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time. He had the trained and fi nely honed eye of
an experienced professional and the openness of
mind of an anarchist convinced of the possibility
of a joyous future and the prospects of a new
harmony for the world. He was acquainted
with Apollinaire, whom he published early on
in La Revue Blanche. He was also close to
symbolist poet Charles Vignier, who shifted
toward the art market for Far Eastern works
and also produced an early exhibition
featuring African masks in 1912. Fénéon
also had a relationship with Jos Hessel, who
was at the Bernheim-Jeune gallery and had
himself been a collector since 1905–1906.
If we could establish with certainty that
the beginnings of Fénéon’s collecting dated
to these years, we would then have to call
into question the idea that it is artists like
Vlaminck and Derain with whom one must
credit the discovery and invention of the arts
nègres.
To answer your question about the sources
that supplied him, remember that Fénéon
began with Bernheim-Jeune in 1905, and that
gallery was Paris’ biggest and represented
artists like Bonnard and Matisse, among
many others. He was at the center of the art
market. He didn’t have to look for art—art
came to him. That said, we also know he had
contact with colonials, as did nearly everyone
else at the time. We found one letter that he
wrote from Toulon in 1923 or 1924 in which
he mentions a group of fetishes he found
while visiting an antique dealer there, and
which he purchased. Fénéon also received a
substantial number of pieces as gifts. I am
thinking in particular of objects he received
from Lucie Cousturier, whom I mentioned
moments ago. These works are interesting
not only because Cousturier had brought
them back directly from Africa but because in
many cases they were commissioned pieces. A
twenty-fi rst-century collector would call them
fakes, but Fénéon had the same regard for
them as he did for what we now consider to
be the important pieces in his collection. It is
absolutely fascinating to observe this.
T.A.M.: What did Fénéon fi nd interesting about
African art?
I.C.: As a committed anarchist, he supported the
idea that looking to other places and areas could
open up the arts. He was someone who never
ceased questioning, and he steadfastly refused to
trap himself in a specifi c vision of himself, society,
or the arts. His connection with African art was
moreover undoubtedly nourished by his anticolonial
position, a conviction he shared with the
Surrealists, whose 1931 anti-colonial exhibition he
supported with a loan of works from his collection.
P.P.: These ideological positions really are essential
to understanding Fénéon, and they provided a
guiding principle we followed in the preparation
of the exhibition. His ideas about harmony and
joyous future times brought him close to the neoimpressionists,
and to Matisse and Apollinaire as
well. At the time, the place of realism in painting
was a subject of debate. Matisse and the fauvist
painters addressed this question by establishing a
system of equivalencies that used color. In other
words, they constructed a pictorial system that
is parallel to the world and uses its own laws
to translate the emotions felt by the painter in
addressing his subject.
Something similar happens in African art,
but with forms instead of colors. There are
representations of gods constructed from simple
forms. Fénéon understood that this was a
geometry-based transcription of the world. The
idea is powerful. What fascinated him about
African art was thus its aspect, its form, and the
life that emanates from it. He had no need for
the exotic or for history. In this respect, he was
quite the opposite of Paul Guillaume, who in his
writings often attempts to anchor his pieces in the
distant past.
T.A.M.: Is there a recognizable Fénéon
“taste”? Did he profess to have any particular
predilections?
I.C.: Once again, there is no written evidence of
any preferences he may have had in African art.
When one looks at the objects, however, a few
favorite subjects become apparent. The female
ART ON VIEW
FIG. 8 (below):
Mask. Guro; Côte d’Ivoire.
19th–20th century.
Wood, pigment. H: 76 cm.
Photo © Charles- Wesley Hourdé.
Photo: Vincent Girier Dufournier.