ART IN MOTION
Bonhams
SAN FRANCISCO and LOS ANGELES—Bonhams will
hold two sales in early December, the fi rst of Native
American art in San Francisco on December 4 and the
second of African and Oceanic Art in Los Angeles on
December 5. The Native American sale will feature
material from North American indigenous cultures
ranging from jewelry to beadwork to rugs and from
the Inuit to the Woodlands peoples to the Navajo.
The African and Oceanic sale features a wide array
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of material, led by an extensively exhibited Luba
caryatid stool formerly in the collection of Gustave and
Franyo Schindler. Other highlights include an Ogboni
shrine fi gure, also widely exhibited and published, formerly
in the collection of Charles Wentinck, author of
the groundbreaking Modern and Pritive Art, and a
fi ne Lega mask that has been owned by Aaron Furman,
Jay C. Leff, and Hélène and Philippe Leloup.
Prominent among the Oceanic lots is a small Nukuoro
ancestor fi gure that was discovered in a curio shop in
the 1960s and an elaborately incised club from Tonga
that was collected c. 1797 by George Vason of the
London Missionary Society. An interesting group of
Maori greenstone objects round out the offerings.
February in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO and SAN RAFAEL—A week of activities
comprise what has come to be known as San
Francisco Tribal Art Week. The event kicks off with the
San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show at Fort Mason
Center February 8–11, 2018, and concludes with the
American Indian Art Show Marin at the Marin Civic
Center in San Rafael, California, February 17–18, 2018.
Afi cionados of fi ne antique and contemporary ethnographic
art will discover an extraordinary world of
high-quality tribal and textile arts when the thirty-second
annual San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show,
presented by Objects of Art Shows, returns to the Fort
Mason Center Festival Pavilion. One of the world’s
leading ethnographic art fairs, the event showcases
the arts of tribal cultures and indigenous peoples of the
Americas, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, and Africa.
More than ninety national and international galleries
and exhibitors display museum-quality objects and
artifacts, making this the perfect event for collectors
and enthusiasts alike. Didier Claes from Brussels and
Laurent Dodier from Le Val St. Pere in the Normandy
region of France are signifi cant new additions to the
show. The show will feature a special Aboriginal art
exhibition by Australian art cooperative Yaama Ganu.
The next weekend, the thirty-fourth annual American
Indian Art Show Marin will be held. This is the
most signifi cant showcase of antique American Indian
art on the West Coast. With an emphasis on antique
American Indian art as well as Pre-Columbian, Spanish
Colonial, and contemporary American Indian art, this
show offers something for everyone, including jewelry,
textiles, baskets, pottery, beadwork, sculpture, paintings,
photography, books, and more.
LEFT: Mask, idimu. Lega,
Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
Wood, pigment. H: 28.6 cm.
Ex Aaron Furman, New York, 1960s;
Jay C. Leff, Uniontown, PA; Sotheby’s
Parke-Bernet New York, April 22,
1967 (lot 109); Hélène and Philippe
Leloup, Paris; private American
collection. To be offered at Bonham’s,
Los Angeles, on December 5, 2017.
Est. $125,000–175,000.
BELOW: Ancestor fi gure,
tino. Nukuoro Atoll.
Early 20th century.
Wood (Dysoxylum meliaceae).
H: 40 cm.
Ex private collection, Sydney
(purchased in an old curio shop
in the 1960s); Lawsons, Sydney,
21 May 2001 (lot 130); Mark and
Carolyn Blackburn Collection,
Honolulu, Hawaii; private Australian
collection.
To be offered at Bonham’s, Los
Angeles, on December 5, 2017.
Est. $40,000–60,000.
RIGHT: Ancestor shrine
guardian. Kota, Gabon.
19th–early 20th century.
Wood, copper, brass.
To be offered by Laurent Dodier at
the San Francisco Tribal and Textile
Art Show, February 8–11, 2018.
RIGHT: Ritual container.
Ngaju Dayak culture,
Central Kalimantan, Borneo
Island, Indonesia.
19th–early 20th century.
Bamboo, wood.
To be offered by Mark A. Johnson
Tribal Art at the San Francisco Tribal
and Textile Art Show, February 8–11,
2018.