The keepers of female figurine By Fanny Wonu Veys On Tuesday, 15 April, 1997, Leendert van Lier (1910–1995) had his collection of African, Oceanic, and Indonesian art auctioned off posthumously at Christie’s Amsterdam. This female ancestor figure korwar constituted lot 184 in the sale.1 In this article, I will trace the hands through which the figure passed, proposing a possible original collector and other owners of the objects. LEENDERT VAN LIER Born in Amsterdam, Leendert van Lier was a successful expressionist painter and graphic artist of still lifes, landscapes, and village views. He combined his artistic expression with a passion for collecting, setting up his art dealing practice in 1950 at Kunstzaal Van Lier. The business was founded in 1927 on the Rokin in Amsterdam and centred around rotating exhibitions by modernist artists, including the magical realists Wim Schuhmacher, Raoul Hynckes, and Albert Carel Willink; neorealists Dick Ket, Edgar Fernhout, and Henry van de Velde; and expressionists Jan Sluijters, Charley Toorop, Hendrik Chabot, and Jan van Herwijnen. The work of these core artists was complemented with international artists such as Georg Grosz and Max Beckmann. Kunstzaal Van Lier also became known for its pioneering work in dealing in ethnographic art mainly from Africa and Asia.2 Although Carel van Lier (1897–1945), the founder of the gallery and a namesake, was not related to Leendert van Lier, the latter made use of the good reputation and international renown of the business.3 The exhibition of paintings by former Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in March 1951, and of work in September 1951 by the avant-garde painter Karel Appel, testifies to his wide-ranging taste. Still, he had a clear preference for modern early-twentieth-century art and ethnographic objects. Indeed, at the age of eighteen, Van Lier bought his first object, a Batak staff from Indonesia. At almost 85, this exact same object was the last one he sold.4 THEO VAN BAAREN Van Lier provided important Dutch collectors such as Theodorus Petrus van Baaren (1912–1989) and Cornelis Pieter Meulendijk (1912–1979) with their objects. Interestingly, this korwar came into the collection through Van Baaren whom Van Lier met at the art society Kunstliefde (Art Love). Ever since its founding in 1807, this Utrecht society has united artists and art lovers and is among the oldest art societies in the Netherlands.5 A poet, translator, theologist, professor, and artist, Theo van Baaren was a versatile personality. He studied Egyptology in Utrecht and developed his love for non-Western art when he met Van Lier through the Kunstliefde art circle. He focused mainly on West African masks and Pacific objects, which reflected his attraction to surrealism. The members of this art movement were fascinated with dreamlike subjects and processes of transformation and felt these aspects existed in some ethnographic art,in particular that from the Pacific. Van Baaren and his wife Gertrude Pape (1907–1988) were active representatives of the surrealist art movement in the Netherlands, which led to the founding of the surrealist journal De schone zakdoek (The Clean [or Nice] Handkerchief). 1 Christie’s Amsterdam 1997 2 Warren 1997 3 Lier 2003 4 Warren 1997 5 Kunstliefde 2021
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Michael Hamson Oceanic Art
