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FEATURE 116 the expressionist and surrealist movements, Serge Brignoni (fig. 17) took the concept of collecting Oceanic art, and specifically Bismarck Archipelago art, to the furthest degree. Collecting, for Brignoni, was in itself a manifestation of artistic expression, and by virtue of a certain passion and innate skill for seeking out pieces in wayward places, he amassed one of the finest collections of the art in private hands (fig. 18). He appreciated the pieces for their inherent artistic qualities, not just for their emblematic imagery or for their primal spirituality—traits all too often subscribed to when overlooking the merits of an individual sculpture. Fortunate in time and place, he had a long life to refine and hone a sharp eye for quality, and the result was the collection now housed in the Museo delle Culture, Città di Lugano. Brignoni started drawing and collecting from his earliest childhood and remembering being fascinated by colored things everywhere, even waste paper.12 On a trip to the local ethnographic museum as an eight-year-old, he was drawn to strange figures he saw in the distance with large heads, long arms, and exaggerated genitals.13 His first knowledgeable encounter with so-called primitive art was in Paris, where, since cubism was the defining artistic movement of the time, almost all the artists Brignoni came into contact with were in some way relating to African and Oceanic art. His colleagues collected such things because they were attracted by the unusual and exotic, not only as a break with things bourgeois, but also for the passions and curiosity they instilled, characteristics necessary for the exploration of new visionary frontiers. Brignoni was attracted to surrealism and to Oceanic art, as it opened up new realms of imagination, of dreams, and of the fantastic and transcendental. This contrasted with his perception of the rigidity of cubism and, by extension, African art. Being Swiss, Brignoni had an understanding of Germany that many in Paris didn’t. Breton and Éluard used to travel to London to acquire art, but most of the artists acquired pieces locally in Paris and its environs. What they could access reflected the politics of the colonial era. West Africa, Congo, and Polynesia all fell under Francophone sway, New Guinea and the islands directly north, Germany’s. Brignoni traveled throughout Germany, where he had no real competition in his search and where artifacts from the Bismarck Archipelago were plentiful. And by comparison to what was available in Paris and London, prices in Germany were cheap. He bought from individuals and museums, often acquiring pieces from institutions that sought to raise funds for their own expeditions to colonial territories. He also traveled extensively in Holland and Belgium, and he had good re


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