DIALOGUES
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DIALOGUES Classical African Sculpture Juxtaposed with Modern and Contemporary Western Art
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IBIBIO
MIGUENS
TURKA
ANASTASI
DAN
ZURSTRASSEN
FANG
EVANS
BAULE
CINTOLI
OWO
BROWNE
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“La véritable œuvre d'art appartient au temps réel, à son époque, et à la nôtre.” “The true work of art belongs to real time, to its own epoch, and to ours.” — André Malraux (1901-1976), Le Problème fondamental du musée, 1954
Photo on opposite page: Portrait of André Malraux by Yousuf Karsh, 1954 Image courtesy Harrell Fine Art, New York
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WORKS
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VARIATIONS. IX 1976 Martica Miguens (New York, 1942-2018) Acrylic on linen canvas 60 x 76cm Signed “M. Miguens/ 1976/ “Variations. IX”” on verso PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, 1976 Private Collection, New York, thence by descent, 2018-2026 Harrell Fine Art, New York $3,200.00
Verso
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Anthropomorphic Female Maternity Ensemble Unidentified Turka or Gouin Artist, Burkina Faso Wood, natural pigment H: 42cm PROVENANCE Private Missionary Collection, United States, acquired circa 1970 Private Collection, United States, thence by descent Collection of Guy and Titus van Rijn, Brussels, acquired from the above Harrell Fine Art, New York, acquired from the above, 2024 LITERATURE Expo cat.: "FEMME", New York: Harrell Fine Art, 2024: np EXHIBITED New York, USA: "FEMME", Harrell Fine Art, 16 May - 30 June 2024 $12,000.00
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UNTITLED (Abstract Composition in Red, White, and Black) 1961 Claudio Cintoli (Italian, 1935-1978) Mixed media collage on paper 40 x 50cm Signed “Cintoli 10.3.61”on lower right PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, 3 October 1961 Private Collection, New York Harrell Fine Art, New York $3,000.00
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Anthropomorphic Male Standing Figure, BLOLO BIAN Unidentified Baule Artist, Côte d’Ivoire Wood, natural pigment, traces of organic material, beads H: 51cm PROVENANCE Collection of Vanna and Nesbit "Lee (1933-2024) Lacy Collection, Los Angeles, CA, acquired circa 1965 Private Collection, thence by descent, 2024 Harrell Fine Art, New York $8,500.00 In Baule thought, the world of lived experience is intimately and forever intertwined with the blolo, a parallel world in which all humans have spirit spouses who can cause them harm if neglected. To please the spirit and ensure his good favor, the figure must look beautiful, healthy, and prosperous—all qualities that the spirit may confer upon its earthly spouse. The high crested coiffure and scarification patterns on this figure identify him as an honorable and productive member of village life, while the virtues of hard work and good health are reflected in his pronounced calves and elongated neck. To Baule eyes, as in most African societies, such marks of physical beauty are more than skin deep; they also represent the inner, moral excellence of an individual. I was immediately struck by this work's presence, patina and scale. At 51cm, the present figure stands as a large example in the corpus of blolo bian or Spirit Spouse figures. Its ritual patina is highly developed from organic libations and time spent in ritual context.
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“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone.” — T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), Tradition and the Individual Talent, 1919
Image on opposite page: detail of TS Eliot by Wyndham Lewis, 1938 Photograph courtesy The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust/Bridgeman Images
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Anthropomorphic Male Sculptural Element of a Reliquary Ensemble, EYEMA BYERI Unidentified Fang Artist, Gabon Wood, organic pigment, brass alloy H: 32cm PROVENANCE Private Collection, Belgium, pre-1950 Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, Brussels, “Arts of Africa, the Pacific & the Americas”, 17 December 2024, lot 80 Harrell Fine Art, New York LTERATURE Expo cat.: "INVOCATION", New York: Harrell Fine Art, 2025: np EXHIBITED New York, USA: INVOCATION, during: "MATA (Madison Ancient and Tribal Art)", 28 - 31 May 2025 New York City, USA: AOA. NYC/Wart Walk, 29 - 31 May 2025 CF Grébert (Fernard), "Au Gabon. Afrique équatoriale française" Paris: Société des missions évangéliques, 1928:133 $45,000.00
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TWO BOBBINS, IVORY COAST 1935 Walker Evans Vintage silver gelatin contact print 205 x255mm Signed “Walker Evans” and annotated “135-41” and “R-509” on verso PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, 1935 Private Collection, London Harrell Fine Art, New York CF Getty Museum, Los Angeles, inv. 84.XM.488.25. $3,000.00 “The present contact print, uncropped and with an uncharacteristic shadow in its lower left corner, is likely a rare working print used during Walker Evans’ commission to document the works included in the Museum of Modern Art’s 1935 landmark exhibition African Negro Art. In 2000, The Metropolitan Museum of Art organized Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935, an exhibition that explored this multifaceted commission, which saw Evans photograph over 600 sculptures during the six-week exhibition. In the catalogue that accompanied the Met’s exhibition, curator Dr. Virginia-Lee Webb writes “[sic] if unwanted elements found their way into the negative or print, he simply cut them away. Evans’ reputation as a ruthless editor of his own work is strikingly demonstrated in the African art series, as is his highly personal and stylized approach.” - Mary Pelletier regarding the present work, 2026
Verso
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COMPOSITION ABSTRAITE 1993 Yves Zurstrassen (Belgian, b. 1956) Oil on canvas 40 x 50cm Signed “930318 ZURSTRASSEN 93” on verso PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, 1993 Private Collection, Brussels Harrell Fine Art, New York $5,000.00
Verso
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Anthropomorphic Female Face Mask and Coiffure, ZAKPEI or GUNYEGE Identified Dan Artist, Liberia Wood, plant fiber, cowrie (cyprea moneta), organic pigment Height of the Mask: 25cm PROVENANCE Collection of Alfred L. Sheinberg (1949-1992), New York, by 1977 James Camp, J. Camp Associates Ltd, New York, acquired from the above, 1977 Collection of Dr. Robert Plant Armstrong (1919-1984), Dallas, TX Christie’s, New York, “The Robert Plant Armstrong Collection of African Art”, 15 May 1985, lot 103 Collection of the Newark Museum of Art, Newark, New Jersey De-accessioned to benefit the Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, 2019 Harrell Fine Art, New York EXHIBITED New York, NY, USA: “Treasures from the Ivory Coast”, J. Camp Associates Ltd, 24 September-5 November 1977 New York, USA: "Past in Prologue - A Conversation Between Classical and Contemporary African Art", Cole Harrell, 19 May - 30 June 2022 New York, USA: "FEMME", Harrell Fine Art, 16 May - 30 June 2024 LITERATURE Expo cat: “Treasures from the Ivory Coast”, New York, J. Camp Associates, Ltd, 1977:29#81 Expo cat.: "Past in Prologue - A Conversation Between Classical and Contemporary African Art", New York: Cole Harrell & Montague Hermann, 2022: #2 Expo cat.: "FEMME", New York: Harrell Fine Art, 2024: np $25,000.00 “…this is a zakpai/zakpei fire mask or a gunyege runner mask. But read the comment by Marie-Noël Verger-Fèvre about a similar mask in the Barbier-Mueller collection (AHDRC 0137400): ‘The Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, possesses a very similar mask, which has also retained its original, extremely ancient coiffure - a very rare feature in western collections’. (Barbier, 1993, t. II, p. 60, inv. No. 1003-14). Writing about this mask, Marie-Noël Verger-Fèvre points out that although the round, latticed eye sockets generally denote gunyege racing masks and zapkei fire masks, the intricacy of the fibre postiche may well point to a much higher ranking figure - the ‘mask of the king’ or go ge. It sometimes appears, in Dan country, alongside the leaders of lineage groups. It is a large mask that leaves the sacred dwelling only to announce the death of the 'king', or for other such serious matters. [...] Some are adorned with very intricate fibre postiches that mimic those of ancient warriors" (in Barbier, ibid.). (Source: AHDRC 0065919).” - François Mottas, regarding the present mask, 12 May 2024
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I DON’T WANT THIS ON MY WALL 1998 William Joseph Anastasi (Philadelphia, 1933-2023) Published by Stalke Editions. Printed by Niels Borch Jensen, Copenhagen. Etching. Sheet size 39x47cm Signed “W. Anastasi, 22/26” PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, 1998 Stalke Galleri, Copenhagen Private Collection, Denmark, acquired from the above Harrell Fine Art, New York $3,000.00
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Anthropomorphic Helmet Mask, EGUNGUN Unidentified Owo Artist, Nigeria Wood, textile, organic material, pigment, metal alloy Mid XIX Century H: 38cm PROVENANCE Galerie Walu, Zürich Collection of Gerald (1937-2009) and Muriel (1948-2020) Minkoff, Genèva Harrell Fine Art, New York EXHIBITED Zürich, Switzerland, “Kamerun-Kunst der Könige/Cameroon. Art and Kings”, Rietberg Museum, Zürich 3 February - 25 May 2008 New York, United States, “Past in Prologue II - Three Centuries of African Art”, Harrell Fine Art, 18 May - 30 June 2023 LITERATURE Expo cat: “Cameroon. Art and Kings”, Lorenz Homberger (editor), Zürich: Museum Rietberg Zürich, 2008:183, #7 Expo cat.: “Past in Prologue II - Three Centuries of African Art”, New York: Cole Harrell & Montague Hermann, 2023:np CF Ethnologisches Museum (SMPK), Berlin, Germany, inv. III.C.27347 (acquired in situ by Leo Frobenius, 1912) Ciram test no. 0323-OA-10N-2, conducted 28 April 2023, supports the suggested dating of the present mask. We extend our gratitude to Barry Hecht for his assistance in attributing the present mask. $18,000.00 In Owo, a kingdom situated between the Yoruba and Benin cultural spheres, Egungun traditions developed distinctive artistic forms that reflect the region’s unique historical position. Carved headpieces associated with Owo masquerades often display a high degree of technical refinement and draw upon visual conventions found in both Yoruba and Benin court art. Public appearances of the masquerades occur during annual festivals, funerary observances, and other important communal events, where they serve as visible manifestations of lineage history and ancestral authority. Through performance, dance, and ritualized interaction with spectators, Egungun reaffirm social bonds, commemorate the dead, and maintain the continuity of traditions that have shaped Yoruba and Owo communities for centuries. The present mask was originally thought to be of Cameroonian Bangwa origin, no doubt due to the stylized doublelobed coiffure and heavily encrusted patina. However, the helmet construction and classic large bulging eyes, subtle grin etc. suggest a Nigerian Owo attribution. To further illustrate, an extremely similar example was acquired by the preeminent German ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873-1938) in 1912 during his travels throughout Akoko, Nigeria.
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“If a work of art cannot live always in the present it must not be considered at all.” — Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Image on opposite page courtesy Ocula Images, photographer, date unknown
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UNTITLED (Head) Circa 1950 Byron Browne (American, 1907-1961) Pencil on paper Sheet size 39x47cm Unsigned PROVENANCE Executed by the artist, circa 1950 The collection of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, New York Doyle, New York, “…Property from the Estate of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler”, 30 June 2021, lot 11 Harrell Fine Art, New York CF The Whitney Museum, New York, inv. 77.4 $3,500.00
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Anthropomorphic Female Face Mask, MFON EKPO Unidentified Ibibio Artist, Southeast Nigeria Wood, alloy, pigment H: 58cm PROVENANCE Collection of Hendrick “Rick” Elias (1925-2014), Weize, Belgium Galerie Elmar, Weize, Belgium Collection of Lionel Morley (b. 1941), Spain, acquired from the above Jo de Buck, Brussels, acquired from the above, 2009 Collection of Jean and Noble Endicott, New York, acquired from the above, 2009 Amyas Naegele, New York, acquired from the above Harrell Fine Art, New York LITERATURE Expo cat.: "FEMME", New York: Harrell Fine Art, 2024: np EXHIBITED New York, USA: "FEMME", Harrell Fine Art, 16 May - 30 June 2024 $8,500.00
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“Il faut pour cela embrasser d'un coup d'œil: le passé, le présent et l'avenir.” “For this it is necessary to embrace at a glance the past, present and future.” — Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918), Les Peintres cubistes (1913)
Guillaume Apollinaire in Picasso’s Study, photo by Pablo Picasso, circa 1910 Image courtesy Tate Museum, London
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DIALOGUES October 19 - November 15, 2026 New York, NY Harrell Fine Art is delighted to present DIALOGUES, a selection of Classical African sculpture juxtaposed with Modern and Contemporary Western Art. Included are works by unidentified artists from the Ibibio, Turka, Dan, Fang, Owo, Baule Cultures. Western artists include Martica Miguens, William Joseph Anastasi, Yves Zurstrassen, Walker Evans, Byron Browne, Claudio Cintoli. LAYOUT/ DESIGN Cole Harrell PHOTOGRAPHY Cole Harrell, Edward Parrinello ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Tate Museum of Art, London The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Dr. Virginia-Lee Webb Getty Images Ocula The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust Bridgeman Images Amanda Theis François Mottas Mary Pelletier Barry Hecht
HARRELL FINE ART
Cole Harrell, Director T 8306605089 E cole@coleharrell.com W www.coleharrell.com 155 East 34th Street, New York, NY 10016 By Appointment
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