Plus Tribal
The lots below do not currently have a position in a thematic page.
Except otherwise stated, all results below include the premium.
Except otherwise stated, all results below include the premium.
Senufo Primordial Couple (Ivory Coast)
2008 SOLD for $ 4M by Sotheby's
On November 14, 2008, Sotheby's sold for $ 4M from a lower estimate of $ 3M a pair of Senufo statues, lot 63. It is rare that such a pair has been preserved without being separated.
They are large: 1.16 m for the male and 0.97 m for the female, in very good condition. They are believed to be created in the late nineteenth century or beginning of the twentieth century. Acquired in 1961 by Nelson Rockefeller, they were until 1967 part of his Museum of Primitive Art in New York, and were often exhibited and described.
This couple of ancestors of the Senufo society from Ivory Coast is powerful, with protruding chins, and arms and legs slightly bent in a position of ritual dance. The heads are dressed with large size symbolic attributes. The patina is deep brown with red, ochre and white pigments. The identical overall position of the two statues reinforces the idea of a complementarity man - woman of the primordial Senufo couple, to whom Kolotyolo, the creator of the world, gave birth together as twins.
They are large: 1.16 m for the male and 0.97 m for the female, in very good condition. They are believed to be created in the late nineteenth century or beginning of the twentieth century. Acquired in 1961 by Nelson Rockefeller, they were until 1967 part of his Museum of Primitive Art in New York, and were often exhibited and described.
This couple of ancestors of the Senufo society from Ivory Coast is powerful, with protruding chins, and arms and legs slightly bent in a position of ritual dance. The heads are dressed with large size symbolic attributes. The patina is deep brown with red, ochre and white pigments. The identical overall position of the two statues reinforces the idea of a complementarity man - woman of the primordial Senufo couple, to whom Kolotyolo, the creator of the world, gave birth together as twins.
Baga Serpent (Guinea)
2008 SOLD for $ 3.3M by Sotheby's
On the Atlantic coast of Guinea, Baga people worshiped and feared the rainbow, this colorful phenomenon that links sky and earth and enables to predict abundance of crops and fertility. They looked for a being similar as the bow in order to communicate with mystical powers. They found the snake or serpent.
The Baga serpents are the most original African animal figures. With the winding of a boa, and of course colored to mimic the celestial phenomenon, they have been recognized as models by the masters of abstract expressionism.
As often in tribal art, explorers arrived too late in the villages to understand the use of this sculpture. The largest known Baga snake measures 2.50 m. Despite its huge size, it was probably worn on the head of dancers in ritual ceremonies for reaching the heaven. To maintain the balance, the largest pieces have more flexible shapes and are the most beautiful.
A serpent that belonged to Pierre Matisse, the gallerist of New York, became in the 1960s a symbol of the universality of art. Matisse had been charmed by its almost abstract forms, and made it take part in great exhibitions of modern art from 1962 to 1967, besides Miro, Giacometti, Tanguy, Lam and many others.
This piece 1.66 m high was sold for $ 3.3 M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2008, lot 58.
On June 19, 2013, Christie's sold for € 2.34M a beautiful serpent 1.90 m high, lot 58. It had been collected in 1957 by the same team that found the Matisse specimen.
The Baga serpent in the Barbier-Mueller collection was a tall specimen, 217 cm high. It was sold for € 2.46M by Christie's on March 6, 2024, lot 11.
The Baga serpents are the most original African animal figures. With the winding of a boa, and of course colored to mimic the celestial phenomenon, they have been recognized as models by the masters of abstract expressionism.
As often in tribal art, explorers arrived too late in the villages to understand the use of this sculpture. The largest known Baga snake measures 2.50 m. Despite its huge size, it was probably worn on the head of dancers in ritual ceremonies for reaching the heaven. To maintain the balance, the largest pieces have more flexible shapes and are the most beautiful.
A serpent that belonged to Pierre Matisse, the gallerist of New York, became in the 1960s a symbol of the universality of art. Matisse had been charmed by its almost abstract forms, and made it take part in great exhibitions of modern art from 1962 to 1967, besides Miro, Giacometti, Tanguy, Lam and many others.
This piece 1.66 m high was sold for $ 3.3 M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2008, lot 58.
On June 19, 2013, Christie's sold for € 2.34M a beautiful serpent 1.90 m high, lot 58. It had been collected in 1957 by the same team that found the Matisse specimen.
The Baga serpent in the Barbier-Mueller collection was a tall specimen, 217 cm high. It was sold for € 2.46M by Christie's on March 6, 2024, lot 11.
Kongo-Yombe Maternity (Congo)
2016 SOLD for $ 3.25M by Sotheby's
On May 7, 2016, Sotheby's sold for $ 3.25M from a lower estimate of $ 2M a Kongo-Yombe figure of maternity 27 cm high, lot 5. The artist is known by a homogeneous corpus of figures and masks. Two works collected in a village between 1911 and 1913 made identify him later as the Master of Kasadi. A mask had been documented in 1898.
The Kongo society is matriarchal. The artist specializes in the nganga diphamba showing the ecstasy of the primordial mother Mpemba. The carving shows in a great sharpness the bodily scarification and the jewelry.
The infant is lying on the lap of his mother in a delicate gesture of both her hands. His attitude is alive : the mystery of procreation is humanized by the lovely gesture of the baby catching the nipple.
The Kongo society is matriarchal. The artist specializes in the nganga diphamba showing the ecstasy of the primordial mother Mpemba. The carving shows in a great sharpness the bodily scarification and the jewelry.
The infant is lying on the lap of his mother in a delicate gesture of both her hands. His attitude is alive : the mystery of procreation is humanized by the lovely gesture of the baby catching the nipple.
African Art from the collection of Drs. Daniel & Marian Malcolm are coming to Sotheby's in #NY & #Paris this spring! pic.twitter.com/9GTCEW5L9t
— Sotheby's (@Sothebys) January 27, 2016
Tabwa Mask (Congo)
2018 SOLD for € 2.9M by Christie's
In 1976 in a village in southeastern Congo near Lake Tanganyika, an art dealer buys directly from the Tabwa tribal group an extremely rare helmet mask. The only other known example in full head helmet including the whole hairstyle is less decorated. According to the Tabwa tradition this dance mask is a female presence with a strong sexual connotation. It is not so simple.
The Tabwa practiced fertility dances of couples in which the man wore a buffalo mask. These male masks are less rare. From their neighbors the Luba a man faced mask with buffalo horns is known.
The mask collected in 1976 is very finely incised with realistic details and embellished with inclusions of white shells in eyes and nose. The three lines of scarification of the face respond to the beauty practice of men and women from the Tabwa elites, attested by old photos. The very fine braided pattern of the hairstyle also responds to the fashion of their tribal ritual. Tabwa women used a headrest for sleeping without damaging a new hairstyle.
The feminine characterization of this mask is confirmed by the jewel in the left nostril, an Arab-Indian tradition that came through present-day Tanzania, and by the earrings. By adding the usual practice of a ritual mask, the young woman was hiding her personal beauty within the perfect figure of an ancestor that made her even more desirable. She also had to drink the sap of the medicinal tree that produced the wood of her mask.
This mask whose patina demonstrates a long ritual use was sold for € 2.9M by Christie's on April 10, 2018, lot 91.
The Tabwa practiced fertility dances of couples in which the man wore a buffalo mask. These male masks are less rare. From their neighbors the Luba a man faced mask with buffalo horns is known.
The mask collected in 1976 is very finely incised with realistic details and embellished with inclusions of white shells in eyes and nose. The three lines of scarification of the face respond to the beauty practice of men and women from the Tabwa elites, attested by old photos. The very fine braided pattern of the hairstyle also responds to the fashion of their tribal ritual. Tabwa women used a headrest for sleeping without damaging a new hairstyle.
The feminine characterization of this mask is confirmed by the jewel in the left nostril, an Arab-Indian tradition that came through present-day Tanzania, and by the earrings. By adding the usual practice of a ritual mask, the young woman was hiding her personal beauty within the perfect figure of an ancestor that made her even more desirable. She also had to drink the sap of the medicinal tree that produced the wood of her mask.
This mask whose patina demonstrates a long ritual use was sold for € 2.9M by Christie's on April 10, 2018, lot 91.
Nkundu Coffin (Congo)
2012 SOLD for € 2.7M by Christie's
The Nkundus from Congo use coffins or sarcophagi, which may become reliquaries if they are not buried. At the end of the nineteenth century, this practice takes a surprising artistic trend.
The sculptor hollows a trunk to receive the body of the deceased, and carves in extension the head on one side, the legs and sex on the other side. The arms are parallel to the body, but one of the forearms is raised to brandish a formidable knife with a curved blade. Teeth ready to bite enhance the aggressiveness necessary to protect the content.
A specimen that has retained its polychromy (without the lid to close the back) was sold for € 2.7M from a lower estimate of € 2M by Christie's on December 11, 2012.
The anthropomorphic ends have generated the figure of a tapered giant, for a total height of 2.54 m. A coffin is designed to be buried in the horizontal position. A standing exhibition, with the machete forward, provides to this artwork a wild, almost totemic, look.
Experts believe that this specimen was made after 1890 (but before 1909) by comparison with two other examples collected in 1891. It certainly spent little time in the equatorial bush. The analyzes did not detect an actual mortuary use.
The sculptor hollows a trunk to receive the body of the deceased, and carves in extension the head on one side, the legs and sex on the other side. The arms are parallel to the body, but one of the forearms is raised to brandish a formidable knife with a curved blade. Teeth ready to bite enhance the aggressiveness necessary to protect the content.
A specimen that has retained its polychromy (without the lid to close the back) was sold for € 2.7M from a lower estimate of € 2M by Christie's on December 11, 2012.
The anthropomorphic ends have generated the figure of a tapered giant, for a total height of 2.54 m. A coffin is designed to be buried in the horizontal position. A standing exhibition, with the machete forward, provides to this artwork a wild, almost totemic, look.
Experts believe that this specimen was made after 1890 (but before 1909) by comparison with two other examples collected in 1891. It certainly spent little time in the equatorial bush. The analyzes did not detect an actual mortuary use.
Fang Ngil Mask (Gabon)
2021 SOLD for € 2.54M by Christie's
The Fang Ngil mask from the Périnet collection was sold for € 2.54M from a lower estimate of € 700K by Christie's on June 23, 2021, lot 28.
On October 30, 2018, Christie's sold for € 2.4M as lot 98 another Ngil mask which has preserved a very long and abundant hair, a small raffia beard and scarifications in the shape of a double arrow on both temples.
On October 30, 2018, Christie's sold for € 2.4M as lot 98 another Ngil mask which has preserved a very long and abundant hair, a small raffia beard and scarifications in the shape of a double arrow on both temples.
Fang Mabea Figure (Cameroon)
2014 SOLD for € 4.35M by Sotheby's
A masterpiece of African tribal art for sale on June 18, 2014 by Sotheby's revives the amazing and eccentric personality of Félix Fénéon.
An anarchist activist who became an effective art critic, Fénéon was the discoverer of Seurat before entering the illusion of the communist ideal with Signac. Refusing social or artistic pre-established solutions, he was one of the first along with Apollinaire to be interested in African art.
In 1920, Fénéon obtains and publishes the opinions of twenty specialists on the topic of relevance or not to consider the primitive arts, named by him Arts Lointains, on the same level as the European masterpieces in the Louvre. This question had a final answer 80 years later when Jacques Kerchache obtained the creation of a specialized section in that Museum.
In 1920, the African standard bearer in Fénéon's collection is a Fang figure 67 cm high of a nude woman in seated position which will also later join the Kerchache collection. Its characteristics differ from other Fang styles by a careful anatomical realism and an active expression. The mouth is open to speak.
It was sculpted after the tribal migrations of the eighteenth century (we do not know exactly when) in a very tiny Fang subgroup, the Mabea of Cameroon, whose artistic output is extremely rare. Only a dozen of their ancestor figures are known. The Fénéon-Kerchache specimen is the last in private hands.
It was sold for € 4.35M from a lower estimate of € 2.5 M. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
An anarchist activist who became an effective art critic, Fénéon was the discoverer of Seurat before entering the illusion of the communist ideal with Signac. Refusing social or artistic pre-established solutions, he was one of the first along with Apollinaire to be interested in African art.
In 1920, Fénéon obtains and publishes the opinions of twenty specialists on the topic of relevance or not to consider the primitive arts, named by him Arts Lointains, on the same level as the European masterpieces in the Louvre. This question had a final answer 80 years later when Jacques Kerchache obtained the creation of a specialized section in that Museum.
In 1920, the African standard bearer in Fénéon's collection is a Fang figure 67 cm high of a nude woman in seated position which will also later join the Kerchache collection. Its characteristics differ from other Fang styles by a careful anatomical realism and an active expression. The mouth is open to speak.
It was sculpted after the tribal migrations of the eighteenth century (we do not know exactly when) in a very tiny Fang subgroup, the Mabea of Cameroon, whose artistic output is extremely rare. Only a dozen of their ancestor figures are known. The Fénéon-Kerchache specimen is the last in private hands.
It was sold for € 4.35M from a lower estimate of € 2.5 M. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Fang Mvai Male Figure (Gabon)
2011 SOLD for € 2.6M by Sotheby's
On June 15, 2011, Sotheby's sold for € 2.6M a masterpiece of the Fang art from Gabon. It is a male figure 53 cm high. The anatomy is composed of strong volumes, with an expressive and oversized head, giving an idea of the authority of the character. The finely carved details are typical of the Mvaï group: large hairdress in three parts, wide almond shaped eyes, arched mouth very close to the chin.
The statuette collected around 1915 was transmitted only by family ties, and has never been available on the market. The collection once contained another byeri reliquary statue of similar quality, which was sold for FF 5.5M by Loudmer in Paris on June 20, 1996, a price then considered as exceptional in its category.
The statuette collected around 1915 was transmitted only by family ties, and has never been available on the market. The collection once contained another byeri reliquary statue of similar quality, which was sold for FF 5.5M by Loudmer in Paris on June 20, 1996, a price then considered as exceptional in its category.
Fang Head (Gabon)
1
2017 SOLD for € 2.63M by Sotheby's
A Fang head was sold for € 2.63M from a lower estimate of € 1.5M by Sotheby's on December 12, 2017, lot 24.
It had a great history of provenance and exhibition at the time when that type of work was rightly considered as the best demonstration of the virtuosity of African artists. Louis Carré exhibited it in Paris in 1933. He sent it and commented on it in 1935 for the seminal exhibition of African art at the MoMA, also indicating the name of the collector who had brought it back from Gabon.
It retains a patina of use as well as traces of erosion created by ritual sampling. The curves are perfect without chisel error.
Despite its naturalistic beauty it cannot be identified if this figure is a beardless man or a woman. The braid hairstyle does not close this issue in the Fang culture. It is likely that this ambiguity was voluntary and may be related to the ancient African tradition of hermaphroditic interpretation of the primordial ancestor. This braid is also present in the Barbier-Mueller example sold for € 14.8M by Christie's on March 6, 2024.
Please watch the short video shared by Sotheby's.
It had a great history of provenance and exhibition at the time when that type of work was rightly considered as the best demonstration of the virtuosity of African artists. Louis Carré exhibited it in Paris in 1933. He sent it and commented on it in 1935 for the seminal exhibition of African art at the MoMA, also indicating the name of the collector who had brought it back from Gabon.
It retains a patina of use as well as traces of erosion created by ritual sampling. The curves are perfect without chisel error.
Despite its naturalistic beauty it cannot be identified if this figure is a beardless man or a woman. The braid hairstyle does not close this issue in the Fang culture. It is likely that this ambiguity was voluntary and may be related to the ancient African tradition of hermaphroditic interpretation of the primordial ancestor. This braid is also present in the Barbier-Mueller example sold for € 14.8M by Christie's on March 6, 2024.
Please watch the short video shared by Sotheby's.
@SothebysFr #Exposition #vente #enchère Tête Fang, Gabon. Socle de Kichizô Inagaki. Des provenances fabuleuses puisque collections Louis Carré, Charles Ratton, Gaston de Havenon, Claude Berri. Elle fut présentée à la mythique exposition @MuseumModernArt #NewYork @SophieDufresne pic.twitter.com/XDZZB9QNMS
— lecurieuxdesarts (@PresseKraemer) December 8, 2017
2
2018 SOLD for € 2.6M by Sotheby's
A Fang head from Gabon was known from about 1930 as one of the masterpieces of the Paul Guillaume collection. It it differs from the Fang Betsi usual model by the arched base of its neck. The heart shaped face expresses much sensitivity. An extended ritual use is evidenced by an oozing patina from anointings of palm oil and red powder.
It was sold for € 2.6M from a lower estimate of € 1M by Sotheby's on June 13, 2018, lot 33.
It was sold for € 2.6M from a lower estimate of € 1M by Sotheby's on June 13, 2018, lot 33.
