ABOVE AND LEFT: The Palais
Stoclet in Brussels and a portrait
46
of Adolphe Stoclet.
Stoclet family archives.
Christie’s, October 30, 2018: Collection
Adolphe Stoclet: chefs d’oeuvres d’art
africain et océanien.
RIGHT: Stools and a detail of
a group of wedding matts,
mbolo, DR Congo.
Pierre Loos Collection, to be offered by
Piasa on September 17, 2018.
ART IN MOTION
PIERRE LOOS COLLECTION
PARIS—Art from the personal collection of well-known
Brussels dealer Pierre Loos will be offered by Piasa auctioneers
in three sales on September 17 and 18, 2018.
The size and variety of the collection make the multiple
sessions a necessity. Traditional art enthusiasts will be primarily
interested in the fi rst of these, which will be composed
of more than 400 lots of mainly African artworks
and jewelry, as well as a number of pieces from India and
the Middle East. The sale on the following day will include
a group of photographs by Casimir Zagourski, the
Polish photographer who settled in the Belgian Congo
in 1924. The fi nal sale will be held toward the end that
day and will feature some fi fty fi ne canvases, representative
precursors of African contemporary art created
by Congolese artists between
1926 and 1950. Loos developed
a particular fondness for
this genre and was among the
fi rst to collect it.
CHRISTIE’S
PARIS—After particularly hectic spring and summer
seasons that included three sales and many world records,
Christie’s department of African and Oceanic
art is maintaining the pace as it prepares its fall sale.
While not many details about its contents are available
as we go to press, the sale will be held on October
30, 2018, and will include two sessions, each with
its own extensively documented catalog. The first of
these will feature objects from the prestigious collection
of Belgian banker and art aficionado Adolphe
Stoclet (1871–1949) and will include twenty-eight
sculptures from the Congo that remained in his family
by descent. Two of these objects were included in the
famous Kongo-Kunst exhibition in Antwerp in 1937,
but the other twenty-six have never been publicly
shown before. A beautiful Luba-Shankadi stool, an
impressive Songye kifwebe mask, and a superb zoomorphic
Yaka headrest will undoubtedly be among
the objects that will attract the most interest. The Stoclet
pieces will be followed by a various-owner sale,
which will include African, Oceanic, and Pre-Columbian
artworks in approximately equal proportions, most
from well-known private collections. It will include a
range of material that will appeal both to inveterate
collectors and to neophytes. Christie’s will hold a special
preview of highlights from these sales in their Paris
headquarters from September 12 through 14 during
Parcours des Mondes.
BELOW:
Ancestor fi gure. Bamana,
Mali. Late 19th century.
Galerie Dodier, to be shown at La
Biennale, Paris, September 8–16,
2018.
BIENNALE
PARIS—La Biennale, the must-attend event that marks
the opening of Paris cultural season, marks its thirtieth
anniversary this year and will be held once again in the
sumptuous Grand Palais. Open from September 8–16,
2018, it is one of the world’s great art and antique fairs.
Non-European arts will be represented by Galerie Meyer,
which will show fi ne works from Oceania and the Arctic,
and by Galerie Dodier, which will be participating in the
fair for the fi rst time. The latter will present an exhibition
titled Kermadec et l’art primitif (Kermadec and Primitive
Art) that is certain to make its arrival on the scene
notable. Eugène de Kermadec (1899–1976) was a great
devotee of non-European art, as demonstrated by his
inclusion in the Musée de l’Homme’s 1967 exhibition
Arts primitifs dans les ateliers d’artistes (Primitive Art
in Artists’ Studios). The Dodier installation will juxtapose
about ten of Kermadec’s oil paintings with some twenty
major artworks from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.