GALERIE ART PREMIER AFRICAIN GALERIE ART PRIMITIF AFRICAIN AFRICAN ART GALLERY

The Authenticity of African Sculptures

by Henri Kamer

The issue of authenticity of African art has been central to collectors for decades.  Henri Kamer, who was president of the International Arts Experts Association at the time, published an outstanding account of the state of the matter in Artes d'Afrique Noire, No. 12 (1974).  The text  that follows is extracted from an English translation of that article, and has been edited further.  The original includes a number of illustrations.  They are not included here because I believe the text suffices without them. 

The original version, including the illustrations, in French and with the English translation, is 

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


[Cover]

[1: empty]

[2]
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


[3]

(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 Nok civilization

The Nok civilization was discovered recently, in 1943 a fragment of a terracotta statue was unearthed in a tin mine near Nok on the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria. Following the discovery of other pieces of statues of high artistic quality were found near the city of Sokoto and creates lots of reactions when they appeared on the market of Western art. Since that date the statues from the city of Katsina still in northern Nigeria have been discovered, but like most of these magnificent statues excavated from unregulated very little information has reached us about their functions.

Several styles of terracotta statues were identified all dated between 400 BC and 200 AD there is currently very difficult to know if these styles correspond to different traditions or they are just regional variations.
More statues of styles, differences were found in the same regions, such as a number of terracotta-called classical style have been discovered in the region of Katsina to three hundred kilometers from their cultural center: the town of Nok.
It is likely that future research will give us more information on what is currently one of the great mysteries of African art.

The classical style known as Nok terracotta, includes statues of real size, with large elongated heads , hair forms developed and we identified them especially thanks to the eyes of an eyebrow and upper linear lower curve of an eyebrow, Their body is usually decorated with many jewels in terracotta, reminiscent of beads stones otherwise similar to those that were found during excavations.

This is a copy of the catalogue of the exhibition of 1923 in Brooklyn Museum, In 1903 Stewart Culin became the founding curator of the department of ethnology at the museum of the Brooklyn institute of arts and sciences, now the Brooklyn museum Culin a self taught ethnologist built the foundation of four curatorial collections for the museum, acquiring objects representing African Asian native American and estaern European culture

Culin was among the first curator to recognize museum installation as an art form, he was also among the first to display ethnological as art objects, not as ethnographic specimens. This approach is evidenced in his exhibition “primitive negro art”

The exhibition opened in april 1923 and displayed African objects he had acquired in Europe from dealers. Along with his colleagues Culin set the parameters for cultural representation in museum through his collection decisions and innovative installations.

[ See the continuation... ]

This is a copy of the catalogue of the exhibition of 1923 in Brooklyn Museum, In 1903 Stewart Culin became the founding curator of the department of ethnology at the museum of the Brooklyn institute of arts and sciences, now the Brooklyn museum Culin a self taught ethnologist built the foundation of four curatorial collections for the museum, acquiring objects representing African Asian native American and estaern European culture

Culin was among the first curator to recognize museum installation as an art form, he was also among the first to display ethnological as art objects, not as ethnographic specimens. This approach is evidenced in his exhibition “primitive negro art”

The exhibition opened in april 1923 and displayed African objects he had acquired in Europe from dealers. Along with his colleagues Culin set the parameters for cultural representation in museum through his collection decisions and innovative installations.

See the continuation... ]

Cabinet of curiosities
 
"Musei Wormiani Historia", the frontispiece from the Museum Wormianum depicting Ole Worm's cabinet of curiosities.A Cabinet of curiosities was an encyclopedic collection in Renaissance Europe of types of objects whose categorical boundaries were yet to be defined. Modern terminology would categorize the objects included as belonging to natural history (sometimes faked), geology, ethnography, archaeology, religious or historical relics, works of art (including cabinet paintings) and antiquities. "The Kunstkammer was regarded as a microcosm or theater of the world, and a memory theater. The Kunstkammer conveyed symbolically the patron's control of the world through its indoor, microscopic reproduction." Of Charles I of England's collection, Peter Thomas has succinctly stated, "The Kunstkabinett itself was a form of propaganda"[2] Besides the most famous, best documented cabinets of rulers and aristocrats, members of the merchant class and early practitioners of science in Europe, formed collections that were precursors to museums. They were also known by various names such as Cabinet of Wonder, and in German Kunstkammer or Wunderkammer (wonder-room).

 History
The term cabinet originally described a room rather than a piece of furniture. The classic style of cabinet of curiosities emerged in the sixteenth century, although more rudimentary collections had existed earlier. The Kunstkammer of Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (ruled 1576-1612), housed in the Hradschin at Prague was unrivalled north of the Alps; it provided a solace and retreat for contemplation that also served to demonstrate his imperial magnificence and power in symbolic arrangement of their display, ceremoniously presented to visiting diplomats and magnates. Rudolf's uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria also had a collection, with a special emphasis on paintings of people with interesting deformities, which remains

AFRICAN SCULPTURE

Introduction
Context of African sculpture
Places of traditional African sculpture
Canons of African sculpture
Techniques and creative
Aesthetic
Role of African sculpture in the middle
Universal impact of African sculpture
Bibliographic


Introduction

Never has been written about as much ink as traditional African sculpture. Ever, despite all attempts, the man has managed to evacuate his mental field, much less its history, that is to say of his encounter with the other. It has been a cornerstone to measure the "civilization" of the black man and his ability to create capacity variously appreciated throughout history until early this century, cubism helping, the unanimously begins to make the exceptional nature of African sculpture that was always confused with African art which it is a party, probably the most important, if one were to judge solely by the number Parts created that we have reached.

Context of African sculpture

We can talk about African sculpture in isolation from the rest of the arts of Africa south of Sahara. Every word in this area is responsible not only meaningless but history, and if we chose the term "African art" is to fully assume all we have inherited from the past in

Artists Abomey

dialogue on an African Kingdom

Mezzanine East
Tuesday 10 November 2009 to Sunday, January 31, 2010
Commission: Gaëlle Beaujean, head of collections Africa Branly

with the collaboration of Joseph Adande, art historian at the University of Abomey and Ahonon Leonard, manager and curator of the site of the royal palaces of Abomey


This exhibition presents 82 works through graphics and 8 elders, artists of the kingdom of Dahomey (1600-1894), in present-day Benin.

Its purpose is to present their works but also to question their role and status within society danhoméenne, and more specifically in the capital Abomey. Indeed, the artists chosen by the king, enjoyed great privileges while being constrained by their allegiance. The exhibition will explore their creations through the different functions of art in Abomey.

It is also to involve artists and families of artists in each type of objects presented. This new approach is the result of a research conducted by the research team, which resulted in an award-sometimes very finely certain objects.

The exhibition will last a double look at the works presented: the country of origin (through the participation of two scientists from Benin) and the French commissioner.
route of exposure

After an introductory space with an old map and a genealogy of the kings

At a glance the Other


History of European eyes on Africa, America and Oceania

At a glance, and one devoted to successive visions brought by Europeans on the cultures of Africa, the Americas and Oceania. This program is a pretext to put into perspective by thematic series, the relativity of our eyes on the threshold of a new museum. Rather than return to the past, this catalog (and exhibition which is the source) marks a starting point.

From the Renaissance to today, the "idols of the Indians", "instruments of the natives," "primitive fetishes," "Negro Sculpture" or "first arts" were the witnesses of likes and dislikes, revealing reflections on otherness. The originality of this publication reflects historical depth that allows to include these objects in a broader history of art.

The Musée du Quai Branly appealed not only to works of other cultures, reflecting the first contacts with Europe, but also to European works within the midst of which they were placed. The catalog shows as well, in a strange series of chapters, how European eyes have gradually allowed other creations from, for example, curiosity amazed rankings systematic evolutionary wanderings of the images of the Universal.

Throughout the pages, the reader travels with the Nave of Charles V., Écouen treasure museum, portraits of Indians of Brazil painted in 1637 for the palace of the Prince of Nassau, rhinoceros horn cups Habsburg Pre-Columbian

African ivory
February 19 to May 11, 2008


From the sixteenth century, a number of pieces of ivory carved by African artists, from areas that correspond to the mouth of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Nigeria today, came in aristocratic collections, less like objects curiosities than as exotic and luxurious pieces. This exhibition brings together twenty of the oldest African objects collected by Europeans and now kept in French collections, accompanied by documentary highlighting the historical depth of the African continent and its productions and the question of the use of iconographic between Europe and Africa. African ivory presents the public a little known aspect of the history of taste and art history.


Commissioner: EZIO BASSANI

Italian from Varese, a leading specialist in African art, Ezio Bassani began in 1973, to compile the catalog of African sculpture in museums in Italy. From 1977 he taught African art history at the Università Internazionale dell'Arte (UIA) in Florence.
Through his historical knowledge, he was appointed to the Scientific Committee of the University of Florence (UIA)., Editorial Committee of the journal Critica d'Arte, the Committee of Advisers international publishing the Journal of the History of Collections Oxford. He also served on the Scientific Council of the Mission foreshadowing Museum of Arts and Civilization (Musée du Quai Branly) in Paris.
Alongside these