GALERIE ART PREMIER AFRICAIN GALERIE ART PRIMITIF AFRICAIN AFRICAN ART GALLERY

Full text, digitalised by Lies Strijker and presented by the .Centre Aequatoria
Notes on the digitalisation and presentation


[Cover]

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IMPRIMI POTEST
Kanzenze, 12-2-1952
P. Simeon, o.m.f.
Sup. Reg.

IMPRIMATUR
Luabo-Kamina, 30-5-1952
+VICTOR PETRUS KEUPPENS
Vic. Ap. de Lulua


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(Translated into English from "La Philosophie Bantoue" the French Version by Dr. A. Rubbens of Fr. Tempels' original work. The Revd. Colin King, M.A. Translator.)

With a Foreword to the English Edition by Dr Margaret Read, C.B.E.Ph. D.,M.A., formerly Professor of Education and Head of the Department Of Education in Tropical Areas, The

The Sejen bird figures of the Senufo People, Ivory Coast
The art of the Senufo people is quite popular nowadays, and their sculpture and masks are found in many European and American collections.  There are about 3 million Senufo living in the north of the Ivory Coast and the southern area of Mali. As in every country that was in touch with Islam and Christianity, many aspects of the traditional "native" culture were destroyed, especially in the 1950's where a new syncretic movment, "Massa or Alkora", was in the area.  There has been much French ethnologic field researchin that region.  Those pioneers had their own methods of acquiring pieces (that's another story).

Après la maison de ventes aux enchères Gaïa,

Artcurial et Pierre Berge & associés se lancent dans

l'art africain contemporain. Sans que les oeuvres,

pour l'instant, rencontrent le succès de l'art dit tribal

auprès des collectionneurs. Explications.

NICOLAS MICHEL

Acheter de l'art africain

contemporain ? Allez-y,

c'est le moment !

« Le contexte est très

bon pour l'investisseur,

explique Fabian

Bocart, directeur des recherches quantitatives

chez Tutela Capital. Les prix sont

plus que raisonnables pour des travaux

de grande qualité. On peut s'offrir des

pièces de maître pour 12000 euros ! » Et

il poursuit : « Nous sommes à l'aube de

ce qui va se passer quand les Africains

vont se rendre compte de leur richesse.

Profitons-en ' Achetons avant qu'ils

ne se réveillent ! » Les propos peuvent

paraître cyniques, mais ce sont ceux

d'un homme dont le job est de conseiller

des collectionneurs qui veulent placer

de l'argent et considèrent l'art comme

un investissement. Rien à voir avec un

mécène ou un philanthrope.

En la matière, il a raison: les Africains

sommeillent encore. Ou du moins dormaient-

ils à poings fermés, le 24 octobre

dernier, lors de la vente « Africa

scènes I » organisée par la maison Artcurial

à Paris. Sur plus de

Eternal Ancestors - African Art and Modernism -

The Pende


The Pende pushed north by the Lunda, during the 17th, settled in an area located between Loango and Kasai regions. Two hundred years later Tchokwe invaded the territories for when they migrated north from Angola, but were forced to return the territories annexed by the Belgian colonizers. The 500000 Pende mainly farmers are not governed by a central authority but by the heads of households, known as the Djogo, sometimes aided by the noble nobles. Young men are organized by age group, and must pass through various initiatives including that of circumcision during adolescence.

Art Pende can be divided into two traditions, arts, the first comes from Western Pende who live along the river Lodango, the second focuses on the eastern Pende along the Kasai River.


Masks:

The Western Pende have used a dozen different types of masks during their ceremony, they have eyes looking down a triangular nose, and sometimes leaving a protruding mouth see the teeth.

Often found three types of masks in Western collections. The first long-beard is called Kiwoyo Muyombo. The second known Mangu, show the features distorted, probably evoking the effects of an epileptic seizure. The third mask Phumbu chief called, has a hair divided into three parts.

Masks and helmets masks, associated with Pende, Oriental Minyangi are called respectively, and Giphogo. Worn by dancers during initiation ceremonies, they have

The Luba


The Luba Empire was founded in 1585, in the depression of the Upemba by King Kongholo, his nephew and successor Llunga Kalala, enlarges rapidly until the kingdom territory on the left bank of the River Lualaba. At the height of the kingdom more than a million people live in tribes, various paid tribute to King Luba. At the end of XIX with DVANCED Ovimbudu of Angola and the raids of slave traders Islamic empire s'affiblit and collapsed when the Belgian colonists arrived.

The economy lm'empire Luba came from payment of tribute and redistribution of resources from agriculture, fishing and hunting, and mining.

Luba artists have created many objects related to the activity of the court, the prestige objects were usually decorated with female figures everywhere in Luba art. Because of the huge area covered by the empire there are wide variations in the corpus stylistic art Luba.


Masks:


Luba masks rare, are found mainly in the eastern part of the empire. One type of mask Luba, very similar to the masks of kifwebe Songye but has more rounded features. There are very few zoomorphic masks.


Statues:


Luba artists have sculpted female statues standing or kneeling Mboko called, cleverly taking a cut, and who served during the ceremonies of divination. The statues stand uncommon, and probably representing the forest spirits or ancestors are covered with a

Linguistically, the Songye form part of the Luba, world, itself part of the Bantu group. Indeed there is a century old inter relation between the Songye and Luba, and they therefore share many cultural traits. Some art forms are part of this, shared heritage, according to the oral tradition the founding chieftains of the first luba kingdom, were of songye origins, and it is the Songye who introduced the idea of social stratification to the Luba and consequently the first luba chieftains are said to be of Songye Ancestry.

ENVIRONMENT

The Songye used to live in a forest environment till the end of the first half of the second millennium. Slowly their habitat became more savannah-like. We can still find traces of this former forest habitat in some of the art they produce. For example the costume worn with the Kifwebe mask must be entirely made from products originating in the forest from such as bark, pelts fibers etc. Today the Songye mainly live in the savannah but pockets of forest remain in their territory.

The Songye occupy a very large area in the north of the southeastern quadrant of the republic democratic of Congo.

Due to the vastness of the songye territory, it is obvious that regional stylistic, iconic and typological, exist in the ritual art produced. Some of these are the result of cross influences with their immediate neighbors.

NEIGHBORS

To the North of the Songye territory, live the Sungu, Tetela, the western Kusu. In the northwest we will find a few luba chiefdoms. To the west the Luntu, Luba – kassaï Kete and Binji peoples resides; one can even find pockets of Chokwe people in the southwest of Songye territory. To the south of the Songye we find a variety of luba speacking, polities, the same is true, for eastern frontier where in addition to the eastern kusu, we find Luba, Hemba, Kunda, Lumbu and Buyu people. Judging from their

DOGON ART

Dominating from the XIVth century the Bandiagra's cliffs, in Malia, DOGON initiated

a very old artistic production. Line and  shape's style is the main criterion to show power

of rites organising their society. Each work is a deep representation of cosmogony structuring

daily life.

A single cosmogony

As a patriarcal society, all professions have a ritual meaning according to God Amma and

his eight ancestors. DOGON

AFRICA COLORS

exhibition from September 30 to December 6, 2010

This new exhibition offers a unique ethnic landscape through the theme of color in African art. Masks of War Dan masks Ibibio of Nigeria, Armand Auxiètre,

Gallery director "The eye and hand" presents a selection

representative works of customs or practices of these civilizations:

Pure and simple, the colors are chosen by the artists

to evoke in turn respect for ancestors, virility new initiates, death ... Gallery Eye and the Hand invite you to discover the symbolic

* Mask Anang, Language Arts Ibidio, Nigeria, XX, Wood and pigments.

According Fagg this hairstyle could mimic that of the wives of missionaries. This mask was probably made in the years 20/30 by famous sculptor Akpan Chukwu death in the early 50 or by one of his disciples.

Some features like the nose rounded chin bulging contours clearly defined eyes and lips that speak for attribution. Mask probably the same time and same sculptor is the Musée Barbier Muller.

Opening Thursday, September 30, 2010, from 6:30 p.m.

Art Gallery of eye and hand

41 rue de Verneuil

75007 Paris

contact@agalom.com

www.african-paris.com

AFRICA COLORS

exhibition from September 30 to December 6, 2010

This new exhibition offers a unique ethnic landscape through the theme of color in African art. Masks of War Dan masks Ibibio of Nigeria, Armand Auxiètre,

Gallery director "The eye and hand" presents a selection

representative works of customs or practices of these civilizations:

Pure and simple, the colors are chosen by the artists

to evoke in turn respect for ancestors, virility new initiates, death ... Gallery Eye and the Hand invite you to discover the symbolic

* Mask Anang, Language Arts Ibidio, Nigeria, XX, Wood and pigments.

According Fagg this hairstyle could mimic that of the wives of missionaries. This mask was probably made in the years 20/30 by famous sculptor Akpan Chukwu death in the early 50 or by one of his disciples.

Some features like the nose rounded chin bulging contours clearly defined eyes and lips that speak for attribution. Mask probably the same time and same sculptor is the Musée Barbier Muller.

Opening Thursday, September 30, 2010, from 6:30 p.m.

Art Gallery of eye and hand

41 rue de Verneuil

75007 Paris

contact@agalom.com

www.african-paris.com

Arts of Africa first Black Arts Spring 1981 No. 77
When we examine the significance of an African mask, we do not seek to know what the "message" it provides, by virtue of some essential notion of disguise and by his presence, but rather what kind of continuum it belongs. The masks are at the confluence of pictorial traditions, oral and functional none appears (under secular unable to recognize the subjects and even less discernible. The understanding of pictorial code used requires not only a review but a review of developed components as needed through the original context. Let us offer an example of the image with respect to the buffalo in the region of Zaire Kwango-Kwilu South West (1).
Synceros caffer, the largest of African cattle is a massive animal, black, cropped hair, measuring 1.50 m at the shoulder and weighing nearly a ton (900 kg.) (Fig. 1). Its heavy horns have a spacing of one meter, are curved downward and inward and form large lumps to their bases. This animal, originally occupied the central, eastern and southern Africa, frequenting the open plains, open woods and river beds and marshes bordered by reeds. Commonly preview herds of a dozen to a hundred heads, he used to graze and graze the early morning and again at dusk, seeking shade during the hottest hours but sometimes moving at night . Females do not carry a calf for about eleven months.

Considered peaceful, was injured when he can become, for hunters, the most dangerous animal of any big game on the continent (Fig. 2). He is known for his