African Art Club

Dear $email,

When the main markets became sluggish, due to the international crisis, it seems the Art market in general and the African art market in a more specific way is accumulating higher results. But the collectors are also becoming more knowledgeable and selective .

Both Christie’s and Bonham’s, did serious efforts the last years to get more high end collectors to bid higher on the objects they offer. They did so by attracting new experts, and getting better informed clients. And for Christie’s by being very selective on the offered goods.

Christie’s sold the nice 8 feet tall Nkundu reliquary coming from the Willy Mestach to an anonymous buyer for $3,526,600, vastly outstripping its $260,000-$390,000 pre-sale estimate.  and a nice Vili at $327,676 that was 8.75 inches tall.  At Christie’s the sale total including Buyer’s Premium: 6,022,975 (EUR) 63 of 90 lots finding buyers just a bit below the Sotheby’s results of 7,268,875 EUR . Sotheby’s sold e.g. an Akan head at 540,750€, also worth mentioning is that they offered a fake weapon that failed to sell (lot 103) that clearly was a mix of styles, easy to spot with it duke head and mix of Teke and Luba styles, but certainly for Sotheby’s every error is one to much.

In you login in the African Art Club Members Section, you will find links to the auction result lists below the post at http://africanartclub.com/?p=3017 .

I hope you did not become dizzy from these high prices. If you’re not at the head of a hedge fund and simply can’t afford the high prices from Sotheby’s and Chrisities, but still want good quality objects coming from known collections, have a look at our inventory

>> Buy African Art

As a reward for  reading this newsletter and to thank you for being one of my customers, if after having visited my website http://www.buyafricanantiques.com  you see something you like, give me a phone call at +32 3 227.35.40, and I’ll make sure you get a lower bargain price than the one mentioned on my website , and I also will personally assure it will reach you before Christmas.

You see some objects and videos of them in my previous posting.

http://africanartclub.com/african-art/african-art-club-december-update/

I hope you enjoyed this edition,

David Norden

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Man Ray African Art and the Modernist Lens

Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens ~ Wendy A. Grossman

Washington October 10, 2009-January 10, 2010

Man Ray, Simone Kahn (with Vanuatu male figure, eastern Malekula), c.1927. © 2009 Man Ray Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY / ADAGP, Paris

Man Ray translated the 20th-century modernist taste for African art into photographs that reached a popular audience. About 60 of his photographs, many never before exhibited, along with more than 40 photographs by his contemporaries, including Cecil Beaton, Walker Evans, and Alfred Stieglitz, will appear side-by-side with 20 of the African objects featured in the images. The exhibition explores the pivotal role of these photographs in shaping the perception of non-Western objects as fine art. Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens is organized by International Arts and Artists.

A fine Songye from Alain Naoum collection

Interview with Alain Naoum  April 28, 2009, part one.

David  Norden:    First let me ask what interested you initially in African Art, and how did you start dealing in the area.- Can you tell us what tribes and type of objects you sold best in the past? Do you see some actual trends?

Alain Naoum:  Since I was a child I have been always interested by the history of mankind, like most children I imagine. Questions about where we came from, what was early man and life like, etc. always held my interest.  I also really enjoyed reading the comics of “Tintin” – “Les Septs Boules de Crystal,”  “Les Cigares du Pharaon,” etc. ...