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OAK ISSUE - n° 16 - 2018 - € 10 www.theoney d.com
The Art of Sailing CRN Latona 50m
QUART ERLY - P.I. 28/10 /2018 Intern ationa l € 10, Poste Italiane S.p.a. Chf 10,50 , UK £ 7,50 Spedizione in Abbon Postale - 70% amento LO/MI
[ ART ON BOARD ]
THE ALLURE OF
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
The rarest pieces date all the way back to the 17th Century and come from Benin, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Gabon and Angola. Tribal art that inspired the Cubist and Abstract artists and which is now enjoying a positively magical revival
Kota reliquary, wood and metal, Gabon, Monzino Collection, Dototheum, sold for 47,500 euro
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Kongo-Yombe power statue, Nkisi Nkondi, wood. Democratic Republic of Congo. Christie’s, sold for 727,500 euro
A Yaka headrest from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Adolphe Stoclet. Christie’s, estimate 300-500,000 euro
by Micaela Zucconi
O
nce only truly appreciated by a small group of connoisseurs,
Vienna, who has 25 years’ experience on the art scene in New York
tribal art is going mainstream and enjoying a period of
and Paris. “However, the real turning point was the opening of the
enormous popularity, piquing the curiosity of collectors of both
Musée du Quai Branly in Paris in 2006 which specialises in the art
contemporary and other art. “Until the 1990s, the sales were only
and civilisation of Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas.” In short,
very rarely spectacular results-wise. But then a few events really
tribal art is as hot now as it was in the early 1900s when it inspired
revived interest. MoMa’s Primivitism in 20th Century of Art: Affinity
Picasso’s Cubist work and was collected by the illustrious likes of
of The Tribal and the Modern in 1984 and then Les Magiciens de
Alexander Calder and André Breton. “The prices of the most classic,
la Terre at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 1989, which spanned
modern art-related pieces have risen. For instance, an antique Goli
the contemporary art scene on five continents, kick-started things
mask from the Ivory Coast sold for a few thousand euro while a
again,” explains Joris Visser, an in-house expert at Dorotheum in
more recent one that had been photographed with Picasso made a
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[ ART ON BOARD ] million euro,” continues Visser. “The 2008 crisis and the fact that the collectors were aging meant a lot of material Mangbetu figure,
was becoming available. Everyone only wanted to hold on
Democratic Republic of
to or snap up the best pieces.”
Congo. Dorotheum, sold
Auction houses and gallerists did the rest and in the
for 56,250 euro
process changed the market. A quick glance at the latest results reveals just how much. One of the latest highlights at Sotheby’s is a Fang head from Gabon which sold for 2,578,350 euro. Christie’s did well too with a Nigerian Mbembe sculpture from the Durand-Dessert Collection selling for 1.927 million euro. “Clients have seen the value of the top pieces bought up to 2010 triple. The only slowdown is in the mid-price range of 2,000 to 200.000 euro. But what really counts is how unique the style of a piece is – even if it is only a little stool valued at 400 euro.” To get an eye for what is good, peruse the museums (British Museum, Louvre, the Met in New York as well as Quai de Branly), the galleries and art fairs. The Parcours des Mondes in the French capital is considered the top international ethnographic art show, attracting the world’s finest galleries. Last September, it featured an exhibition which recreated a famous 1930s show with works loaned by artists of the likes of André Derain, Joan Miró, Henri Matisse as well as those already mentioned. The event was curated by gallerist and academic Charles-Wesley Hourdé (with Nicolas Rolland), who tracked down most of the pieces shown in the original exhibition and reconstructed the story of the event in the book Galerie Pigalle. Afrique, Oceanie. 1930, Un Exposition Mytique. “You really need advice when you are starting out collecting in this area,” says Charles-Wesley Hourdé. “Most of the works come from private collections and thanks to them these objects, which were mostly ritual and thus would have been thrown away once they’d done their job, have been preserved. A very few, very rare pieces date back to the 17th century but the remainder are later. Mostly wood is used with some bronze also. The styles differ depending on the ethnicity and area they come from, mostly Sub-Saharan Africa: Benin, Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Mali, Gabon and Angola. The market is on a high and prices will continue to climb but you can still find significant works for a thousand euro.” Another major fair is Tefaf Maastricht in the Netherlands. Its tribal art section will be larger than ever next year so don’t miss take note of the date: March 16th to 24th 2019.
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Fang head, Gabon. Sotheby’s, sold for 2, 578,350 euro, June 13th 2018
Fang– Mvaï ancestor Nekpopo drum, XIX century, Dominican Republic of Congo . Dorotheum, sold for 18,750 euro
statue by the Master Ntem, 1750-1860 approx. Howard and Saretta Barnet Collection. Sotheby’s, sold for 3,495,000 dollars May 14th 2018
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