TRiBAl people 134 Alain Weill: It is indeed completely misunderstood and is probably the victim of some sort of conspiracy. A kind of standard was created in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the fi rst dealers began to import African objects and individuals like Paul Guillaume began to sell to the fi rst collectors. This was at the same time that Avant-garde artists like Picasso, Braque, Derain, and Vlaminck were looking for them as well. Objects such as Fang fi gures, Kota reliquary guardians, and Dan masks, whose magical qualities the Surrealists later also Alain Weill A Collector of Sculpture Unlike Any Other Interview by Alex Arthur and Elena Martínez-Jacquet FIG. 1 (left): Pierre Le-Tan, Caricature of Alain Weill Depicted as a Mounted Colonial Offi cer. Curious, lively, eloquent, and lucid—all words that describe Alain Weill. A specialist in posters and the graphic arts, he is also a collector of all kinds of “uncertainties,” as he refers to them. These include African artworks representative of so-called “colonial art,” that is, fi gures of missionaries, fi gures wearing pith helmets, and any number of other carvings that testify to the interaction between African and Western cultures. We spoke with Alain Weill a few days before the opening of the exhibition Homme blanc– Homme noir. Impressions d’Afrique (White Man–Black Man. Impressions of Africa) at the Pierre Arnaud Foundation in Lens, Switzerland, which explores the relationships between Western and African art. On view until October 25, 2015, the show was the brainchild of Nicolas Menut, Christophe Flubacher, and Alain Weill and is built primarily around colonial artworks from the latter’s collection. The exhibition served as a springboard for the lively discussion we had with him about the nature of colonial art, what moves him, and the impetus for his collecting. Tribal Art Magazine: As post-contact art, colonial art is largely out of favor with most major collectors, who erroneously see it as non-authentic and decadent. And yet it is a unique form of artistic expression that is full of invention. In your opinion, why does this misperception persist? FIG. 2 (above): Stall of a sculptor at the Pointe-Noire market, c. 1900. Photo postcard. FIG. 3 (left): Glasses. Ghana. Low-grade gold. L: 13 cm. Photo: Alberto Ricci.
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