Page 82

T82E

8800 FIG. 18 (right): Bowl, agere Ifa. Yoruba, Nigeria, Owo Kingdom. Early 17th century(?). Ivory. H: 18.5 cm. Ex Christie’s, South Kensington, June 29, 1987, lot 67; Hélène and Philippe Leloup, Paris/ New York; Sotheby’s, Paris, November 30, 2010, lot 28. © Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Photo by Claude Germain. de bureau (“offi ce conversations”), and private ones, conversations de salon (“living room conversations”). Taken from their setting and reproduced in the museum exhibition, these “conversations” are confi gured in the installation in a way that is reminiscent of an old study, in which books accompanied eclectic collections of paintings and antiques, or of a Renaissance curiosity cabinet, in which natural history specimens were presented side by side with the exotic creations of faraway peoples. A powerfully cubist Songye statue (fi g. 11), a seated bather by Lipchitz, and a tondo by Martin Barré (fi g. 10) coexist harmoniously in this “offi ce.” The density of the materials in high-relief copper alloy Benin plaques responds to the lively polychrome abstractions of Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Sonia Delaunay. On the marble fi replace mantel of the “living room,” a painting by Nicolas de Staël is fl anked by two Bamana ci-wara dance crests in a presentation that conjures the eclectic interiors favored by the collectors of the between-the-wars period. Different from the work space, in the home the tastes of husband and wife complete one another. Painting is more present here, including works by Simon Hantaï, Pierre Soulages, and Peter Halley, which are seen alongside an equally graphically enigmatic shield from the Blackwater River region of Papua New Guinea, while an evocation of imaginary architecture, Agitations de Pierre (Agitations in Stone) by Helena Vieira da Silva maintains a subtle interaction with the eroded wood of a Dogon toguna post. With the exception of a mask from the Tabar Islands (fi g. 13), the second part of the exhibition is devoted to African art, on which Ladreit de Lacharrière has focused over the last fi fteen years. Together these works testify to the rapid and progressive education he received through the advice and opinions of experts. Despite the impressive provenance of many of these works,9 there is considerable range between “archetypal” and “atypical” works chosen for the collection. These include highly refi ned archetypes of Fang and Baule sculpture, ranging in style from the simplest and most pure to the most “baroque.” Characteristic expressions of the African sculptors’ skill that have become “classics”—a pre-Dogon fi gure (fi g. 12), a Tshokwe queen (fi g. 14), a Senufo maternity, a Kota reliquary guardian fi gure (fi g. 15), a Bangwa male fi gure (fi g. 16), a Grebo mask, and a Lega mask, to mention but a few—are accompanied by more FIG. 17 (left): Female fi gure. Bassa, Liberia. 19th century. Wood, pigment, textile, vegetal fi ber, glass beads. H: 60 cm. Ex Roger Bediat (1897–1958), Abidjan, before 1958; Hélène and Philippe Leloup, 1958. FIG. 19 (right): Maternity fi gure. Luluwa, DR Congo. 19th century. Wood, pigment. H: 31 cm. Collected by Karel Timmermans in 1959; Sotheby’s, Paris, December 5, 2006, lot 118. © Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Photo by Claude Germain. ART ON VIEW


T82E
To see the actual publication please follow the link above