Tribal Art 13 by Lucien de Guise


Tere is not much that can dwarf the drama of tribal art and the world cultures


that associated with


are the


genre.


increasingly Is


it


possible that this primal force is emerging from the ‘wilderness’ once again? For the first time since about 1996,


there is an exhibition of tribal art at a major London venue. It is appropriate for the Royal Academy to take the initiative in this area, if only to atone for taking over the admirable old Museum of Mankind and doing so little with it over the past 20 years. Burlington Gardens was the only place in London dedicated to tribal art. When the contents were carted off to the British Museum, most were never seen again. In the meantime, the site has become a sort of back entrance for the Royal Academy. Tere is now no trace of the


astonishing world art that used to exist in that part of London. Te auction houses remain in Mayfair and St James’s, but the peaceful non- commercial space has gone. At least some of the old spirit is returning to the front entrance on Piccadilly. Oceania is a comprehensive look at a region that once occupied an important part of the Museum of Mankind.


Tose who want to own rather than just viewing the tribal treasures have more choice these days. Te two leading centres for tribal art are having fairs at almost the same time, on opposite sides of the English Channel. It sounds like a prelude to the division of Europe that is supposed to happen on 29 March 2019. Te difference is that these art events bring people together rather than driving them apart. Tere is a friendly rivalry between


London and Paris. New York is a player, on a small scale, and for once China is insignificant. In fact, the whole of Asia barely shows up in the tribal-art market, even though much of the art originates from there, or at least the Pacific part of the Asia- Pacific entity. It is time for a revival. Te impact that the art of Africa and Oceania had on art of the 20th century is enormous. Much of this legacy has been forgotten. Even when it appears at a significant exhibition such as the 2017 Matisse in the Studio


(by


coincidence at the Royal Academy), the emphasis is more on the Islamic art in Matisse’s life than on the


‘primitive’ content of his home in Nice. Similarly, the highly successful Tate Modern exhibition about a single year of Picasso’s life, 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy, did not dig too deep into the influence of Africa and Oceania. At


the time, these were the


categories of tribal/primitive art that were known to collectors. At the Parcours des Mondes in Paris there is a retrospective of the most definitive exhibition of the first half of the 20th century, bringing in 30 of the objects originally displayed at Galerie du Téâtre Pigalle in 1930. All were from Africa and Oceania. At least the field was alive and


getting attention from names as big as Picasso and Andre Derain.


It


would be a very rare contemporary artist who looked to the less-explored corners of the planet at all. Tribal art was something new in the early decades of the 20th century, highly visible to Picasso, Matisse and other French artists who visited the Trocadero. Teir modern counterparts have the musée du quai Branly. London used to have the Museum of Mankind.


Left: Some items can be found only in museums — and with repatriation afoot, who knows how long they will be there? Feather god image (akua hulu manu), late 18th century, Hawaiian Islands. Fibre, feathers, human hair, pearl shell, seed, dog teeth, 62 x 30 cm. In Oceania, Royal Academy. Photo © Te Trustees of the British Museum Centre: Nyamba keris handle, silver, 11 cm, Frans Faber, Tribal Art London


With less attention given to world


Right: Shamanic mask, wood, Nepal, 19th century, height 28.5 cm © Jo De Buck Tribal Arts at Parcours des Mondes Both fairs add to the appeal by


cultures by museums, it makes the commercial art world more important than ever. Even the auction houses seem to be moving in a more regionally defined direction. Instead of being referred to as tribal art, it is now more likely to be African, Oceanic or Aboriginal. Te marvel of the tribal-art fairs is that they bring the whole world into the picture. Better than that, they seem to be moving in a more Asia- centric direction. One of the most exciting aspects of the two leading art fairs is how they give a different type of exposure to Asia. Parcours des Mondes is, as the name suggests, more about the world than the specifically tribal.


Columbian continue to maintain their pre-colonial cachet. Te latest Frida Kahlo exhibition (V&A, until 4 Nov), makes a lot of the indigenous input in her art. Asia, on the other hand, is largely thought of as a purveyor of sophisticated urban wares, along with the occasional nomadic weaving. Both fairs have


a profusion of


material that was once collected solely by Western ethnographers and shunned by embarrassed collectors in their places of origin. Nowadays, the carvings of the Philippine Ifugao and Indonesian Batak are as popular among their own national elites as they are anywhere else. Te presence of expertly organised fairs has helped create a cosmopolitan chic that gets closer to the borderless world of contemporary art, but at a considerably lower price.


providing talks, workshops and catalogue essays that raise the level of discourse to that of curatorial discussion of contemporary


being an aficionado of sumo wrestling. Te outcome is that Tribal Art


London has a slightly less establishment feel,


art. African, Oceanic and Pre-


Much of the crusty old academic approach has been shed in favour of, in the case of Tribal Art London, relevant and innovative essays such as Form and Skin: the Ghurra from Nepal. Tis term is not a misprint of Gurkha, but turns out to be a churning spoon that combines social history, aesthetic appeal and phallic symbolism in a package that will be unknown to most viewers. As Louis Nierijnk describes them, they are truly ‘the primal art of Nepal’. Tribal art is something you can often learn more about from dealers than academics. Tere are many more such


revelations at Tribal Art London, which is now in its 18th year. It is the same


situation in Paris, where


Parcours des Mondes is very much larger despite being a year younger. While London brings together 22 participants, Paris has 60, plus some participation from the mayor of the 6th Arrondissement. Te activity is centred on the elegant Saint- Germain-des-Prés neighbourhood, which is not surprising as tribal art has always had prestige in France. Which other country has had a president whose passion for the field led to his name being attached to an institution such as musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac? It would be hard to imagine any British prime minister sharing this enthusiasm, or


perhaps even


rebellious, despite being a mere well- aimed boomerang’s throw away from Whitehall and Buckingham Palace. If you need to prove it, there is the possibility of procuring a superbly decorated example from circa 1900 Southwest Queensland being sold by D’Lan Davidson at the fair. Te boomerang highlights another nuance of current tribal-art collecting: weapons are no longer the top guns that they once were. Maybe we have moved into an age of aquarius in which shamanic devices are more acceptable than the assegai and knobkerries that used to make a masculine statement in many collectors’ homes. Weapons are still available, but with a different emphasis. In Paris,


the always


fascinating Tomas Murray has a collection of stone axes and projectiles that takes the art of war a long way back while each item acquires an inescapable sculptural presence. For a more conventional approach there is a steel, hide and abalone shell dagger from the Pacific Northwest, available from the Brent Mackley Gallery. Or fighting spears from New Guinea. Tere are shields aplenty, but a thinning out of the more vicious- looking side of inter-tribe relations. Tose looking for something easy to take through airport security should consider an exquisite Nyamba silver kris hilt, minus the blade, at Frans Faber.


Collectors’ appetite for the grisly


may also have been tamed somewhat. A skull hook from Papua New Guinea should get pulses racing although it is actually from the 1930 retrospective exhibition. Tere appear to be none of the shrunken heads or cranial carvings that Borneo is renowned for. International law on the shipping of body parts is getting stricter, and it doesn’t improve the situation that most of these supposedly human skulls are in fact byproducts of orang-utans. Tere is much more to Borneo than longhouse war trophies, which makes it mildly disappointing that so little material from the world’s third-largest island is on show in either London or Paris. Sticking to the pacific side of art, with a lower-case ‘p’, you cannot beat baskets. Tese are objects with a global presence and quite often a borderless appearance too. One of the most interesting at this year’s fairs is more heavily fortified than most, serving as a jewellery box in Sri Lanka, offered by Adam Prout at Tribal Art London. As with other basket-type items they are peaceable and unifying — a perfect antidote to the new nativist world in which walls are going up all over place. Tis could be the last year of free movement between the UK and France, or anywhere else in Europe.


• Oceania, Royal Academy, London, 29 September to 10 December • Tribal Art London, 5 to 8 September • Parcours des Mondes, Paris, 11 to 16 September


SEPTEMBER 2018 ASIAN ART


THE WORLD’S A STAGE


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