BRUNEAF XXI Art Fair

SHOW

Name: BRUNEAF XXI (Brussels Non European Art Fair)

Date and opening times: 8-12 June 2011

Place: Different shops and galleries in Brussels. Office in: 17, Impasse Saint Jacques, Brussels (Belgium)

Contact: Phone: +32 (0)2 514 02 09, Fax: +32 (0)2 514 02 09, info@bruneaf.com

Webpage: www.bruneaf.com

History:

The idea of uniting a handful of primitive antique dealers to tie in with the inauguration of the Ambre gallery and offer the public the first “Non European Art Open Days” at the Sablon first saw the light of day in 1983.

The idea took off and it was a resounding success… the project became firmly established, attracting more and more galleries from both Belgium and abroad over the years.

In 1988, the first modest brochure appeared with details of this constantly expanding forum of antique dealers and only three and a half years later the first catalogue was published, marking the success of this momentary fellowship of antique dealers with one objective in common: to promote the exceptional wealth of primitive art, of which they are the ambassadors.

From 1996 onwards, Brussels antique dealers invited colleagues from abroad to the event. Today, the participation of galleries from France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USA gives Bruneaf a decidedly international touch.

The Brussels Non European Art Fair has become one of the leading events displaying non-European art, covering fields as diverse as African, Oceanic, Indonesian, pre-Columbian, Asiatic and Australian Aboriginal art.

Sculptures, masks, fetishes, weaponry, jewellery, coins, fabrics, traditional objects executed by ethnic groups according to their own particular customs and worked in wood, metal, gold, silver, bronze, ivory or terra cotta - the objects on exhibit are ritual or domestic artefacts, combining shape with ornamental design. Although form always meets practical requirements, it is also testimony of a certain vision of the world. Objets d’art from Africa, Indian or Tibet thus draw on the wealth of the myths which form the collective memory, respecting the aesthetic and symbolic standards of tradition and following in the footsteps of the traditional crafts used by their ancestors.

See list of exhibitors here.

© Text and image: Bruneaf.com

Peking Opera

Peking opera is a performance art incorporating singing, reciting, acting, martial arts. Although widely practised throughout China, its performance centres on Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. Peking opera is sung and recited using primarily Beijing dialect, and its librettos are composed according to a strict set of rules that prize form and rhyme. They tell stories of history, politics, society and daily life and aspire to inform as they entertain. The music of Peking opera plays a key role in setting the pace of the show, creating a particular atmosphere, shaping the characters, and guiding the progress of the stories. ‘Civilian plays’ emphasize string and wind instruments such as the thin, high-pitched jinghu and the flute dizi, while ‘military plays’ feature percussion instruments like the bangu or daluo. Performance is characterized by a formulaic and symbolic style with actors and actresses following established choreography for movements of hands, eyes, torsos, and feet. Traditionally, stage settings and props are kept to a minimum. Costumes are flamboyant and the exaggerated facial make-up uses concise symbols, colours and patterns to portray characters’ personalities and social identities. Peking opera is transmitted largely through master-student training with trainees learning basic skills through oral instruction, observation and imitation. It is regarded as an expression of the aesthetic ideal of opera in traditional Chinese society and remains a widely recognized element of the country’s cultural heritage.

Inscribed in 2010 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

© Text: UNESCO, Image: Zhao Yiping

Chez Pascal: A Frenchman's Home is his Gallery

COLLECTORS - PASCAL BUTEL, Asian Art

From Time.com article by John Krich, 24 March 2011

Chez Pascal: A Frenchman's Home is his Gallery

"As implausible as it sounds, one of Bangkok's most stunning private collections of antiques is located on a cul-de-sac approachable through the city's most notorious stretch of girlie bars. And this establishment comes with the most personal of services: a guided tour from Pascal Butel, a transplanted Frenchman who is one of Asia's least known yet most devoted collectors.

He was practically born to the life. When he was 7, his grandmother in Nice chose to bestow on him, from her brassiere, the keys to trunks of treasures foraged from Indochina by her father. As a young man on a whimsical urge, Butel made Thai his college major in Paris and afterward headed east.

These days, he lives in a house full of exceptional finds. While his bedroom is off-limits, the rest of the place is packed with astounding objects: a Himalayan shaman's pouch made from a bear paw, a rare Isfahan carpet, intricately carved Nepalese looms, striking totems from Nagaland, Javanese chests. Butel waxes poetic about each object, discussing its provenance and uses daily or divine. The trove, apparently, is a fraction of Butel's main collection, kept in France.

More than merely collecting, Butel sees himself as helping preserve traditional "communities of interest and belief" and celebrating a time when "the hand that shaped was directly connected to the heart." Despite being able to lecture like a professor about all he's gathered, he also knows his own limitations. "Just as a grandmother never tells you everything about her life," he says, "the best part of these objects is their mystery."

Casual tourists are not welcome, but Butel will open his doors to those who genuinely share his passion. For an appointment call (66) 8094 40208." 
You can email him as well at pbsthai@hotmail.com.

Pascal Butel's tribal and traditional arts of Asia are only a portion of his collections, which also focus on antique objects, furniture and high end statuary. 

L’Africa delle meraviglie

Exhibition: L’Africa delle meraviglie

Dates: 31 December 2010 to 5 June 2011

Opening times: 9-19h Monday to Friday, 9-20h Saturday and Sunday

Place: Palazzo Ducale, Genova (Italy)

Entrance fee: 10 €

Webpage: www.africadellemeraviglie.it

About the exhibition:

Sottoporticato rooms at the Palazzo Ducale, once a stock of food, houses masks and fetishes in an architectural context in which today seems more like a cathedral than a deposit. It 's so great that in the first room with three aisles, including austere medieval pillars of dark stone, are placed African sculptures, presented in order to enhance the aesthetic dimension, taking the eye and the gaze of the art collector.

The collectors themselves do not appear here as mere providers but as one of the figures that mediate our relationship with Africa, collecting aesthetic creations and helping to shape our taste.

Through videos, household items and installations you can share the passion, travels and the experiences of those who live under the empire of the masks, that is to say the fan collectors of traditional African arts. Their stories tell us not only of their lives, often surprising, but also of the relation that Italy has had with the African lands, and of the imagination and reality that shapes our vision of Africa.

Looking at Africa through art is not the same thing as looking through the lens of the famine, tribal wars and humanitarian emergencies: there emerges a whole cultural and human richness.

© Text and image: Palazzo Ducale Genova

Tatanua mask

Name: Tatanua mask

Origin: Oceania

Museum: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas (USA)

Materials: wood, paint, opercula, shell, and cloth

Reference code: 1975.8

Age: early 20th century

Comments:

These men's dance masks, and the line dance in which they appear, are called tatanua, which may derive from the word tanua (spirit or soul). They are associated with the malagan festival in Papua New Guinea. So great is the power of each mask that the dancer must remain absolutely quiet once it is lowered over his head. A supporting male chorus provides a voice for the masks. As part of the malagan celebration, the tatanua dance represents the renewed vitality of the living and their capabilities to survive and prosper. The masked dancers announce a return to order following the chaos in the village associated with death.

Though the masks are superficially similar in appearance, there are many variations reflecting the wide range of associations and meanings which they have.

The upper part consists of a cane framework held together with string and covered with barkcloth, or in later examples, European textiles. It is decorated to represent the hairstyle worn by young men as a mark of bereavement, in which the hair was partially shaved and coated with lime. Tatanua masks are decorated differently on each side of the crest, using feathers, wool, shells, short wooden sticks or seeds. One side is often

coated with lime. The crest is of yellow or reddish brown fibre. The face, normally carved from lime wood (Alstonia), is decorated with black, white and reddish brown pigment in an asymmetric design. Sometimes blue pigment is used to enhance the whiteness of washing. The straight mouth is usually open, showing teeth.

The tatanua mask is worn by men in ceremonies to honour the dead. In 1907 Richard Parkinson published a description of a ceremony that he witnessed on a visit to New Ireland. The masked dancers performed, accompanied by drumming, wearing garlands of leaves and a leaf garment covering the lower body. Brenda Clay describes her observations of a performance by tatanua dancers in 1979. Men prepared the masks and the performance away from women. The masks are preserved between performances, to be rented out by one of the few remaining skilled carvers.

There are several categories of masks used in the malagan. The tatanua mask represents the spirits of the dead who are believed to attend the ceremonies and participate in the dances. Villagers clearly associated the different tatanua masks with specific deceased relatives and believed the mask wearers to be the reappearance of the spirit of that individual. In the past the tatanua ceremony was an exclusive male ritual complex and took place in the men's enclosure.

Some of the tatanuas are displays of the “ideal male”, that is, male power and capabilities; others are “portraits” of specific deceased. The placement of the shell eyes is an occasion for ceremony and it is at this moment that the spirit is believed to enter the mask. Tatanua dancers performed line dances rather than the individual dances that were typical for other kinds of masked dancers. Their movements imitated birds and/or snakes. The dancer, who wore a short grass costume, re-enacted the activities of an ancestor, sometimes in a comic manner. The crest represents the style of hair once worn by male ancestors. The tatanuas were not destroyed after the malagan festival, unlike most of the other art objects created for this ceremonial display.

While the individual elements that make up a particular piece can be identified, the meaning of the piece as a whole changes when the various elements are combined. The interpretation of the person who commissioned the piece may vary from that of other viewers and, indeed, there can be as many interpretations of the piece as there

are viewers. The elements used in each piece were chosen by the person who commissioned the piece and were dictated by his knowledge of the relative to be commemorated.

© Photos and text: Dallas Museum of Art and British Museum, Utah Museum of Fine Arts