ABOVE: Staff, tefalipitya.
Senufo; Côte d’Ivoire.
19th century.
Wood. H: 130 cm.
Ex private collection, USA.
Photo: Hughes Dubois, © Montagut
Gallery.
BELOW: Skirt from the Cora
& Lea collection made with
a Dutch wax-resist print
depicting Bamana ciwara
crests.
Photo: Meritxell Arjalaguer, with Paula
Arbós, © Cora & Lea.
.
18
ABOVE: Mask. Malinke/
Senufo/Marka; former French
Sudan. 17th–19th century
(dating by C-14).
Wood, metal. H: 28 cm.
Ex François Kerbouch; Claus Schmidt-
Luprian, Munich; Javier Lentini, Barcelona.
Photo: Hughes Dubois, © Montagut
Gallery.
RIGHT: Power fi gure, nkishi.
Songye; DR Congo.
19th–20th century.
Wood, metal, horn, leather, animal teeth,
glass beads. H: 78 cm.
Collected in situ by Karel Plasmans,
c. 1955.
Ex Mme. Plasmans, Belgium; private
collection, Canada; among others.
Photo © Jacques Germain, Montreal.
LEFT: Materity fi gure, phemba.
Kongo/Yombe; DR Congo.
19th century.
Wood, metal, glass. H: 22 cm.
Collected by a Belgian offi cial before 1914.
Ex Merton D. Simpson, New York; Antoni
Tàpies, Barcelona; among others.
Photo © Jacques Germain, Montreal.
ART IN MOTION
“Wax Fever” Breaks Out in Barcelona
BARCELONA—This summer, Guilhem Montagut Gallery
is launching an unusual—indeed possibly unprecedented—
project. For Wax Fever: From Africa to Barcelona,
which will open on June 20, 2019, the Catalan
dealer is giving guest curator Elena Martínez-Jacquet
carte blanche for a two-pronged exhibition that will
feature Cora & Lea brand African wax-print garments
displayed in conjunction with African art objects. This
will be the third exhibition at the gallery’s recently inaugurated
space on Pau Claris street, and it will be
an opportunity to provide context to these wax-resist
textiles, which have become so pervasive throughout
Africa that their European and colonial origins are
often forgotten. In the exhibition, these will be juxtaposed
with an array of traditional works to which
they relate. Textiles sometimes borrow designs or
ideas from other art forms or concepts, and, in Africa,
a longstanding textile tradition attests to the importance
of decoration and the body.
A fi nal creative element in this multifaceted show
is photography. Rocio Durand will present works that
lie at the intersection of fashion and art. This hybrid,
innovative, and inspiring exhibition will be on view
through July 27.
Summer with Jacques Germain
MONTREAL—For many years now, Jacques Germain
has been on a mission to promote interest in African
art in his native Canada and to help develop fi ne private
collections there. This summer, he is putting on
an exhibition that will be available for the public to
see by appointment from June 22–July 27, 2019, that
honors today’s active Canadian collectors. It will feature
major pieces, such as a Yombe maternity fi gure
that formerly belonged to renowned artist Antoni
Tàpies, and every piece in the show
will be drawn from Canadian collections.
The diversity and quality of
the objects on display attest to the
maturity and taste of the “young
tribe” of Canadian collectors and
will themselves undoubtedly generate
more new interest.