Review of Masterpieces from Africa at the Musée Dapper
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Transcript of Review of Masterpieces from Africa at the Musée Dapper
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Chefs-duvre dAfrique (Masterpieces from Africa)dans les collections du
muse Dapper
Muse Dapper
35, bi rue Paul-Valry 75016 Paris
October 1, 2015!July 16, 2016
Published at Hyperallergic as
In Paris a Museum of African Art Brings Out Its Jewels
http://hyperallergic.com/278551/in-paris-a-museum-of-african-art-brings-out-its-jewels/
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Fang, (Gabon or Equatorial Guinea) The Black Venus (a.k.a. eyema byeri &
Pahouin Venus) (19th century) Fang peoples, Betsi group, wood and pigment. H: 56
cm. Ex Georges de Mir; Louis Carr by 1931; Jacob Epstein; Carlo Monzino Droits
rservs Muse Dapper Paris
Fang, (Gabon or Equatorial Guinea) The Black Venus (a.k.a. eyema byeri &
Pahouin Venus) (detail) (19th century) Fang peoples, Betsi group, wood and pigment
H: 56 cm. Ex Georges de Mir; Louis Carr by 1931; Jacob Epstein; Carlo Monzino
Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
In his prescient book from 1915 Black Sculpture, Carl Einstein describes certain
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transcendent examples of African sculpture as a form of fixed ecstasy. That
interpretation suits the awe-inspiring poise of The Black Venus (a.k.a. eyema byeri
& Pahouin Venus) (19th century).
Black Venus is an inscrutable, brightly varnished, reliquary carving from the Fang
(Betsi) tribe and it aesthetically dominates Chefs-duvre dAfrique (Masterpieces from
Africa). An exhibition of over a hundred pieces in the Muse Dapper collection of sub-
Saharan Africa art from Central and West Africa. It is a stunningly beautiful figurine that
projects grace and dark luminosity through both the face and body, projecting female
inner power and spiritual glow. She strongly sits in an ineffable radiance. Rather, she
floats, transmitting an emotion of effortless stoic tenderness. Her color is that of shiny
soft tar, like one can see on country roads in the heat of summer.
Looking at this black beauty with her magical elegance easily explains how and why
African art was such an inspiration to rich bohemians like Nancy Cunard and early 20th-
century avant-garde artists like Pablo Picasso, Andr Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and
Henri Matisse. As far back as 1912 the painter/theorist Wassily Kandinsky and Franz
Marc included African artifacts (as art) in theirBlue Rider Almanac, underwritten by the
impressive industrialist art collector Bernhard Koehler - the same year that Kandinsky
published his deservingly famous Concerning the Spiritual in Art. In 1916, the year that
Dada sprang to life, artist/writer/gallerist Marius de Zayas published African Negro Art:
Its Influence on Modern Art, a subject that had already occupied Tristan Tzara deeply.
Indeed, as part of the celebration of the 100th
birthday of Dada, Museum Rietberg in
Zurich is presentingDada Afrika, the first show themed on the Dadaists craze for the art
of Africa. A craze that Barry Schwabsky has characterized as a sketchy politics and
poetics of race. Even before Dada, de Zayas first saw African art in Paris and recognized
its influences on the development of modern art there. Subsequently he proposed an
exhibit of African art to photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, who once owned the
Kota (or Ndassa) "Reliquary Figure" (19th century) piece in the Dapper show. In 1914,
one of the first exhibits of African art (as seen in the context of modern art) was held at
Stieglitzs New York City gallery 291.
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Chefs-duvre dAfrique is divided into two large sections, with Central Africa on the
ground level and West Africa on the second floor. Among the highlights are the wood
figures carved by Fang, Baoul and Dogon masters, like the Dogon masterwork
Equestrian Figure (circa 17th /18th century) but also the lost wax cast gold disk
Pectoral disk akrafokonmu (18th century) from the Ashanti people of Cte dIvoire.
Dogon (Mali) Equestrian Figure (circa 17th /18th century) wood & pigment. H: 81 cm.
Ex Lester Wunderman
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Ashanti (Cte dIvoire) Pectoral disk akrafokonmu (18th century) lost wax cast gold
D:17 cm Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
The show follows on the heals of another outstanding show of African art; last yearsLes
Matres de la sculpture de Cte-d'Ivoire (Masters of Sculpture from Ivory Coast) at
Muse du Quai Branly. But this show is personal. Chefs-duvre dAfriquehonors the
Muse Dappers founding connoisseur Michel Leveau, who died November 14th
, 2012 on
the island of Gore, off Dakar (Senegal) as he was preparing an exhibition to be held in
Africa. Long passionate about Africa after working there, Leveau had created theDapper
Foundation for African Arts in 1983 in Amsterdam. Interestingly, the dapper name
Dapper comes from the seventeenth century Dutch humanist writer Olfert Dapper, whowroteDescription of Africain 1689.
Leveau never acquired anything in situ, straight out of Africa, however, but bought
exclusively in the West, especially at Sothebys and from Rive Gauche galleries and
private collectors, including Robert Visser, Carlo Monzino, Andr Fourquet and Hubert
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Goldet. Evidently Leveau appreciated provenance, as demonstrated by the fact that some
of the pieces in the collection were formerly the property of Helena Rubinstein, Lester
Wunderman, Louis Carr and Georges de Mir. Some are unique and without any
equivalent in the world, like the sculptures from Gabon (Fang, Kota, Punu), Cameroon
(Bangwa), Benin (Fon) and Mali (Dogon, Soninke). Leveau had opened the Muse
Dapper in Paris in May 1986 and it is now led by Leveaus wife Christiane Falgayrettes-
Leveau, who also is the curator of Chefs-duvre dAfrique.
Chefs-duvre dAfriqueputs on view an array of outstanding works of African art from
the Dapper collection. Including some which had previously belonged to leading
individuals who took part in the early appreciation of African art: Dadaist Tristan Tzara,
Charles Ratton and Paul Guillaume (the French art dealer who brought African art to the
attention of Guillaume Apollinaire, who in turn organized the Premire Exposition dArt
Ngre et dArt Ocanien in 1919) and sculptor Jacob Epstein. Indeed The Black Venus
was in the collection of Epstein.
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Baoul (Cte d'Ivoire) Statuette de conjoint mystique blolo bian (circa 19th century)
wood H:45 cm Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
The other carving that I found outstanding, aesthetically striking, and genuinely
delightful for its synthesis of introspective contemplation and formal detail, is the Baoul
Statuette de conjoint mystique blolo bian (Spouse Statuette Mystical Blolo Bian) (circa
19th century) from the Cte d'Ivoire. This intensely detailed piece is terrific in terms of
its magical presence - even as it does not appear to be a work of the Baoul Matre de
Himmelheber (there is no distinctively upwardly tilted head). As with many Baoul
figures, Statuette de conjoint mystique blolo bian is a blolo bian (spirit husband),
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representing a dream supreme spouse from the hinder world. This debonair carving is the
locus for such a spirit spouse, and once was the center of a magical shrine where a jealous
or vengeful spirit spouse could be appeased.
Installation view Muse Dapper with (right) Bangwa (Cameroun) Statue lefem
leffigie dune princesse (circa 1926) wood and pigment, H: 85 cm, Collecte en 1897-
1898 par Gustav Conrau puis rapporte en Europe en 1899 Anciennes collections du
Museum fr Vlkerkunde de Berlin dArthur Speyer de Charles Ratton dHelena
Rubinstein et de Harry A. Franklin Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
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Bakongo (Democratic Republic of the Congo) Nkisi Statuette (late-18th century)
wood, feathers, vegetal fiber, shell, mirror, hide, pigment H38 cm. Collected by Robert
Visser in 1903 Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
Also grabbing my attention was the lugubrious magical-religious Nkisi Statuette (late-
18th century) from The Democratic Republic of the Congo that was produced by the
Bakongo people. It is an amalgamated piece that visually screams of a fearlessness that
could inspire a new generation of aficionado enthusiasts. During the colonial period,
these statuettes were called "fetish" or "nail fetishes," as some of them are covered with
nails from head to toe. But nkisialso refers to an invisible world of personalized power
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that can be controlled by means of ritual practices.
Carved often as a human or a dog, their eyes are usually inlaid pieces of glass or mirrors.
They also include a receptacle containing different substances that is frequently attached
to the skull or affixed to the abdomen. The stuff inside is what magically activates the
statue. For me, this objects look of spectacular spirited defiance is salutary.
Bakongo figures threatening appearance make them a simple symbol of African
witchcraft. But they are produced with a wide variety of soothsayer intentions. With
them, perhaps we can see why the la bohme artists engagement with African works
were primarily limited to their formal qualities, as the meaning and function of the arts
divinational magic remains mysterious even now. Not least of all, because they serve(d)
multiple functions. For example, the Soninke Altar Figure (circa 10th century) from
Mali, has a strange sculptural quality that is beguilling. Was it used in initiation rituals of
those developing esoteric knowledge? Was it employed in a cult that worshipped the
ancestors? or ensured the fertility of women and the land? or for purposes of curing the
sad or ill? Or was it all the above??
In an art world overshadowed by the supposed clarity of celebrity branding and market
valuations, studying Chefs-duvre dAfrique reveals a plethora of genuine mysteries
behind the spiritual and social imperatives that greatly shaped and inspired what we now
call modern art.
Joseph Nechvatal
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Soninke (Mali) Altar Figure (circa 10th century) wood & pigment. H: 103 cm. Ex
Lester Wunderman Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris
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Kota or Ndassa (Congo) "Reliquary Figure" (19th century) wood copper brass. H: 60 cm.
Ex Paul Guillaume; Alfred Stieglitz Droits rservs Muse Dapper Paris