PARIS.- Sotheby’s France is holding its sale of African and Oceanic arts on 2 December in Paris. The René and Odette Delenne collection forms the core of the sale, where the star item is the masterly portrait of a royal couple by the Master of Batoufam. The selection also contains some remarkable African art works from the Murray Frum* collection, including a superb Luba Royal sceptre, and a very old Nimba shoulder mask. As well as the pieces from these outstanding collections, the sale introduces art lovers to works with emblematic or unusual histories illustrating a key theme: the representation of ancestors, from Gabon to Madagascar.
René and Odette Delenne's collection of African and Oceanic arts
Begun in the late 1950s, this private Belgian collection was the focus of several prominent exhibitions, and made the news more recently when the Cleveland Museum of Art bought thirty-four of its Congolese sculptures in 2010.
The pair of statues portraying King Pokam and his wife Yugang, a masterpiece by the Master of Batoufam (Bamiléké, Cameroon), is clearly the kingpin of the collection (estimate: €1,000,000-1,600,000 / $1,480,000-1,820,000). Documented since the Twenties, these portraits joined the Delenne collection in 1970, and were revealed in 1988 at the famous exhibition entitled Utotombo (Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts). The other extant portraits of this long dynastic line are divided between several major private collections and museums. The royal couple here, illustrating the expressionistic genius of the arts of Cameroon, stand out in African art history not only as some of the rare portraits of sovereign couples, but also as the only couple in this magnificent series that has survived the vagaries of history intact.
René and Odette Delenne also built up a major collection of Oceanic art less familiar to the public, but which also contains treasures from illustrious provenances. They include a dugout prow from the Solomon Islands, said to have been acquired before 1840 by the navigator Jules Dumont d’Urville (estimate: €60,000-90,000 / $ 68,500-103,000), and a warrior's frontal ornament from the Marquesas Islands, once part of Sir Jacob Epstein's collection.
This statue of the mythical ancestor Andio (estimate: €150,000-200,000 / $171,000-227,000) is one of the large kandimbong statues from the Lower Sepik region, one of a very limited corpus. Collected in around 1960 at the mouth of the Sepik River, it expresses the vital links created between the tribe and the ancestors. The tense pose and broad shoulders express the power of the mythical hero who founded the tribe. The most striking aspect is the severe beauty of the naturalistic face, highlighted with red ochre pigments.
In the Paris of the 1920s, Oceanic art, particularly that of eastern Melanesia, greatly admired by the Surrealists, became very popular with the avant-garde. In 1929, Jacques Viot led a legendary artefact-gathering expedition to the "South sea islands", financed by the gallery owner Pierre Loeb. Viot reached his goal: the region of Lake Sentani, from which he brought back treasures such as this ceremonial drum (estimate: €120,000-180,000 / $137,000-205,000). Here, rather unusually, the figure forms part of the handle, and illustrates the art of the Lake Sentani region through the beauty of the carving.
African arts from the Murray Frum collection
As well as the Delenne collection, the sale on 2 December is highlighting a remarkable selection of African arts from the Murray Frum collection. The superb dignitary's sceptre from Luba, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (estimate: €150,000-200,000 / $171,000-227,000), featured in the frontispiece of William Fagg's 1981 book on Barbara and Murray Frum's collection, splendidly illustrating its title: "African Majesty". This important insignia of power in the Luba region, one of the largest still in private hands, is a masterpiece of the corpus, impressive for its sculptural quality.
Within a very limited corpus representing one of the best-known forms of African art, this Nimba shoulder mask from Guinea (estimate: €200,000-300,000 / $227,000-341,000) stands out for the dynamic force of its forward-thrusting head, and its considerable age. Its morphology is similar to that of the first Nimba referenced in Europe, now in the Musée du Quai Branly. Previously in the Pierre Vérité collection, it was bought by Murray Frum privately shortly before the collection's famous dispersal at auction. Nimba shoulder masks were used during festivities linked with the crop cycle, rites of passage and funerary rituals.
Ode to the ancestors: from the Arts of Gabon to the Statuary of Madagascar
The sale introduces art lovers to works with an extraordinary history, notably illustrating a key theme: the representation of ancestors, from Gabon to Madagascar. The main piece in this remarkable group is the Fang statue from the Louis Carré collection (estimate: €400,000-500,000 / $454,000-570,000). This ancestral effigy featured in the iconic Exposition d’art Africain et d’art Océanien (Galerie Pigalle, 1930) staged by Charles Ratton, Pierre Loeb and Tristan Tzara. In 1933, in the exhibition Sculptures et Objets at Louis Carré's premises, it illustrated the virtuosity of Fang master carvers through the modernity of their sculptural style.
The discovery of this Kota Ndasa reliquary figure (estimate: €180,000-250,000 / $205,000-284,000) unearthed a new masterpiece in the illustrious but limited corpus of the style known as "Kota Ndasa", characterised by the absence of a crest on top and the simplicity of the forms. Drawing on the imaginary Kota world and the sculptural characteristics typical of the Ndasa style, the artist has imbued this figure with remarkable force.
This session ends on a high point with a masterpiece of Madagascan statuary, 164 cm high (estimate: €120,000-180,000 / $ 137,000-205,000). The art historian Bertrand Goy, author of Arts anciens de Madagascar, gives free rein to his admiration for this commemorative portrait: "This man with a touch of the adolescent, despite a skin scarred by age, could take his place in an imaginary museum of universal classicism alongside his counterparts in marble and bronze, carved by Leochares or Benvenuto Cellini […] But the comparison ends there: the sculptors of ancient Greece and Rome and the Italian Cinquecento are familiar to us, while the artist who carved this beautiful young man in rosewood is doomed to eternal anonymity. “
*Sotheby’s dispersed part of the Murray Frum collection on 16 September 2014 for a total of €7.5 million; every lot was sold.
