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African Art News

I will participate next month to the Eurantica Fair in Brussels.
I also launched the African Art Club fo those of you who want more insiders informations.

Read more news on African Art

African Art : Recent Acquisitions

David Norden

fine African Art.


We advise great collections since 1992 !

David Norden Sint Katelijnevest 27 B2000 Antwerpen Tel: +32 3 227.35.40

African Art for sale

Dear friends ,Please find below some thumbnails from my recent acquisitions. The items above the page are more valuable than the ones below the page. Click on the thumbs and see items you like.

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Bwaka statue, 17 cm. 2,500 € Burkina Faso mask & chair, ex Ian Shaw:3000€

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Ashanti funeral head + Bamana Doorlock

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A small Kifwebe masquette

26 cm without stand, 37cm if it's stand (included in the price).

From a Dutch collection.Price: 1,300€

Hope you enjoyed,

David Norden

African Art

see more objects at Buy African Antiques

African Art hub

I created a African Art hub page to explain what you should look at to build a collection with genuine African Art. When I read the messages posted on the many discussion groups on the internet I see that most African Art collectors still strugle with the fact that they don't know how to recognise if a piece is AUTHENTIC or not.

I must tell you that even if I grew up with African Art myself, it is not an easy task and that even today, I have somethimes to live a few days with a piece of African Art before beeing able to put it in the category "genuine" or "fake".
And even then sometimes the answer is not 100% on one side or the other.

You must get experienced and see as many genuine pieces as possible.

I explain some of the resources to explore at the African Art hub

African Origines

Explore ancestral origins of African art at the Met

by RENEE MINUS WHITE Fashion & Beauty Editor

Originally posted 10/18/2007 at amsterdam news

From the heart of Africa’s equatorial rainforest, the Metropolitan Museum presents a special exhibition of acclaimed sculpture on view now through March 2, 2008.

This exhibition explores the significance of the works presented in their countries of origin, and how their reception in the West led them to enter the mainstream of universal art. Organized thematically, “ External Ancestors: The Art of Central African Reliquary” explains cultural and spiritual inspirations that led to their creation in equatorial Africa.

Drawn from the most important collections of African art in Europe and the United States, the more than 130 works featured in the exhibition relate to 12 distinct traditions in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

They were created to celebrate the lives of an extended family’s most notable ancestor.In the collection, there are many works that were sources of inspiration for early 20th century Western avant-garde artists who collected them and kept them in their studios.

Pablo Picasso, André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Henri Matisse were among the many artists who not only collected African sculpture, but also studied this art in the newly formed ethnographic museums of the day.According to Alisa LaGamma, curator in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Metropolitan and organizer of this exhibition, “‘External Ancestors’ seeks to reveal the mystery behind the original spiritual and social imperatives that led to their creation by examining the history of the reception of these African artifacts in the West. I believe that an awareness of what inspired them allows us to appreciate Africa’s heritage in a meaningful context.”

The exhibition opens with a series of comparisons between celebrated sculptures, such as 19th century Fang reliquaries that were created in Gabon with works from the Metropolitan’s superb medieval and Asian art collections. Among the highlights of the exhibition are the wood heads, half-figures, and full figures carved by Fang masters.

Also featured are two-dimensional wood figurative elements are sheathed in precious metals that were created by Kora and Mahongwe peoples in Gabon and the Republic of the Congo.Among the seminal examples on view is a Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble (from the Musée du Quai Branly) created by a Kota artist. Made of wood, brass and copper, this historically important piece was collected over the course of an exploratory journey to the region by the French 1883 expedition that was led by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Another distinctive genre consists of Bwende and Bembe soft sculptures from the Republic of Congo.

Among the most spectacular and rare examples is a life-size female figure by the Bwende master Mucosa of Kingoyi that was collected by the Swedish missionary Efrain Anderson in 1938 (from the Museum of World Culture).

Made possible in part by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the exhibit is accompanied by a film that emphasizes the importance of performance rites as devotional forms of expression and a catalogue, “External Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary,” published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art and distributed by Yale Press.

The catalogue is available at the Museum’s bookshops for $65. This is a wonderful, educational exhibit for the family

read also : Ancestral Origins of African Masterpieces Explored

African Death

José Vermeersch

José Vermeersch is a Modern Art Sculptor from Belgium represented by " Kunst galerij Neerman " a good friend of mine who also collect African Art.
The official site is www.jose-vermeersch.be .

His work make me think at chinese ceramics.

Official Dealer from the Art of José Vermeersch is Art Gallery Marnix Neerman Kloosterstraat 13 2000 Antwerpen (Belgium) 0032 475 96 44 14

See more from his work at Jose Vermeersch

Finding a Shop in Paris

It is not easy to find a Shop for during the events in Paris, that was why I searched for it a long time in advance.

I was lucky to find it in the rue Visconti, and told people so in June, but was unlucky when I received a phone call to tell me the Shop "pas-de-porte" was sold to a Parisian dealer.

But now I am happy to have found another available Shop to meet you in September at 73 rue de Seine near de rue de Buci.

I will be very glad to meet you between 11 and 16 september, and will show you some fine pieces coming from known collections.

Come see my African Art exhibitions, and also don't miss the Parcours des Mondes show and other events in Paris at the same moment (like the "Salon des collectionneur") in the same period. I am not a member of this organisation, but handle the same selection standard in the selection of the pieces on Show, just compare by yourself.

November Art for sale

Please have a look at some of our fine genuine African Art items for
sale this month.

David Norden

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/dan_mask_duperrier.htm A fine Dan mask

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/images/Pende_Sickness_mask.jpg A Pende sickness mask with a double face.

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/makonde.htm A Makonde Lipiko mask

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/african-statues.htm Some of our african statues

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/thai_stone.htm A XIIth century Thai stone buste



P.S.: You can see more in the main sections :

http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/african-masks.htm Masks
http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/african-statues.htm Statues
http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/african_products.htm African objects
http://www.buyafricanantiques.com/outside_africa.htm Outside African Art

African modern art

They’re buying

the Nelson and JCCC have acquired for their upcoming new spaces ART

By ALICE THORSON found at The Kansas City Star

NERMAN MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, JCCC

More space calls for more art.
So the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and Johnson County Community College are racking up acquisitions: the Nelson to fill its new Bloch Building, opening June 9, and JCCC for the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, opening in fall 2007.

Jan Schall, the Nelson’s curator of modern and contemporary art, has been working with adviser Robert Storr on an array of purchases, funded by a $10 million grant from the William T. Kemper Foundation — Commerce Bank, Trustee.

Most of the works are destined for the modern and contemporary art galleries in the Bloch Building, where the collection will enjoy 14,240 square feet, a 50 percent increase in space over its former quarters in the original Nelson structure.

At the Nerman, director Bruce Hartman has been on an extended shopping spree since January 2004, thanks to Kansas City philanthropists Tony and Marti Oppenheimer.
To date, the Oppenheimers and the Oppenheimer Brothers Foundation have spent $654,000 on 76 artworks for the museum. They will appear in rotating displays in three permanent collection galleries, measuring 4,000 square feet, on the second floor.

As of this month, the two institutions together have added more than 100 new works. Here’s a sneak preview of a small sampling.
•Richard Serra, “Corner Block” (1983):

Serra’s rectangular block of steel balanced atop a 5-by-5-foot plate of steel is part of the eminent American sculptor’s “prop series,” inspired by the verb “to prop.”
“It’s just based on gravity, balance and point load,” Schall explained. “You have that sense of suspended animation, arrested motion and this tension about the fact that nothing seems to be supporting this but forces of nature. There’s always a little sense of danger.”
“We have a very strong collection of minimalist art, and we’ve never had a Serra,” Schall added. “(This piece) cements the core of key artists involved with minimalist thinking.”
•Marc Handelman, “Miasma (2)” (2006):
L.A. art critic David Pagel raved about Handelman’s “creepy images of power” in the artist’s debut exhibit at Marc Selwyn Fine Art in Los Angeles in 2005.
The Nerman’s new acquisition, an 8-by-8-foot abstraction that riffs on the Fox News logo, continues in this vein.
“He took the logo and just started abstracting and abstracting it until it became a big swirl,” Hartman said. “It’s all in red, white and blue, and the center spirals around. It’s like an explosion of patriotism, but there’s a void at the center suggesting something is awry. It’s really out there.”
• Felix Gonzalez-Torres, “Untitled (March 5th) #2” (1991):
His lover Ross, who died of AIDS in 1991, was a major inspiration for the art of Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996), including the Nelson’s recently acquired light sculpture.
The March 5 date included in the title is Ross’ birthday.
“It’s a tribute to Ross as an AIDS activist and gay man,” Schall said. “It’s about two lives, two energies, hung side by side together, and somebody’s light will go out first,” she added. “It’s very poignant, and such a simple use of metaphor for such eloquent and humanistic content. All it is, is two cords, two plugs, two sockets, two light bulbs. When one burns out, you change both and start over.”
•Jess, “Figure 2 — A Field of Pumpkins Grown for Seed: Translation #11” (1965):
Born Burgess Collins in Long Beach, Calif., in 1923, the artist who came to be known simply as “Jess” was a leading light in the Bay Area art scene. Although his idiosyncratic work was slow to earn national critical recognition, it now appears in major museum collections around the country.
The Nelson’s recent acquisition is one of the enigmatic figurative works Jess called “translations.”
“They’re all based on little black-and-white reproductions of things he’s seen in books and translated into something else,” Schall said. The source image for the Nelson painting came from an early 20th-century U.S. Department of Agriculture yearbook.
“It’s a magical painting, and yet it’s so mundane,” Schall said. “It is really outside the mainstream. We wanted to bring in some things that aren’t necessarily part of the big story that’s always told.”
•Nick Cave, “Soundsuit” (2005):
Cave, a 1992 alum of the Kansas City Art Institute, makes elaborate “soundsuits,” incorporating feathers, dryer lint, sequins, beads and human hair. He relates them to “African ceremonial costumes and masks,” and designs them to be worn and performed.
For the Nerman, Hartman purchased a vibrant beaded and sequined soundsuit featuring old beaded compact cases that Cave picked up at flea markets. The design on the back resembles African Kuba cloth, but the most striking element of the work is its pointed headdress, evoking a Ku Klux Klan hood.
“He’s taken the most conspicuous symbol of the Klan and completely subverted it,” Hartman said. “It’s no longer a question of fearing something. He’s overwhelming it.”
•Nadine Robinson, “Rock Box #2” (2006):
“I wanted to get hip-hop culture into the larger mainstream,” Robinson said during a visit to Kansas City in spring 2005. She was showing two big blue paintings inset with black speakers in the “Lost in Music” show at JCCC.
Robinson continues to develop her unique fusion of street culture and high art in a commissioned work for the Nerman. Her “Rock Box #2” (2006) “references hip-hop and bling,” Hartman said.
“It’s a big speaker box, all white and completely covered with rhinestones,” he said. “It also has a sound component, derived from New York dance club music, and the speaker pulsates slightly to the beat.”

five days in Paris

five days in Paris I gave the final touch to the 29 pages reports with plenty images from all the fine pieces I have seen and some insiders stories and names that my readers can download for 10 €. They also get my address list with museums experts and dealers.

My sites

My sites:
African Antiques a portal related on African Art
buy african antiques with my stock of pieces
hot business if you need to read some adult fun.
diamonds news a portal with interesting texts related on the diamond world.

and also:
african business Parked links about African Americans
business foreclosure a site related on real estates and mortgages
film clips with free complete films and other video and movie news
your diamonds online related links diamonds online