About the lot N° 68
Title : A Superb Fang Mask
Size : height 14 1/2 in. 37cmProvenance : PROPERTY FROM A FRENCH COLLECTIONGuy Montbarbon, ParisNotes : Fang masks of this type are iconic in the lexicon of African art. They are particularly recognizable from the well-documented dialogue between African art and the Modern art movement of the early twentieth century. The most famous Fang mask was formerly in the collections of the artists Maurice Vlaminck and then André Derain in Paris, now in the collection of the Musée national d'Art moderne-Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. According to various sources, not only was the mask in the collections of Vlaminck and Derain, it was also seen by Picasso and Matisse who were moved by the stark abstraction of the work--placing the mask at the genesis of the modern art movement (see Flam in Rubin, ed. 1984: 212-214).This style of mask, so characteristic and specific--the oval facial plane, the lenticular mouth and close-set eyes--is thought to be the work of a single carver or atelier active at the turn-of-the-century in Gabon, a time when most of these masks are subsequently recorded in European collections (Perrois 1986: 146-147). See reproduction (below) for another almost identical mask with a flourish, possibly a moustache, above the mouth in the Etnografisch Museum, Antwerp (AE 918), see also Perrois (1979: figure 97) and Van Rijn (27948-01). According to the museum's records, the Antwerp mask was acquired from the dealer Henri Pareyn on 13 April 1920.Sotheby's, auctioneer, New York, US
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Sale title : African & Oceanic Art
Sale date : 14 Nov 2003
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
