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The Evolution of Form:
African & Oceanic Art at the Genesis of Modernism Auction
Christie's New York
10 A.M., May 12, 2016
Sale 13391

Bayle Female Figure

Lot 605, Baule female figure attributed to the Rockefeller Master from the Ivory Coast, 19 3/4 inches high

By Carter B. Horsley

The Evolution of Form: African & Oceanic Art at the Genesis of Modernism auction May 12, 2016 at Christie's New York is highlighted by several masterpieces including a Baule female figure attributed to the Rockefeller Master from the Ivory Coast, and the Helena Rubenstein Dan Mask, also from the Ivory Coast.

Modig head

Head by Modigliani

The cover illustration of the auction catalogue is Lot 605, a Baule Female Figure attributed to the Rockefeller Master from the Ivory Coast.  The wood figure is 19 3/4 inches high.  It was once in the collection of Morris Pinto.  The catalogue entry notes that it has many similarities with a sealed male Baule figure at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:  "Both works...feature an identical flaring from the forearms to the elbows and from the calves to to the back of the knees, giving the illusion that the verious segments interlock, like a telescope. 

In her prologue to the auction in the catalogue, Susan Kloman, international head of the department at Christie's, provided the following commentary:

"Evolution of Form: African & Oceanic Art at the Genesis of Modernism is a curated stale that profiles eleven works of art whose type were at the heart of the modern art, and as the titlted indicates, continued to be a vibrant dialogue for artists throughout the 20th century and to the present day....In Paris at the turn of the last century, African and Oceanic art was housed at the Musee d'Ethonographie du Trocadero.  Picasso later reflected to Francoise Gilot and Andre Malraux, a sort of living nightmare turned revelation at the Trocadero - 'Painting isn't an aesthetic operation.  It is a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors, as well as our desires.  When I went to the Trocadero, something felt stuck in my throat.  I wanted to leave, but I stayed.  I studied.  Men made these masks and other objects for a sacred purpose, a magic purpose, as a kind of mediator in order to overcome their fear and horror by giving it an image.  When I came to that realization there, I knew I had found my way. At that moment, I realized what painting was all about.  When analyzing Picasso's work of the so-called Africanist period, there is an oversimplified explanation that he was drawn to the abstraction of African Art, and that his interest was almost purely formalistic.  However, we know that there was the supernatural component that drove him, and it is in that spirit that those artists of the last century until totday who turned to African and Oceanic art reads like a constellation of modern art history - e. g. Gauguin, Picasso, Matisse, Vlaminck, Giacometti, Modigliani, Kirchner, Brancusi, Leger, Klee, Ernst, Pollock, Moore, Epstein, Arman, Baselitz, Basquiat."

The lot has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000.  It sold for $2,405,000 including the buyer's premium as do all the results mentioned in this article.

The sale total was $5,039,000.

Helena Rubenstein Dan Mask
Lot 603, The Helena Rubenstein Dan Mask, probably Danane region, Ivory Coast, wood and bovine hair, 8 inches high

Lot 603 is the very fine Helena Rubenstein Dan Mask from probably the Danane region in the Ivory Coast.  The wood and bovine hair mask is 8 inches high and once was also with Morris Pinto.  The catalogue entry notes that "Decades before Modigliani would sculpt his iconic stone heads, we here find the shapes that would come to define Modernism."  This entry was accompanied by a reproduction of an portrait of Isabel Rawsthorne by Francis Bacon.

The lot has an estimate of $1,000,000 to $1,500,000.  It failed to sell.
Fang figure

Lot 609, a Fang male, Ntumum reliquary guardian figure, Gabon, wood, 20 inches high

Lot 609 is a superb Fang male reliquary guardian figure from Gabon that is 20 inches high on a base by Kichizo Inagaki.  The wood lot was once in the collection of Paul Guillaume, Annie Laurie Crawford Aitken and Russell B. Aitken.  It has an estimate of $800,000 to $900,000.  It sold for $965,000.
Kongo Nail Power figure

Lot 611, a Kongo-Vili power figure, Democratic Republic of Congo, 25 2/3 inches high

Lot 611 is an impressive Kongo-Vili power figure from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  It is 25 2/3 inches high.  It was once with Arman, the sculptor, and with the Merton D. Simpson Gallery in New York.  It has been widely exhibited and published.  It has an estimate of $600,000 to $900,000.  It failed to sell.



Mendes Mask

Lot 606, the Mendes-France Baule Mask, Ivory Coast, wood and metal, 12 1/4 inches high
Lot 606 is the Mendes-France Baule Mask from the Ivory Coast.  The wood and metal mask is 12 1/4 inches high and was once with Morris Pinto. 

Modigmask

Catalogue illustration of Baule Mask and Modigliani female face

It has an estimate of $500,000 to $800,000.  It sold for $665,000.
Bioma Figure 601

Lot 601, Bioma Figure, Urama Culture, probably Kinomere Village, Papuan Gulf Region, 50 1/3 inches high
Lot 601 is a fine Bioma figure, Urama Culture, probably Kinomere Village from the Papuan Gulf Region.  It is 50 1/3 inches high. 

The catalogue notes that these Bioma figures were often placed above pig and crocodile skulls "that were offered as sacrifices to clan spirits" and the lot's catalogue entry was accompanied by reproductions of a "costume for a cuckoo bazaar" by Jean Dubuffet and a painting of mask by Emil Nolde.

It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000.  It sold for $149,000.
See The City Review article on the Fall 2015 Tribal Arts auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2014 Tribal Arts auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2014 auction of Vol. 2 of the Allan Stone Collection of African and Oceanic Art at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2014 article on the African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Fall 2013 article on the African and Pre-Columbian Auction of Allan Stone's Collection at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2013 article on the African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2012 article on the African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian auction at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2012 article on Masterpieces of African Art from the collection of the late Werner Muensterberger at Sotheby's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2012 Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas auction at Christie's New York
See The City Review article on the Spring 2009 auction of African and Oceanic Art from the Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2008 African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art auction at Christie's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2008 African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbia art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on Spring 2008 African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on Spring 2007 African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Saul and Marsha Stanoff Collection of African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian and Indian Art auction at Sotheby's May 17, 2007
See The City Review Article on the William Brill Collection of African Art at Sotheby's November 17, 2006
See The City Review article on the Fall 2006 African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2005 African & Oceanic art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2005 African & Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2004 African & Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2004 African & Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2003 Tribal Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2003 Tribal Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2002 Tribal Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2002 Tribal Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 2001 African & Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 2000 African and Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 1999 African and Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Spring 1999 African and Oceanic Art auction at Sotheby's
See The City Review article on the Fall 1998 Sotheby's African and Oceanic Art auction
See The City Review article on the Spring 1998 Sotheby's African and Oceanic Art auction


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