82
FIG. 10 (above):
Necklace. Sakalava,
Madagascar.
Horn, textile, beads, wood, hair, shell.
L: 87 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 71.1974.63.18.
Photo: Claude Germain.
ART ON VIEW
agascan artists and sculptors, even those with formal
art training, were considered craftsmen rather than
artists. Art events, fairs, and the colonial expositions
that were so much a part of the cultural life of the
period provided a certain visibility for their creations,
but the works displayed were for all intents and purposes
relegated to the realm of the decorative. A parallel
debate developed at the time between these who
advocated educating painters and sculptors in the
European manner and those who were opposed to
this, the latter believing that the injection of Western
styles would spell the end for the traditional “pure
art” form. Nonetheless, certain Madagascan artists
garnered popular success among the inhabitants of
the island as well as among Europeans. The fi rst exhibition
of Madagascan art was held at the Palais d’Argent
in the island’s capital of Antananarivo in 1909,
although it was only on view for several days. While
the event was limited in scope and was not extensively
publicized, it did mark one of the fi rst times
that the words “art” and “Madagascar” were used
together. Another important event took place at the
Pavillon de Marsan in the Palais du Louvre in 1923
under the title L’Art indigène des colonies françaises
(Indigenous Art of the French Colonies). This was
a sign that Western perceptions were beginning to
change—the arts of faraway peoples, including those
of Madagascar, had entered into an art museum rather
than an ethnographic one, albeit through a hidden
back door.
The exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly –
Jacques Chirac is the only major one to be devoted
to the full range of the arts of Madagascar since the
1946 Musée de l’Homme show; however, the latter
did not approach the subject from an aesthetic perspective.
To be sure, there have been other presentations
of artworks from time to time that focused
on one aspect or another of the Madagascan production,
but nothing of this scope has previously been
seen. Beautiful works, the functions of which sometimes
follow their form, are often created with a great
economy of means, and these make up the range of
objects that are associated with the
living. In homes, wooden bed frames
(fi gs. 5a and b)—of which Paul Guillaume
owned several examples—cof-
FIG. 13 (above):
Spoon. Merina, Madagascar.
Wood. H: 23.5 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques
Chirac, inv. 75. 9112.3.
Photo: Claude Germain.
FIG. 12 (left):
Spoon. Merina, Madagascar.
Horn. H: 16.5 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac,
inv. 71.1891.45.204.
Photo: Claude Germain.
FIG. 11 (left):
Spoon. Masikoro, Madagascar.
Wood, fi ber, crocodile teeth, glass beads.
H: 25.5 cm.
Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac,
inv. 71.1899.59.9.1–2.
Photo: Claude Germain.