May 09 African Art Newsletter. African Art Market still in Vogue
|
3 - 7 Juni 2009 32 rue Sainte Anne You are welcome to visit our mask exhibition 3 - 7 June 2009 |
Dear $email,
Hi, it's David again. Even if some dealers feel the impacts of the financial crisis, the African art nevertheless market seems to rise from it's lethargy, if the New Yoprk Sotheby's sales is any indicator. There doesn't appear to be any weakness in the market for top-quality objects, depite the past recession which now seems to have ended.
This newsletter is mainly to prepare you for the Brussels events next month and we hope they will bring together many visitors and buyers, and- that everyone will be happy to meet again and network with African Art collectors and friends. I guess these will be exiting events and that dealers from all around the world will sell many of the latest items they have found, and that collectors will buy the finest items available and take these treasures home.
Sotheby’s
results New York sales of African, Oceanic and Pre- Columbian Art totalled
$10,582,129.
African and Oceanic Art from the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation exceeded pre-sale high estimates to bring $4,888,316, with a fine Ngbaka Statue Representing the Mythical Ancestor Sètò from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which doubled the high estimate to bring a world record price of $1,258,500 (lot 67, est. $400/600,000),
Six bidders competed for the sale’s star piece.
read more about Sotheby's results and discover the Top Ten ..
You should certainly come to Brussels in three weeks for the Brussels events. The main theme this year seems to be African masks, with several mask related shows and this is also the theme of my own private exhibition.
Like every year in June, I invite you to visit me as an independent dealer not member of any organization. This year I will be a guest at the rue Sainte Anne 32 between 6-7 June 2009 in a small street giving on the Sablon (on the corner you'll find the restaurant Le grain de Sable) , and I will show you my selection of fine African Masks.
Do not miss the persona 180 masks exhibition in Tervuren.
This is a quite interesting exhibition, combining actual
contemporary African artists working on the masks theme, mixed with the antique
ones and trying to include themes through identity or integration.
Most of these masks are from the Tervuren collection , but many others coming from Paris, Stockholm and Rome Museums.
To avoid being marked as "colonisers" and to promote getting rid of the colonial museum image, the masks are not shown by tribal classification, but by 15 themes, the idea being not to get them out of context but rather to integrate them. Admittedly I found this a bit "disturbing"; but the functions of the masks are emphisized instead of geographic provenance while old is mixed with new. This certainly creates bridges, and enhances the significance and function of masks rather than solely the aesthetic and religious aspects of specific tribes.
Masks to fear, to venerate gods, or part of a secret society, to initiate, to show the power of the king, or to do war, and masks to laugh ...
Persona ritual masks and contemporary art.
Speaking about must see exhibitions: outside Belgium, the Beyeler Exhibition Visual Encounters in Switzerland has been prolonged by a month, giving you untill 28 June 2009 to go and see all these masterpieces like African Masks , Figures of the Senufo, astonishing Nkisi (Nail Figures) from the Congo , Works from Polynesia , Tino aitu Figures from Nukuoro Atoll , Hunting Helpers and Ancestor Figures from the Upper Korewori River, Malagan Carvings from North New Ireland, Uli Figures from Central New Ireland, A Feather Image from Hawai'i, or Sculptures of the Mundugumor from the Yuat River combined with western art like a Pablo Picasso Figure
A
book you should really buy during the Brussels events is the new "Encyclopedia
of African Art and Culture" by Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler presented by Vasco
& Co +32 (0)473 642 611 vasco@vascobooks.com
. This book has over 1,500 illustrations -mostly in color - and circa 700 pages!
The normal price is €195, but on 3 June 2009 at 1 p.m you can buy it for only
€165 at Vasco in the rue des Minimes 48.
Another exhibition you should not miss in the same rue des Minimes 38 is the Teke Exhibition from Joaquin Pecci
Then, after that, you can come and visit The African Masks exhibition I am holding in the rue Sainte Anne 32 and visit also Alain Naoum at rue Sainte Anne nr.30 who will show fine African Art and also paintings from Woods Davy.
There are plenty of other events in Brussels, but I'll let you discover them.
Masks from the David Norden collection, an Antwerp dealer expert in African Art.
You can see his exhibition of ritual African masks from known collections and museums. They will be on show the first week of June near the Sablon in Brussels. Yaka Circumcision masks or a Bundu mask from the Brooklyn Museum will astonish you at 32 rue Sainte Anne.
Let's have a little chat $email, come say hello in Brussels,
Hope you enjoyed this edition.
David Norden
