Bernard de Grunne Tribal Fine Arts
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NEWS
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TEFAF Maastricht 2020
7 - 15 March 2020 This year in 2020, Bernard will celebrate his 20th participation to TEFAF Maastricht. On this occasion he presents a unique group of nine Songye Kifwebe masks, alongside with the launch... -
Songye Kifwebe
Exhibition catalogue TEFAF Maastricht 2020 March 4, 2020 -
SONGYE Kifwebe masks at TEFAF Maastricht 2020
For TEFAF 2020 I’m presenting 9 masks of the Songye Kifwebe type, which is the first time we have such a large number ever shown together. They all belong to private collections in Belgium and I try to show the evolution of style through 150 years of carving these amazing masks. Songye mask are very special because they do connect to the birth of modern art. Of course, Picasso and Braque, in 1906/1908, when they were « inventing » cubism, they’ve not seen any of these mask. They all came out just after : first mask 1905-1907, but they were not in any books or publications.
As a group of objets they are spectacular in terms of their mix of colours, design and form, which make these a remarkable group to present here at TEFAF.
View the video
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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.
