GALERIE ART PREMIER AFRICAIN GALERIE ART PRIMITIF AFRICAIN AFRICAN ART GALLERY

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... ]

Marius de Zayas

"Mrs Brown-Potter" by Marius de Zayas. Published in Camera Work, No 29 1910Marius de Zayas Enriquez y Calmet (March 13, 1880-January 10, 1961), was an early 20th century Mexican artist, writer and art gallery owner who was influential in the New York arts circles of the 1910s and 1920s.

 Life
De Zayas was born to wealthy and aristocratic parents in Veracruz, Mexico. His father, Rafael de Zayas (1848–1932) was a noted journalist, novelist, dramatist, poet and lawyer. He established two newspapers in Veracruz, and it was there that his sons Marius and George developed their artistic careers by providing illustrations for the papers.

In 1906 the two brothers began providing caricatures for Mexico City's leading newspaper El Diario, which was founded by American-born journalist Benjamin De Casseres. A year later the de Zayas newspapers took a strong editorial stance against Mexican President Porfirio Diaz, and under threat their family left Mexico and settled in New York.

Shortly after arriving in New York, de Zayas took a position drawing caricatures for the New York Evening World, and he quickly established a reputation for his witty parodies of prominent citizens. Through his connections with other artists in the city he became acquainted with Alfred Stieglitz, and in January 1909 Stieglitz exhibited a group of de Zayas's caricatures at his art gallery, "291". A year later Stieglitz gave de Zayas another exhibit in which he brought his caricatures to a three-dimensional level. On a large wooden platform he created more than 100 free-standing cardboard cutouts of some of New York's most prominent people, seen strolling down Fifth Avenue in front of the Plaza Hotel. The show became such a hit that lines were often stretched far outside the doorway to the

Exhibition "African Hairstyles"

After the monographic exhibitions devoted to ethnic Mumuye and Bambara, the gallery's eye and the hand begins 2010 with an exhibition on the theme of the often overlooked African hairstyle. Often overlooked as belonging to the sphere of the arts "popular", hair is however of particular importance in Africa, both aesthetically and symbolically.

The hairstyle can both grow its appearance but also to affirm their identity or social status. Some hairstyles are immediately identifiable, such as hairstyling splayed Mangbetu of the Democratic Republic of Congo or the hairstyles solidified ocher Namibia. Others refer to a hierarchical system more complex. Ancient art, hair is also found in modern African art production, through paintings advertising kiosks hairdressers or barbers, or in African-American fashion. Both ornaments and symbols of identity, the hairstyles worn by different ethnic groups are reflected in their art. Although they represent gods or ancestors, masks and statues are the hairstyles of the living.

In Africa the hairstyle is still practiced by family members or trusted friends. In addition to the social aspects of the event, the hair, placed in the hands of enemies, could become an ingredient in the production of dangerous charms or "medicines" that could hurt their owners. Mostly it is women cap the women and men that cap men.

As scarification, hairstyles to identify gender, ethnicity, stage reached by the person in the cycle of life, status and personal taste. Scholars,

STRENGTH AND MEASUREMENT

The discovery of "primitive art": an art of strength
Shapes and shape functions
Deities and ancestors
The living wood

Force and Measurement

Develop an aesthetic of black Africa is seen as a risky business in many ways. Is it legitimate to isolate these objects, that today we call art, the general framework of their relations and their cultural constraints? Can we submit to a test that has never existed in the minds of their creators? And can we finally see in this art - if we 'take on this term - a uniform phenomenon, despite the wide variety of both regional and local styles we offer this huge continent, following lengthy Historical developments often poorly understood? Finally, remember that this approach excludes large regions, including Africa white, that is to say the Mediterranean area with its ancient history, the eastern and southern Africa whose pastoral peoples have given rise to cultures almost without images, and finally these hunting societies, which, even in our time have not passed the stage of evolution of prehistoric rock paintings which are the main evidence of an artistic production that appears at various points the continent. Similarly, we must exclude from our contribution to the aesthetics of black African art the old feudal societies, including Benin. Our discussion is therefore limited to large areas farmers, the true cradle of