The 158 Tribune
N°1 March 2025
pg. 3
5 continents 5 heads
Editorial
Over the years, TEFAF has solidified its position as the world’s premier art and antiques fair. Each year, Maastricht gathers the finest antique dealers and art galleries, becoming an exceptional gathering place for museum and institution directors, curators, and private collectors from around the globe.
Participating in such a prestigious fair requires meticulous preparation, with many starting their selections immediately after the previous edition concludes. This selection must be flawless and of the highest caliber to captivate, surprise, and engage a new audience—such as Olivier Tallec, the surprise guest of this Tribune #1, who we hope will introduce you to the unique world of the Patrick and Ondine Mestdagh gallery.
So, welcome to TEFAF 2025, welcome to our stand 158, and may you make many exciting discoveries!
Patrick & Ondine Mestdagh
29, rue des Minimes
1000 Brussels
phone : +32 475 46 73 15 info@patrickmestdagh.com
3 questions to Olivier Tallec
How did you find out about the Patrick and Ondine Mestdagh Gallery?
It must have been at a Parcours des Mondes event, perhaps in 2010. I went in out of curiosity. I bought a first object a few months later, then started following the gallery on Instagram. Since then, I have tried several detoxes without much success…
You seem to have been following this gallery for several years! What makes it different from the others?
Its madness and curiosity! Every time I visit, I am surprised by objects, by a work on display, by a thematic exhibition or by something I have never seen before, and which, of its kind, is the best you can find. So it is a mixture of curiosity and high standards. It is not always about easy objects (because they don’t always meet the demands of the tribal market), but about remarkable objects. The objects I have come across at the gallery often stay with me for a very long time, because they are so graphically powerful. I still remember some of the objects I saw at the gallery over 10 years ago. They range from a lacquering apron from Japan, to a spoon from South Africa with an incredible line, to a game piece made of walrus ivory, or a small cracked blackboard by a contemporary Spanish painter, all responding to each other in a dialogue of shapes, colors and opposites.
What is your best memory or your best find at the 29?
There are several. The most memorable was undoubtedly the proposal from the POM gallery to exhibit my cardboard works, which I had never shown before. And then, of course, some objects I acquired at the gallery, including an 18th-century Japanese box, which are now part of my everyday life.
Olivier Tallec is a French author and illustrator
Japan in the spotlight
Eskimo
Admire this extremely rare children’s kayak brought back by Knud Rasmussen, Greenland’s first explorer, or this unique set of clothes made from polar bear and seal skins, before admiring tools and ornamental pieces made from marine ivory.
The Arctic is without doubt the most hostile habitable zone on our planet. The climate is polar, vegetation almost non-existent and domesticable animals rare.
And yet, for more than 2,000 years and the appearance of the Old Bering Sea I, the first known style of rare modernism, from the Bering Strait to West Greenland, the various populations settled in these lands have shown great skill in their crafts and genuine artistic talent.
Little-known to a wider public, each of these pieces deserves to be admired for the ingenuity, resilience and talent of the peoples of the Far North.
Child’s kayak 19th century, Greenland Prov. : Knud Rasmussen
Imarnan, Inuit anorak North America, Alaska, circa 1900 - 1920
A model kayak with doll 20th century, Greenland circa 1850
Our number for Tefaf : 5
Five!
Five, the five continents that cover the entire landmass of planet Earth: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Always in search for the rare object, we are led across the five continents. There are treasures to be found on every continent, and we set out to discover them. The object must be an aesthetic joy. It can be an everyday object of rare finesse, of complexity or simplicity that touches and moves us. In addition to its authenticity, the object must be beautiful, so that it emanates something immutable.
Our passion is to contribute to a dialogue between them, from which emerges what unites them, their beauty. We feel privileged to be presenting here at the heart of Tefaf five faces from five continents.
2. A Japanese Samurai Tengu Mempo, Japan, 18th century
Prov. : BC Dentan, purchased in 1990
3. Teotihuacan Stone Mask Classic, circa AD 450 - 650
Prov. : Emile Deletaille, Brussels, acquired in 1989
4. Funerary mask, cedar wood Egypt, New Kingdom, end of the 18th dynasty, circa 1300 BC
Prov: M. G. Collection (1943-2020), Paris.
5. Amalgame, Jean-Pierre Ghysels Bronze, black Mazy base Signature and print : Ghysels 6/6
1. A very early ancestor mask. Lower Sepik, PNG, Melanesia, 19th century. Prov. : Meyer Gallery, Paris
Ivory delights
Punuk tool, St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, USA
circa 1200-1600
Ulumaika, a rare game piece Hawaiian Islands, Polynesia, 18th century
A beautiful Mughal khanjar India, 17th - 18th century
A «bow drill», Inupiak, 19th century Provenance : Jean-Claude Bellier, France
Waseisei necklace Fiji Islands, 19th century
Let’s play the Shields game !
The shield is the essential emblem of the warrior, by turns protective, synonymous with power and an object of pride. The profusion of colours, the diversity of materials and its multiple forms, it becomes a pictorial vision combining modern and contemporary art. Its beauty makes it inseparable from those who wear it proudly, share their lives and become friends.
Find the origin of these shields :
ma y 22 > 25
selenee collection
1. Awyu, Papua New Guinea 2. Motu, Papua New Guinea 3. Konso, Éthiopie
4. Sulka, Papua New Guinea 5. Topoke, DR Congo 6. Ganda, Uganda 7. Sindh, Pakistan
Tailormade creations
Out Of The Blue
Although the Gallery is best known for its selection of weapons and shaped objects from the five continents, we like to surprise visitors by presenting a singular, rare or out-of-the-ordinary object. Our wide-ranging selection leads us to discover the origin of an object that carries us by its graphic beauty, its rarity, the essence of what inhabits us.
1. A Cree India branch constructed goose decoy. North America.
Jacques de Lalaing (attribued to) sculpture in plaster, circa 1880