Champagne in New York, Global Art and a tribute to the late Irwin Hersey

Dear African Arts Lovers,

After Caskey & Lees announced the cancellation of the New York Tribal and Textile Arts Show Will Not Take Place in 2010, many dealers where quite disappointed if not angry to say so...

Luckily a young dynamic dealer from New York - Dave Cassera -decided to take action, not only did he set up the Madison Promenade

http://africanartclub.com/african-art/madison-promenade-tribal-art-fair-and-auctions/

the official site is :

www.madisonpromenade.com/

Fact is Mr. Cassera also created a new monthly magazine newsletter,called "The Art Tribal Newsletter" that subscribers receive by direct mail . It is already 5 numbers old.

You can read details at www.arttribalnews.com .

The denomination "tribal" got many reactions in H-Afr but it seems difficult to find a replacement term, unless you speak about African or Oceanic art, but then you forget Vietnamese or Adivasi Indian Art forms that are not so refined and other cultures..., but below you can read about a new museum who might have found a replacing term for "tribal art"

A sad news: Irwin Hersey, the grandfather of African Art in New York, passed away .

A sample article of the last edition from www.arttribalnews.com is called "a Tribute to the late Irwin Hersey", who himself published the "Primitive Art Newsletter" from 1978 to 1983 is below this newsletter.

Don't expect www.arttribalnews.com to be as tick as the www.tribalartmagazine.us, but still I enjoyed reading the interviews of collectors and market and fair analysis in the first 5 numbers www.arttribalnews.com bulletin and some of the announced events .

For the members of my <strong>African Art Club I also spotted some more party's with free champagne and brunches in New York from the following dealers:

Art For Eternity Opening Night at Howard Nowes, Dave DeRoche, Sebastian Fernandez Leventhal Gallery, David Zemanek,.. Amyas-Peter-Michael Boyd-Jo De Buck-Kellim Brown-James Stephenson,..

and the "official participants":

Pace Primitive, Alaska on Madison, Giltsoff at Mallet, Nasser & Co, Tambaran Gallery, Huber Primitive at Keszler, Gail Martin, Joris Visser, Throckmorton, David Bernstein.

and auction houses:

Arte Primitivo, Bonhams, Sotheby's

details at: http://africanartclub.com/african-art/madison-promenade-tribal-art-fair-and-auctions/

http://africanartclub.com/african-art/amyas-peter-michael-boyd-jo-de-buck-kellim-brown-james-stephenson-in-new-york/

You should also draw your attention to this little online exhibition with miniatures coming from the Josef Herman's collection :

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/josef_herman.htm

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/josef_herman_miniatures.htm

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/yombe.htm

I would also like to thank and congratulate the MIM museum that just opened it's doors since I was a proud provider of several music instruments for them.

The Musical Instrument Museum is located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA.

4725 East Mayo Boulevard | Phoenix, AZ 85050 | 480-478-6000

Called The World's First Global Musical Instrument Museum

www.themim.org the website hosts a nice video and more.

Maybe we should change the "Tribal Art" denomination in "Global Art" ??

I wish also to thank all the members of the African Art Newsletter www.african-arts.info/submission.htm who sended me pictures of African Art Music instruments for selection.

If you enjoyed this edition, you are allowed to republish it on your blog, or to forward it to your friends,

David Norden

www.african-antiques.com

www.african-arts.info

www.artafricain.info

www.africanartclub.com

www.buyafricanantiques.com

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A Tribute to the late Irwin Hershey

 

By David Cassera

courtesy of www.arttribalnews.com

HERSEY--Irwin (September 20, 1920 - April 2, 2010.) Irwin Hersey, editor and nationally known authority on tribal art, died peacefully in his west side apartment in Manhattan on April 2, 2010.

Hersey was 89 years old and is survived by his wife Marcia. Born Irwin Herskowitz, but known as Irwin Hersey, he was often referred to as “the grandfather of African Art in New York.” Mr. Hersey was a graduate of City College and received his masters degree from Columbia University.

In World War II, he was commissioned and trained as a Japanese linguist and served in Tokyo on General MacArthur’s staff. He was recalled to active duty in Korea and left the army as a captain. After his calls to duty, he worked as a business editor for Fairchild and Hearst Publications. In 1957 he became editor of the Journal of the Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics and director of publications of the American Rocket Society. Later he became a consultant to cities wanting to expand business meetings and conventions, worldwide.

His knowledge and expertise of African tribal art led to his work as an appraiser. He was among the first to try to provide professional standards to the field. Hersey was the author of one of the first books on Indonesian art and throughout his career gave many lectures concerning tribal art. Objects from Hersey’s collection are represented in major U.S. museums such as the National Gallery in Washington DC, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and the Museum of Art in St. Petersburg, FL

In 1987 Sotheby’s held an auction of the Hersey collection which was among the first ever African Art auctions in the United States.

Although reserves were relatively low, Irwin and his wife Marcia still managed to do fairly well. According to his wife Marcia, “Hersey did not like to part with any of his objects. The truth is Macy’s would not lay carpet in our apartment unless we removed the art objects from the walls. So we decided to auction off the collection.”

From 1978 to 1983 he founded and edited the Primitive Art Newsletter which was the inspiration for the creation of Art Tribal Newsletter. When I decided to undertake the project of creating a newsletter, I turned to Hersey for guidance. He simply felt it would be too much work for me and not worth the effort. I explained that today I use the latest technology for print/layout and I would include advertisers. It is important to note that these are two things Hersey did not have. When I think about the amount of work Hersey and Marcia must have endured to create each newsletter without a computer, it is so mind boggling I can not even imagine! Irwin Hersey inspired many, including me, and will be missed.

David Cassera

www.arttribalnews.com

www.madisonpromenade.com/