Wednesday September 15th 2024
PARCOURS DES MONDES
EDITION
WHO WE ARE
The Tribal Art Society features an online catalogue every month listing quality works of Tribal art that have been thoroughly vetted by our select members, who are the in-house experts.
By bringing together a group of trusted dealers specializing in Tribal art, our platform offers a unique collection of works of art that collectors will not find anywhere else online. To ensure the highest standards, gallery membership is by invitation only and determined by a selection committee.
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Cover Image: detail of a Dogon Figure. Presented by Yann Ferrandin on p. 26
01
Ag ERE I fA
Offering Bowl
Yoruba Nigeria
Early 20th century
Width: 32,4 cm
Provenance: Michael Oliver, New York Price: 7.500 euros
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Guilhem Montagut
T.: + 34 931 414 319
E.: monica@galeriamontagut.com w. : www.galeriamontagut.com
Agere Ifa bowls like this one were used by Ifa divination priests to hold the palm nuts essential for the Ifa divination process. The kneeling position symbolizes respect, devotion, and submission, and these bowls are also known as "olumeye," meaning "one who knows respect."
This finely carved sculpture depicts a female figure with a crested coiffure and facial scarification, kneeling with her buttocks resting on her heels and holding a bowl. The piece features a fine, encrusted patina in varied dark brown hues, accented with kaolin, earth ochres, and Ricketts blue pigments.
02
ASMAT SHIELD
Shield
Asmat People
Irian Jaya, Indonesian New Guinea, Melanesia.
Wood (giant buttress roots of the Mangrove tree) with traditional red, white, and black pigments with various gaps, native repairs and a patina of wear of age and use.
168 x 43 cm.
Provenance:
Ex Asher Eskenasy, Paris; David Rosenthal.
Exhibition :
The Black Islands. Galerie Le Gall-Peyroulet, Paris, 24/11/198815/01/1989
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Anthony J.P. Meyer
T.: +33 (0) 6 80 10 80 22
E.: ajpmeyer@gmail.com
W. : www.meyeroceanic.art
A very fine war-shield decorated with stylized geometrical forming three registers of elongated double concentric circles. The decor is carved in champ levé with raised borders surrounding the fields of color. The reverse is plain with a raised structural reinforcement rib extending the entire length of the shield above and below the salient handle.
Bangoro go MAS k
Mask
Senufo Folona / Tengrela Region, Ivory Coast / Mali
Early 20th century Wood Height: 56,5 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, France Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: David Serra
T.: +34 (0) 667525597
E.: galeria@davidserra.es W. : www.davidserra.es
A MAHI g UERE D OLO
Boudougou guer Wood
89 cm (h.) x 52 cm (w.) x 38 cm (D.)
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Galerie Christophe Person
T: 01 45 30 57 80
E : Christophe@christopheperson.com W.:www.christopheperson.com
The work of Amahiguéré Dolo (1955-2022) is unique in the history of contemporary African art. Born in the cradle of Dogon culture, defying the prohibitions due to his caste, he determinedly followed his destiny as a creator. As a child, he was fascinated by the sculptures of a blacksmith friend of his father, the only caste authorized to handle wood. At the same time, from primary school, he began ceramics, diverting it from its vernacular use practiced by women, and secretly sculpted wood. Called to order by his father, he decided to train in painting at the National Institute of Arts in Bamako (1976-1980) then became cultural advisor to the Sites and Monuments of Mali for 10 years in the Gao region. It was his meeting with the Spanish artist Miquel Barceló in 1988 which decided him to definitively embrace a career as a sculptor.
Using only dead wood, because for him “work should never hurt nature”, his sculpture is characterized by respect for the material. Following the natural veins and holes of the wood, there is no straight line, the curvature is granted to the complexity of nature but also to the mythological fundamentals. Forms then emerge from the fallen wood, transcended by the spirit of the nature and the soul of a being.
“The wood guides me”. Amahiguéré Dolo does not, however, claim to venture into the territory of sacred art. He transcends tradition to formulate a universal message and thereby establishes himself as a major artist of contemporary art in Africa.
A MAHI g UERE D OLO
Untitled 2018-2019
Oil and organic materials on canvas
204 cm x 130 cm
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Galerie Christophe Person
T: 01 45 30 57 80
E : Christophe@christopheperson.com
W.:www.christopheperson.com
Dolo was born in a village in the Sangha region, the place where the ark of the eight divine ancestors is said to have descended according to Dogon cosmogony. Dolo's art is one of a man deeply initiated, notably by his father who had himself been elected Hogon, local religious leader, guardian of traditions.
After 1988, Amahiguéré Dolo settled in Ségou, far from the Dogon country, to fulfill his destiny there without risking shocking the members of his community, wood sculpture being reserved only for blacksmiths. However, he remains strongly anchored in the ancient culture to which he belongs. His work is then a form of syncretism between spiritual, ethnic and artistic elements. His sculptures, paintings, works on paper, ceramics and lithographs are strongly influenced by Dogon mythology. This revolves around a creative myth where speech is the first creative impulse and where the twins Ogo and Nommo represent the complementary figures of good and evil, one of divination and the other of fertility. This duality shines through in Dolo’s works by the constant representation of two figures, two identities.
The composition of this painting is marked by the presence of this vertical construction rising from the red ground towards the sky. We find again these two figures, probably representing the male-female duality, the Ogo and the Nommo, the red and black of the earth that create a living element. Canvases with pigments and the addition of fragments of terracotta or pieces of charcoal, are part of the work from the last period of the artist's life. Amahiguéré Dolo's sculptures, paintings, drawings, ceramics and lithographs bring out what is not visible.
The exhibition “Dolo, le Dogon du siècle” at the CHRISTOPHE PERSON Gallery in 2024 was the first retrospective of the artist’s works ever made, participating to the rediscovery of the contemporary artist in the occidental world and more generally of the Dogon culture.
D AyA k MAS k
Mask
Kalimantan, Kenyah or Kayan Dayak
Borneo
19th century or earlier
Height: 34,5 cm
Provenance:
Provenance:
Michael Woerner, Bangkok Collection A. Kurc, Paris. Serge Schoffel, Brussels
Art Market, Paris
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Zubek gallery
E.: petr@zubek-gallery.de
T.: +49 (0)1523 1064 749
W.: www.zubek-gallery.de
D EI gAN, N OH
THEATRE MAS k
Mask
Made by Miyata Chikugo, his hotiron cartouche stamped on the inside Japan
Early Edo period 17th to early 18th century Japanese hinoki cypress wood, pigments, lacquer
Height: 21 cm Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Yann Ferrandin
T.: +33 143260837
E.: yann.ferrandin@gmail.com
W. : www.yannferrandin.com
Deigan is a complex female character undergoing a process of mutation into a demon-being. Her gleaming teeth and eyes, her slightly dishevelled fringes and her tangible tenseness are features originally intended to interpret the spiritual excitement of a profound religious experience. Through this mask, they allow the actor to express the torment that arises when rejection or betrayal begin to transmute love into hate. Miyata Chikugo is recognised as the brilliant disciple of an illustrious 17th-century Noh mask master-sculptor: Ōmi Kodama Mitsumasa.
D O g ON SCULPTURE
Sculpture, N’duleri style
Dogon
Bandiagara plateau region, Mali 15th century - 17th century
Wood, crusty patina, thick and finely cracked
Height: 36 cm
Provenance:
Krohn collection, Germany
Alexandre Espenel, Paris
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Yann Ferrandin
T.: +33 143260837
E.: yann.ferrandin@gmail.com
W. : www.yannferrandin.com
The C14 dating test carried out on the wood by Re.S. Artes no. C 145392B-1 is in line with this estimated dating, giving a result of between 1446 and 1620 AD with a very high probability (77%) for the second half of the 15th century (1446 - 1514 AD).
D O g ON S TATUE
Statue Dogon Mali
19th century or earlier
Height: 35 cm
Provenance: Donald Taitt
Price: 6.500 euros
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Gregory
Chesne
E.: gregorychesne@yahoo.fr
LU b A f ETISH
Fetish figure
Luba
D.R. of the Congo
Height: 19,5 cm
Provenance:
Old Christie's sale Price: 7.000 euros
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Gregory
Chesne E.: gregorychesne@yahoo.fr
gROUP O f A RCHAIC f I g URES
Group of Archaic figures
Thule and Okvik cultures - Ancient Eskimo Alaska
Between 200 BC and 1700 AD Marine Ivory Price on request
An elongated torso, a pure, stylized face, a gaze from eternity…
Are we looking at an idol from the Cyclades, a prehistoric Venus of Lespugue, or an ancestor from Easter Island?
The truth is elsewhere: these figures carved in marine ivory, patinated by the cold, the wind and the passage of time, come from those vast frozen lands of the Far North.
Antique works of art from Alaska, born of archaic cultures of the Arctic, are extremely rare.
Over 30 sculptures in ivory representing human or animal figures, veritable “miniature giants”, along with shamanic masks are presented at Galerie Flak in September 2024.
Archaic Eskimo art – whose oldest sculptures from the frozen permafrost go back nearly 2,500 years –conceals poetry, mystery and a power of evocation that are unique.
Stylization of features, alliance of naturalism and symbolism, sculptural finesse, sobriety and a hieratic quality – these are the key features characterizing this several thousand years old aesthetic style, whose parallels with modern art are striking.
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Julien Flak
M.: +33 6 84 52 81 36 E.: contact@galerieflak.com W. : www.galerieflak.com
k ATSINA f I g URE
Ma’alo Katsina – The Stick Katsina doll Hopi
Arizona, USA
Circa 1900-20s
Carved wood (cottonwood root), pigments
Height: 24 cm
Provenance:
Collection Nichols, Kansas, USA
Publication:
« L’Appel des Kachinas – Katsina Calling » https://www.galerieflak.com/publications/ Price on request
Katsina dolls (or katsinam) represent spirits or gods from the pantheon of the Pueblo peoples in the American Southwest. Given to children, Katsina dolls constituted a teaching tool allowing them to familiarize themselves with the spiritual world and perpetuating knowledge of the founding myths on which their society was based.
Ma’alo Katsina Dancer appeared during Niman (the Home-Going Ceremony) on the First Mesa and during Night Dances or plaza ceremonies in the other Hopi villages. His arrival was a prayer for rain and for bountiful harvests, hence the shape of his right ear resembling a squash blossom. It seems that Ma'alo dances have become increasingly rare over the past century, with this spirit gradually being replaced by other figures from the pantheon playing a similar role. When he danced, Ma’alo was often accompanied by Takur Mana as his sister Katsina.
This Katsina doll is part of our thematic exhibition “Ensembles” that is on view during Parcours des Mondes 2024 at the Galerie Flak, Sept 10-15, 2024.
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Julien Flak
M.: +33 6 84 52 81 36
E.: contact@galerieflak.com
W. : www.galerieflak.com
L E gA MAS k
Mask
Lega/Bwami
D.R. of the Congo
Wood, kaolin, plant fiber
Height: 26 cm
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Alain & Frantz Dufour
T.: +33 6 79521492
E.: frantz.dufour@aa-galeries.com
W. : www.aa-galeries.com
L WALU MAS k
Mask
Ndongo Munene
D.R. of the Congo
Early 20th c century
Height: 26,5 cm
Provenance:
In situ collected by Peter Loebarth in 1971
Henricus & Nina Simonis, Düsseldorf
Luc & Ann Huysveld, Belgium
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Zubek gallery
E.: petr@zubek-gallery.de
T.: +49 (0)1523 1064 749
W.: www.zubek-gallery.de
N OH MAS k O f Fukai NAMED Tsune F uka
Attributed to Hokan Deme Mitsunao, mask
Japan
Edo period
18th century
Wood, gesso, polychrome pigments
Provenance:
Bizen Ikeda daimyō family
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Galerie Mingei
T.: +33 (0)6 09 76 60 68
E: mingei.arts.gallery@gmail.com
W: www.mingei.gallery
16
PORAPORA b ONE MAS k DESCAZIAUX
Mask
Adjirab
Porpora River Region, Low Sepik
Region, PNG, Melanesia
Pig skull frontal bone, plant fibers, and cassowary feathers, with a fine patina of age and use
Height: 23 cm excluding feathers
Provenance: Collected in the field by Pierre J. Langlois (1927-2015) and Marcel Évrard (1920-2009) in 1959-60.
Henri Descazeaux
Subsequently by descent and is part of a set of African, Oceanic and American art objects acquired by Mr. Descazeaux from Parisian tribal art galleries in the 1950s/60s (Ratton, Leloup...), but also from private individuals, including André Fourquet, a friend of the family
Subsequently misidentified as coming from Timor and offered for sale as such (see Osenat - Les Curiosités De Breteuil, 22 May 2024, lot 191)
Exhitibion: 30 Porpora masks, at the Galerie Claude Bernard, 5 rue des BeauxArts, Paris, organized by Marcel Evrard, 6 Oct - 6 Nov 1961
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Anthony J.P. Meyer
T.: +33 (0) 6 80 10 80 22
E.: ajpmeyer@gmail.com
W. : www.meyeroceanic.art
A small mask, characteristic of the corpus of disconcerting objects brought back by Pierre Langlois and Marcel Evrard during their trip on the Porpora River in 1959. This is a complete specimen in its construction and corresponds perfectly to the majority of masks of this typology which are made with the frontal section of a pig's skull.
The function and use of this type of mask remains obscure and their “raison d'être”, although sometimes compared to the Maro reliquary figures of the area, is not yet clearly established.
S ENU fO f I g URE
Senufo
Height: 33 cm Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Alain & Frantz Dufour
T.: +33 6 79521492
E.: frantz.dufour@aa-galeries.com
W. : www.aa-galeries.com
Figure
Ivory Coast Wood
S HINZO
Shintō male deity figure Japan
14th-15th century, Dated by Carbon 14: 1315-1422
Wood and pigments
25,5 cm (w) x 32,5 cm (h) Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Galerie Mingei
T.: +33 (0)6 09 76 60 68
E: mingei.arts.gallery@gmail.com W: www.mingei.gallery
S
O g ONI k UN
Tjiwara headdress
Bamana Mali
Early 20th century Wood Height: 42 cm
Price: on request
Provenance:
Private collection, France (acquired in late 1950’s)
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
David Serra
T.: +34 (0) 667525597
E.: galeria@davidserra.es
W. : www.davidserra.es
TADEP fI g URE
Figure
Mambila Nigeria
First half of 20th century or earlier Wood
44,5 cm x 21 cm x 23 cm (10033)
Provenance:
Jean-Paul Agogué, France
Private collection, Belgium
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Spectandum
T.: +32 475 648 678 E.: contact@spectandum.com W. : www.spectandum.com
Tadep figures like this play a central role in the cult of the Mambila People.Tadep of this size are very rare, and the execution of the one presented here is particularly refined.The assymetrical position of arms and legs make for a very dynamic composition.The almost abstract rendering of hands and feet allow us also to relate it to a sculpture of a couple, which used to belong to the Doris and Eric Beyersdorf Collection, and which was sold by Christies in london in 1994.
21
TATANUA MAS k
Mask
New Ireland, P.N.G. Wood, pigments and turbo petholatus
Height: 22 cm
Provenance:
Collection Villeminot Price : 12.000 euros
Obj ECT P RESENTED by: Renaud Vanuxem
M.: +33 6 07 11 50 60 E.: rvanuxem@yahoo.fr
W. : www.renaudvanuxem.com
T E k E P OWER fI g URE WITH THREE CHAR g ES AND CIRCUMCISION k NI v E
Figure Teke
DRC.
First half of 20th century or earlier
Wood, organic material
57 cm x 17 cm x 16 cm (10077)
Provenance Collection Goldet
Philippe Ratton
Daniel Hourdé
R Lehuard
Price on request
Obj ECT P RESENTED by:
Spectandum
T.: +32 475 648 678
E.: contact@spectandum.com
W. : www.spectandum.com
Reliquary statue Téké Republic of Congo. Hardwood, resin, cowries, metal. old patina of use. H. 57 cm. man standing naked, hands placed on his abdomen, hidden by the abdominal reliquary. Two resin medicinal charges are attached to the head, a thin hair beard necklace adorns the chin. The eyes are represented by cowrie shells. Attached to the neck by a leather tie is a small circumcision knife and a shell. The feet are missing. Late 19th century/ early 20th century.
