Bernard de Grunne Tribal Fine Arts
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NEWS
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Parcours des Mondes 2021
7 - 12 September 2021 Since almost twenty years, Parcours des Mondes is the most important art fair worldwide, dedicated to Non-Western and Asian cultures and Archeology. The fair gathers each year at the beginning... -
Benin Ivory scepter
Exhibition catalogue, winter Bruneaf 2021, Brussels February 1, 2021 For more than five hundred years, the artists of the West African kingdom of Benin in Nigeria created outstanding works of art mainly in brass and ivory for use in divine kingship rituals, to adorn the royal palace, and identify the King, chiefs, warriors, and other officials at court. The art of ivory has always been an exclusive privilege of Benin royalty and very delicately carved ivory scepters have an ancient history going back to the Golden Era of this ancient kingdom. They been catalogued either as scepters, flywhisks, staffs, idiophones or clappers. The aim of this short note is to establish a corpus of these works of art and explain the various hypothesis on their iconography. -
Lega, Masques éburnéens / On Lega Ivory Masks
Exhibition catalogue, Spring Bruneaf 2021, Brussels June 16, 2021 Since the first years of the Twentieth century, Lega ivory masks have fascinated both artists, poets, collectors, and dealers. This major axis of fascination happened between the three cities of Antwerpen, Brussels and Paris, a fitting parallel to the golden triangle of Lega art located between Pangi, Kama and Shabunda, The history of the discovery of some major ivory masks seems a worthy topic. Bernard de Grunne's selection of thirtyseven masks is unindubitably a fairly complete 'catalogue raisonné' of important Lega masks.
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About
Bernard de GrunneBernard de Grunne has been immersed in the world of great tribal sculpture for more than 40 years as he actively accompanied his father Baudouin de Grunne in building one of the finest collection of Tribal art in Europe from 1968 to 1995. He studied the art of Congo under the legendary Dr. Albert Maesen Chief Curator of the Museum of Central Africa in Tervuren and has earned a Ph.D. in African Art History with Professor Robert Faris Thomson at Yale University in 1987. He became the worldwide head of the Tribal Art department at Sotheby's from 1987 to 1992 setting a world-record price at auction for the Bangwa queen sold to the Dapper Museum.
