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La Diagonale du Fou

par Jean-Michel Bouhours,
conservateur au musée national d'art moderne, commissaire de l'exposition Arman



"Je suis placé en fianchetto", répondait Arman à Marcel Duchamp en 1961, à New York. Il tentait par ce subterfuge d'attirer sur lui l'attention du "maître". En utilisant ce langage de joueur d'échecs – qui désigne la place du fou en contrôle de la diagonale –, l'artiste français, signataire du manifeste des nouveaux réalistes en octobre 1960, décrivait sa position sur la carte de la scène artistique française : regardant Paris depuis Nice, il se figurait sur cet axe majeur avec devant lui une perspective quasi infinie.

Arman affectionnait les boîtes, les cases, les territoires prospectifs du jeu d'échec et surtout du jeu de go. Déplaçons-nous, pour aborder Arman, sur les huit cases d'une hypothétique diagonale du fou.



A.1 : Le monde est grand, mais, à l'image du damier, il s'agit de le posséder. Claude Pascal, Yves Klein et Arman se le partagent en 1947, dans une salle de judo du Club de la police de Nice. Klein s'approprie l'espace, signe le bleu du ciel. Arman reçoit en dotation l'objet manufacturé, qui devait devenir progressivement le lieu commun de son oeuvre.

B.2 : Le quantitatif chez Arman met en jeu un principe de répétition d'où surgit la perception d'une différence, si infime soitelle. Arman avait le goût de la collection, amassant tout, depuis les plantes grasses sur le balcon de son appartement niçois jusqu'aux armures japonaises, sans oublier l'art nègre dont il devient un éminent spécialiste. Pour un objet affectionné, Arman était capable de tout : vendre,

La drouille :
des objets sans valeur qui encombrent les maisons et qui au fil des années ont été oubliés, on les retrouvent sur les trottoirs des puces de Saint Ouen ou dans les manettes de Drouot.

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African art

African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diasporas, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.

    * Emphasis on the human figure: The human figure has always been a the primary subject matter for most African art, and this emphasis even influenced certain European traditions. For example in the fifteenth century Portugal traded with the Sapi culture near the Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs, most notably in the addition of the human figure (the human figure typically did not appear in Portuguese saltcellars). The human figure may symbolize the living or the dead, may reference chiefs, dancers, or various trades such as drummers or hunters, or even may be an anthropomorphic representation of a god or have other votive function. Another common theme is the inter-morphosis of human and animal.

Yoruba bronze head sculpture, Ife, Nigeria c. 12th century A.D.

    * Visual abstraction: African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation. This is because many African artworks generalize stylistic norms. Ancient Egyptian art, also usually thought of as naturalistically depictive, makes use of highly abstracted and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted.

    * Emphasis on sculpture: African artists

P R E F A C E


In one of the chaos of rocks the most amazing of Africa, has a population of farmer-warriors who was one of the last of the French domain to lose its independence.


For most whites in West Africa, the Dogon are dangerous men, if not the most backward of the Federation. Ilspassent to practice human sacrifice and even to defend themselves better against all the outside influences that they live a difficult country. Some writers have told their small fears when supposedly daring excursions. From these legends and the pretext of revolts often due to misunderstandings, it has sometimes taken in exile of entire villages.


In short, the Dogon represent one of the finest examples of primitive savage and this opinion is shared by some black Muslims who, intellectually, are not better equipped than whites to appreciate those of their fellow faithful to ancestral traditions. Only officials who have assumed the heavy task of administering these men have learned to love them.


The author of this book and its many teammates attend the Dogon past fifteen years. They published the work of these men who are now the people's best-known French Sudan: The Souls of the Dogon (G. Dieterlen, 1941), The Currency (S. OF GANAY 1941), Masks (M. Griaule, 1938) have brought to scholarly evidence that blacks lived on complex ideas, but ordered, on systems of institutions and rituals where nothing is left to chance or whim. This work, already ten years ago, drew

In 1950s, it was possible to find many objects at the price of 10 francs on the flea markets of Europe. The first objects to take value were those of the Benin because they were bronze, then came the fashion of objects to black patina of Ivory Coast, and those of Bakota of the Gabon plated by copper and by brass. The big statues were worth more expensive than the babies, while most often in Africa, if they are small it is to be able to hide them more easily because they have a particular importance.

  

In 1983, a Parisian trader, Jean-Michel Huguenin, makes discover seats Sénoufo. In 1985, another Parisian trader, Réginald Groux, discovers the ladders of lofts Dogon — coming from the cliff of Bandiagara — and Lobi in the region of Mopti (Mali).He acquires a first lot of fifty, makes them socler and sells them in his gallery by making a pretty benefit.