collaborative exhibition courtesy of the Royal Museum of Central Africa, the Belgian Society of Jesus, BELvue Museum, and the King Baudouin Foundation. The installation will display a series of “giant” Yaka and Suku masks used during initiation rituals. Objects from the Heverlee missionary collections are complemented by masks and statues from the collections of Tervuren. 

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

Images courtesy of the BELvue Museum

Tribal Art Sale at Artcurial

Artcurial will present a sale of fine tribal art and artifacts on June 22 in Paris. Featuring just 67 lots, the auction will focus on African masks and statuary with a limited inclusion of Oceanic objects.

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Mask  -  Punu, Gabon

Mask  -  Baule, Côte d'Ivoire

Mask  -  Kuba, D.R. Congo

Images courtesy of Artcurial

Tribal Art Sale at Dorotheum

Dorotheum will present a sale of tribal art and artifacts on May 26. The works on offer will represent a wide variety of cultures across the African continent, as well as a small assemblage of items from the South Pacific and the Americas.

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Mask  -  Vuvi, Gabon

Power figure  -  Songye, D.R. Congo

Ancestor skull  -  Asmat, Papua New Guinea

Images courtesy of Dorotheum

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.

Tribal Art Sale - Lombrail-Teucquam

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

For more information, visit the Lombrail-Teucquam website.

Charity Auction at Zemanek-Münster

Auctioneers Zemanek-Münster will hold an African art sale for charity on January 31 in Würzburg. The lots will highlight an assemblage of approximately 300 masks and figures from the estate of Drs. Vera & Wolfgang Nerlich of Munich.

View the online catalogue.

Image courtesy of Zemanek-Münster

Tribal Art Fair Amsterdam 2014

Tribal Art Fair Amsterdam 2014 will take place October 23–26 in its traditional home at De Duif on the Prinsengracht. It will host some twenty dealers specializing in non-European arts, hailing from both the Netherlands and from neighboring countries. Many masks, figures, ornaments, textiles, and other objects will be the focus of attention.

For more information, visit the official TAF website.

Hidden Power in African Art

Hidden Power in African Art, an exhibition devoted to African masks and sculpture on view at the Israel Museum until September 17, looks at the symbolic importance of these varied objects and particularly the roles of charges and other magical addenda. Long considered secondary accessories in the West, in reality these had more importance than the actual sculptures themselves, which were seen by the people who used them merely as vehicles for magical substances. The works selected for the exhibition, which come both from private collections and the museum's own holdings, are places into their spiritual context rather than simply relying on the secondary nature of their aesthetic qualities.

View the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Bois sacré

On March 4, the Musée du Quai Branly will open Bois sacré - Initiation dans les forêts guinéennes (Sacred Wood. Initiation in the Guinean Forests). On the African continent, the initiation ceremony marks a mandatory rite of passage for each individual. Bois sacré examines in the secret societies that govern and carry out such ceremonies as they exist in the Guinean forests, in Liberia, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. The installation will be open through May 18, 2014.

Images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Tribal art auction at Zemanek-Münster

On May 25, auctioneers Zemanek-Münster will present another sale of fine tribal art and artifacts in Würzburg. This spring's auction will highlight the private collection of Walter Hekster, full of notable objects from Africa, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere.

For more information, visit the online catalogue.

Dance mask, hudoq  -  Dayak, Borneo

Mask  -  Fang, Gabon

Pibibuze mask  -  Kwele, Gabon

Kifwebe mask  -  Luba, DR Congo

Canoe shield, kaminimbit  -  Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Images courtesy of Zemanek-Münster