Bernard de Grunne Tribal Fine Arts
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NEWS
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Phemba : Voix féminines d'aristocrates kongo / Female voices of Kongo aristocrats
Exhibition catalogue, TEFAF 2022, Maastricht June 20, 2022 Bernard de Grunne's selection of 70 statuettes is unindubitably a fairly complete 'catalogue raisonné' of important Phemba maternity figures. Considered among the most iconic images of “maternity” in Africa because of their formal perfection and the power of their presence, the figures of women with children in Kongo are commonly called phemba. These phemba were carved to honor the mother of a large family, hailed “as a pinnacle and guardian of all the people”, nlunda banti, a mother who raised the children of the whole community. This founding aristocrat not only fulfilled her role in an exemplary manner but was also a person of great power and prestige, because as regent she wore the cap of an initiated chief (mpu). She was sometimes also the sister or niece of a chief who died without descendants. She may have temporarily exercised the power of regent, which gave her the right to wear the chief’s insignia of authority until such time as a new leader was consecrated. The ancient kingdom of Kongo is one of Africa’s major civilizations, classical, self-confident, balanced and full of presence, encompassing vast territories in the Lower Congo, the Cabinda region and north-western Angola already unified by the 15e century. -
Parcours des Mondes 2019
10 - 15 September 2019 at GALERIE PATRICE TRIGANO 4bis, rue des Beaux-Arts - 75007 Paris Opening Tuesday 10 September -> 3pm to 9pm From Wednesday 11 to Saturday 14 September -> 11am to 7pm... -
Virtual tour of Bernard de Grunne stand - TEFAF 2022
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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.
