MEDIA ALERT | African and Oceanic Art | 12 May 2016
New York - On May 12, Christie’s presents Evolution of Form: African and Oceanic Art at the Genesis of Modernism, an exceptional sale of 11 works from the Ivory Coast, Mali, Cameroon, Gabon and Congo regions. This rich selection will be offered during 20th Century Week and will be exhibited alongside works from the Impressionist & Modern Art and the Post-War and Contemporary Art sales. The sale is an ode to the landmark exhibition curated by William Rubin at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1984 – ‘Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art – to show that these contemporary and modern masters all absorbed the movements, shapes, forms and originality of African cultures as part of their artistic foundation.
Susan Kloman, International Head of African and Oceanic Art, comments: “This is truly a special opportunity for many clients who recognize that African and Oceanic art has directly influenced modern and contemporary art. Affinities of form reveal themselves: an important Bioma figure from New Guinea is echoed in surrealist works and the creations of Jean Dubuffet; the Rubinstein Dan mask from the Ivory Coast ‘shifts the paradigm of how we consider the human face just as Francis Bacon’s work rivets us through similar brute transformations’. The intent of this sale is to demonstrate the continued importance of these works of art on the great world stage of art."
Please click here to view a video of Susan Kloman speaking about the exceptional African & Oceanic art works and how they inspired contemporary art.