Collecting African Art Into the Realm of the Supernatural
By: Jonathan Fogel May 2008 found at artandantiques.net
African art has been part of the landscape of Western
aesthetics for at least a century.
Characterized by stylized figurative sculpture and masks,
these works, which tend to be grouped together under the blanket appellation of
"tribal art," were created in any of several hundred cultures in
sub-Saharan Africa and most often served as objects of religious expression
within the contexts of shamanism, animism, ancestor veneration and sympathetic
magic.
In their original cultures, they bridged the gap between the
perceptible material world and that of the spirits and ancestors. They
influenced the course of events and the well-being of living things, and they
supported the divine right of kings. In a sense, they are not entirely unlike
European statues and relics of Christian saints.
From left: seated couple, Dogon people, Mali; staff (detail),
Fang people, Gabon; fetish figure, Teke people, Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
As these artworks began to be brought into Europe in increasing numbers in the
19th century by missionaries, explorers and colonialists, they took on very
different roles. In their new contexts they became ethnographic artifacts that
lent support to the concept of empire, and heathen idols that substantiated the
spread of the Gospels. In the early 20th century, they entered yet another
sphere that would certainly have mystified their makers. The pieces began to be
seen as art.
This should not be taken to imply that there is no concept of art among
traditional African sculptors. The truth is quite the opposite. Although the
names of the vast majority of these artists have been lost in the transition of
the works from Africa to the West, in their original contexts they were no more
anonymous than any European artist. If it is incorrect to say that these
sculptors created art, it is only because the actuality of their process is much
deeper. A Yoruba master carver once observed to me of a sculpture that was made
for ritual use, "It works because it looks like it is supposed to
look." By this he meant that the object in question conformed to the
canons, both religious and aesthetic, that allow the object to work in an
appropriate manner. The function of the object is defined by the forces and
deities it is meant to house; the division between the village, which is the
realm of man and order, and the bush, which is the realm of spirits and chaos;
the separation of the mundane and the spiritual; and the contrast between the
safety of what is seen by day and the peril of what is not seen by night. The
tension between these oppositions are just some of the forces that define the
aesthetics of the best African sculpture, taking it far beyond the
representational into the realm of the supernatural, where the confines of
naturalism have little relevance. In creating such a figure or mask, the artist
was creating a place for a powerful, otherworldly force that defines life or
death for his people. His work is effectively an object of utility, but one made
to the most exacting standards of belief, vision and aesthetics. If it doesn’t
look like it is supposed to look, there will be a problem far more serious than
lack of approbation in a Parisian salon.
While art historians and critics are reluctant to state that Modernist,
Expressionist and Surrealist artists directly copied the African and Oceanic
objects that they encountered in museums and private collections, few will deny
that they were heavily influenced by them. Picasso, to name just one, had a
substantial collection of African art. He famously quipped, "L’art nègre?
Connais pas!" ("African art? Never heard of it!") but the impact
of these works is clear in specific paintings, if not in the major portion of
his approach. André Breton was also interested in African art, though more in
Oceanic and American Indian material. His collection, which had been kept intact
at his apartment at 42 rue Fontaine since his death in 1966, was finally sold at
auction in Paris in 2003, with record-breaking results.
The period of the 1930s to the 1970s saw the formation of many major collections
of African art in Europe (particularly France) and the United States. More often
than not, these collections also contained early 20th-century painting and
sculpture, and the African works were seen as adjuncts, much in the same way
that artists in Europe perceived them. Amidst the wealth of modernist
masterpieces in Peggy Guggenheim’s Venetian palazzo were some substantial
works of African sculpture, although the examples that remain on display there
are not exactly the cream of the crop. Other people formed fully dedicated
collections, sometimes to the point of obsession. New York real estate developer
William Brill was one such collector. Upon his death in 2003, the walls of his
home were stacked several rows deep with African sculptures, the sale of a small
but select portion of which also set new records.The market for African art
today is an odd creature. If African art is the parent (or perhaps step-parent)
of Modernism, it is the grandparent of contemporary art. This generational
remove has meant that the explosion of the contemporary art market has not yet
fully translated into the African art market, which is relatively small and has
limited inventory, because each piece is unique. Most dealers lament that the
heyday is over, that most of the major collectors are too old to continue, and
that too few new (read: young) collectors are on the horizon. African art may be
an aesthetic and conceptual match with Man Ray, but how does it bridge the
generation gap with Jeff Koons? Paradoxically, this is its strength in today’s
market. Koons’ giant Hummelesque "Ushering in Banality" sold at
Sotheby’s New York in November 2006 for $4,048,000. The same month, the Brill
Collection sale totaled $4,186,720, though that was for 170 lots. For a market
with supposedly few collectors, this was a very strong figure. The then-new
director of the African and Oceanic department, Heinrich Schweizer, wryly
observed that the figure had taken the African art sale from being effectively
an afternoon afterthought to the equivalent of one lot in the touted
Contemporary Art Evening Auction. It certainly represents progress, and this is
where value lies. As major contemporary works climb toward the eight figures,
savvy collectors are taking a look around the edges, and some are finding a key
component of the genesis of 20th-century art.
The African art market has been creaking along largely unnoticed by the larger
art world for many years, but now some of the money involved in contemporary
sales is finding new inspiration and apparent bargains here. This movement
isn’t defining the marketplace yet, but it’s definitely affecting sales. At
the last auction at Sotheby’s New York in May 2007, one of the top lots (which
sold in seven figures) was won by a collector from the house’s contemporary
art clientele, and a second seven-figure sale had contemporary collectors as
underbidders. Almost every sale is setting new records. Where a good auction a
few years ago brought $2 million to $3 million, the most recent one at
Sotheby’s in Paris was pushing $10 million, and was considered something of a
disappointment, largely due to the collapse of the dollar against the euro.
What this all boils down to is that now is an excellent time to look at African
art carefully and an excellent time to acquire it, before the market kicks it up
too high. But before doing so, the specifics of the market need to be
understood. Compared to the contemporary art market, where dealers rigorously
document and tightly control the material, African art can be a veritable Wild
West. The best material is antique and spectacular. It tends to be called
"19th-century," but given the limitations of both provenance and
carbon-14 testing, it can be, and probably is, much older. A non-archaeological
mask from New Guinea (not in Africa but a reasonable parallel) recently tested
to the 8th century, confirming that this was an important object that the
original owners took good care of. Twentieth-century material that retains its
original intent is also highly valued, but a lot of the material on the market
is more recent and has been affected aesthetically by the decline of traditional
cultures in the face of Christianity, Islam or modernization. While there is
nothing inherently wrong with these pieces, their market value tends to be less,
and for those who know what to look at, such pieces reveal themselves. An
unfortunate number of the pieces that one might encounter are outright fakes,
mostly created in Africa (although Indonesia is doing a very credible job these
days) but not within a traditional ritual context, and are made specifically to
deceive Western consumers. Another element in this equation is what is called
"airport art," contemporary reproductions or interpretations of
traditional forms, usually artificially aged to make them look more like their
prototypes. These are effectively the equivalents of the posters of Picasso’s
"Don Quixote" that adorn the walls of so many college dorm rooms. All
of this, or at least the authentic material, ranges in price from what could be
called "blue-chip" (meaning expensive material from Gabon, parts of
the Congo, Mali and Côte d’Ivoire) on one end, and "new discovery,"
which today encompasses much of East Africa as well as many subregions, on the
other.
While all of this may sound daunting, the solution is elementary. Take some time
in museums and galleries to develop an eye for what quality pieces are. Then buy
what you like, but make sure it’s from a reputable dealer who will refund your
money if he made a mistake and the piece someday turns out to be other than what
it purports to be. Don’t be put off by the difficulties. With a little common
sense and a bit of research, this market can easily be traversed. The reward is
well worth it. I have a sculpture sitting on my desk that I bought for next to
nothing two decades ago. It was made before the introduction of metal tools to
the region it came from, and the piece speaks of transformation, terror,
darkness and survival in a way that would make a surrealist weep. I haven’t
bothered to have it appraised in the contemporary marketplace because I don’t
care what it’s worth. I’ll never part with it.
Jonathan Fogel is the Editor in Chief of Tribal Art Magazine, a
journal on the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas (tribalartmagazine.com).AUCTIONS
& FAIRS
Sotheby’s
Paris, 011.33.1.53.05.53.05
New York, 212.606.7000
sothebys.com
Christie’s, Paris
011.33.1.40.76.85.85 christies.com
Bonhams, New York
212.644.9001 bonhams.com
Skinner,
Boston
617.350.5400 skinnerinc.com
Lempertz,
Brussels
011.32.2.514.05.86 lempertz.com
Parcours des Mondes, Paris
Sept. 10–14 parcours-des-mondes.com
International
Tribal and Textile
Arts Show, New York
May 15–18 caskeylees.com
Tribal and
Textile Arts Show, San Francisco
Feb. 13–15, 2009 caskeylees.com
BRUNEAF, Brussels
June 4–8 bruneaf.com
RESOURCES
Alain de Monbrison, Paris
011.33.1.46.34.05.20 monbrison.com
Arte y Ritual, Madrid
011.34.915.227.552 arteyritual.com
Bernard de Grunne Fine Tribal Arts,
Brussels
011.32.2.502.31.71 grunne@skynet.be
Bruce Frank Primitive Art, New York
212.579.3596 brucefrankprimitiveart.com
Congo Gallery (Marc Leo Felix), Brussels
011.32.2.511.47.67 felix@congoarts.com
Conru African & Oceanic Art, Brussels
011.32.2.478.566.459 kevinconru@yahoo.com
Douglas Dawson Gallery, Chicago
312.226.7975 douglasdawson.com
Entwistle
London, 011.44.20.7499.6969 entwistlegallery.com
Paris, 011.33.1.53.10.02.02 entwistle.fr
Galerie Alain Bovis, Paris
011.33.1.56.24.09.25 galeriealainbovis@wanadoo.fr
Galerie Bernard Dulon, Paris
011.33.1.43.25.25.00 expertiseartafrican.com
Jacques Germain, Montreal
514.278.6575 jacquesgermain.com
Johann Levy, Paris
011.33.1.43.25.24.64
Joshua Dimondstein Tribal Arts
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Brussels
africantribalart.com
Molloy-Nasser, New York
212.288.0043
Pace Primitive, New York
212.421.3688 paceprimitive.com
Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels
011.32.2.513.01.75 dartevelle.p@skynet.be
Tambaran Gallery, New York
212.570.0655 tambaran@verizon.net
Yann Ferrandin, Paris
011.33.6.85.43.75.84 yann.ferrandin@orange.fr
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