ANCESTORS

BERNARD DULON PRESENTS
ANCESTORS
MAY 11 - JUNE 11
AOA MAY 12 - MAY 14
BY FRIEDMAN & VALLOIS GALLERY
O
n the occasion of his participation in the inaugural edition of
the AOA ( Africa Oceania Americas ), May 12 to May 14, 2011,
Bernard Dulon presents the exhibition «Kota Ancestors» which
will premiere on Tuesday May 11 and will run through June 11, 2011 at
the Friedman & Vallois Gallery in New York City.
This exhibition gathers twenty major pieces of Kota Art from the nineteenth
Century culled from prestigious collections. They will then travel to Paris to
be shown at the Bernard Dulon Gallery in Paris, in exclusivity for the Parcours
des Mondes Gallery Walk to be held from the 6th to the 11th of September
2011 in Saint Germain des Prés.
It is probably due to their constant migrations that the great majority of
populations from Gabon, Southern Cameroon and Northern Congo preserved
their ancestral relics in small baskets made of bark or woven willow, easy
to carry and on top of which an anthropomorphic representation was
sometimes placed.
The tribes of the Kota Obamba group would place a copper and brass plated
wooden figure on top of their ossuaries which then took the generic name of
mbulu ngulu (literally basket with a figure) but each was given its own name,
thus implying an actual attempt at physical portrait.
Kept in secrecy in small huts outside the village, the mbulu ngulu were only
accessible to the highest and most senior initiates authorized to consult the
ancestors during specific private or public ceremonies.
Catalogue by Louis Perrois, a specialist of the Art of Gabon
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Mahongwe people
Gabon
19th century
Wooden frame with copper and brass plates
Height: 45 cm
Pierre Robin Gallery, Paris
Private collection, Paris
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Obamba people
Gabon
19th century
Wooden frame with copper and brass plates
Height: 54 cm
Paolo Morigi, collection, Lugano
Private collection, Paris
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Obamba people
Gabon
19th century
Wooden frame with copper and brass plates
Height: 70 cm
Pigalle gallery, circa 1930
André Lhote collection, Paris
Paolo Morigi collection, Lugano
Private collection, Paris
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Obamba or Shamaye people
Gabon
19th century
Wooden frame with copper and brass plates
Height: 36 cm
Armand Trampitsch collection, Paris
G. F. Keller collection, Berne
Paolo Morigi collection, Lugano
Private collection, Paris
PUBLICATIONS :
Louis Perrois, 1979, Arts du Gabon, ill.158, p. 164
Paolo Morigi, 1980, Raccolta di un amatore d’arte primitiva, ill. 244, p. 267
RELIQUARY FIGURE OR MBULU NGULU
Kota-Obamba people,
Gabon
19th century
Wooden frame with brass and copper
Height: 58 cm
Paul Guillaume collection
Vérité collection
EXHIBITION:
Les arts africains, Paris, cercle Volnay, Juin-Juillet 1955, n° 252
PUBLICATIONS:
L’encyclopédie coloniale et maritime de l’union française, Paris, juin 1950, p.544, n°3
F.H.Lem, Réalité de l’art nègre, in Tropiques n°327, Paris, décembre 1950
Fagg et Elisofon, La sculpture africaine, Londres et Paris, 1958, p.183, n°228
FRIEDMAN & VALLOIS
May 11 to june 11, 2011
Opening 12 may from 4 pm
AOA (May 12 to May 14)
27 East 67th Street
New York, NY 10065
Tuesday to Friday 10 – 6 pm, Saturdays 10 – 5 pm
T.: +1 212 517 3820, F.: 1 212 517 4349
Mail: [email protected]
GALERIE BERNARD DULON
10, rue Jacques Callot
75006 Paris, France
T. : +33 1 43 25 25 00
Mail: [email protected]
Site: dulonbernard.fr
Mail: [email protected]
PRESS RELEASE
IN THE MOOD
Élodie Giancristoforo
45, boulevard de Montmorency
75016 Paris
Mail: [email protected]
Site: www.inthemoodrp.com
In the Mood-New York:
Laurence Fayard
197 East 3rd Street, Apt6
NYC, NY 10009
T.: + 1 646 468 1173
Mail: [email protected]