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48 Below: Ömie artists wearing painted skirts, 2014. © Ömie artists/ARTKELCH. MUSEUM news CONTEMPORARY TAPAS OF NEW GUINEA Fribourg—The Ömie inhabit the inland mountain ranges of Oro Province in New Guinea. Their art was not brought to the attention of outside audiences until 2006, when it was the subject of an exhibition in Sydney. These works consist of barkcloth that has been delicately decorated by women, whose painted abstract designs form vivid and colorful compositions. The creations are somewhat reminiscent of the work of Australian artists, so it comes as no surprise that the ARTKELCH Gallery, which has long specialized in contemporary Aboriginal art, has chosen to devote an exhibition to this material. Seen in this exhibition for the first time in Europe, these tapas are all of recent origin and were made for the art market. They will next be on view at the Museum für Völkerkunde in Munich. MATISSE. ARABESQUE Rome—At the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries, Old World artists took an interest in non-European arts and civilizations, which led to a profound creative renewal. Primitivism is one of this interest’s bestremembered manifestations, but Orientalism was at least equally important. An exhibition at Rome’s Scuderie del Quirinale curated by Ester Coen and on view through June 21, 2015, focuses on the Oriental influences on Henri Matisse, which were both symbolized and epitomized by the arabesque designs that appear in his work. The cleanness of line, color, and expressiveness, as well as a preoccupation with surface quality, were hallmarks of Oriental art that Matisse passionately explored after he became acquainted with it. First sensitized to Japanese art, whose simplicity and formal purity would mark his work, he was later profoundly influenced by Middle Eastern and then Russian works, which revealed to him the importance of decoration and led him to a new approach to surfaces. Matisse. Arabesque is built around affinities between the painter’s creations and non-European artworks of various origins in which he found inspiration. African works are among these, and the exhibition includes a number of sculptures and masks from private collections and from Rome’s Pigorini Museum, as well as a group of of Kuba textiles from the Democratic Republic of Congo and now in the collection of the Musée du Quai Branly, which once belonged to the venerable modern artist. Above: Henri Matisse, Portrait of Yvonne Landsberg, 1914. Oil on canvas. H: 147.3 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950. © H. Matisse estate, SIAE 2015. Image © Philadelphia Museum of Art. Far left: Mask, kifwebe. Songye, DR Congo. Lucien Van de Velde Collection. © Galerie Dandrieu-Giovagnoni archives. Near left: Reliquary guardian figure. Kota, Gabon. Before 1883. Ex Brazza-Pecile Collection, 1887. Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome, 33721. Above right: Summer kimono, katabira. Japan. 18th century. Ex Vincenzo Ragusa Collection, 1888. Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico Luigi Pigorini, Rome, 38000. Below: Textile by Sarah Ugibari. Oro Province, Papua New Guinea. 2014. Barkcloth, pigment. © Ömie artists/ARTKELCH.


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