Invitation to 52nd tribal art auction
published: 2007, October 12
Dear Customers,
we would like to invite you to our 52nd tribal art auction.
Saturday, 2007 November 24 – 2 pm
following silent auction for literature (around 600 lots)
Preview:
Saturday, November 17 to Friday, November 23 – 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday, November 24 – 9 am to 12 am
The centrepiece of this auction will be the Kuba mask from Carl Einstein from the collection George Neuner, Munich (lot 170).
(Please click on one of the pictures to enlarge)
Alternatively you can download our brochure for Carl Einstein Mask.
It is considered as a genuine rediscovery in non-european art, but still remains mysterious in its history and meaning.
Its history is unusually and closely connected with Carl Einstein and its publication „Negerplastik“ from 1915, the first theoretical attempt to approach African art. Until recently the whereabouts of this mask were puzzling. The specialized literature of the late eighties and nineties dealed intensively with the question where it is: in their publication of 1985, “La sculture nègre, Carl Einstein”, Ezio Bassani and Jean Louis Paudrat identified almost all owners of the objects illustrated in the Einstein book of 1915; the Kuba mask however remained missing.
In Paris Einstein got to know Joseph Brummer, the art dealer for Africa. He offered financial support for his book as well as he also gave him most of the illustrations of the objects, which he possessed in large parts.
It is not documented when and in which way the Kuba mask reached the Linden-Museum Stuttgart. According to the letters on the back „L39” it can be assumed that the mask had been purchased in progress of intensive acquisition efforts in the early times of the museum. With the destruction of the museum in World War II all inventory cards were lost, so there are no further documents about the whereabouts of the Kuba mask. We know about the financial shortage of the museum as well as the lack of genuine original material so objects were sold again. In 1948 the mask did not belong to the museum any longer.
Georg Neuner (1903-1962), son of a royal chocolate manufacturer in Bavaria, acquired the Einstein mask by Ludwig Bretschneider, one of the most important dealer for Africa in Munich. They had been friends and it was Bretschneider who advised him in non-european art and musicial instruments, that Neuner started to collect in the twenties.
Without doubt the Einstein mask belongs to one of the most superb masks among royal art of the Kuba in central Zaire. It captivates with its refinement and form-completed elaboration as well as its beautifully smoothened surface and a slightly shining reddish-brown patina; there are only two small indigenous repairs right above.
Function and social meaning of this mask are not clearly proven till today, it points a stylistic proximity to the Bwoom-type of mask, which is identified in important royal ceremonies of the bushspirit Ngesh.
According to expert opinion the time of origin of the mask is dated around 1850. For certain it was made in the second half of the 19th century during the zenith of the Kuba kingdom, before it declined towards the end of the century.
For further information please contact us.
we would like to invite you to our 52nd tribal art auction.
Saturday, 2007 November 24 – 2 pm
following silent auction for literature (around 600 lots)
Preview:
Saturday, November 17 to Friday, November 23 – 10 am to 7 pm
Saturday, November 24 – 9 am to 12 am
The centrepiece of this auction will be the Kuba mask from Carl Einstein from the collection George Neuner, Munich (lot 170).
(Please click on one of the pictures to enlarge)
Alternatively you can download our brochure for Carl Einstein Mask.
It is considered as a genuine rediscovery in non-european art, but still remains mysterious in its history and meaning.
Its history is unusually and closely connected with Carl Einstein and its publication „Negerplastik“ from 1915, the first theoretical attempt to approach African art. Until recently the whereabouts of this mask were puzzling. The specialized literature of the late eighties and nineties dealed intensively with the question where it is: in their publication of 1985, “La sculture nègre, Carl Einstein”, Ezio Bassani and Jean Louis Paudrat identified almost all owners of the objects illustrated in the Einstein book of 1915; the Kuba mask however remained missing.
In Paris Einstein got to know Joseph Brummer, the art dealer for Africa. He offered financial support for his book as well as he also gave him most of the illustrations of the objects, which he possessed in large parts.
It is not documented when and in which way the Kuba mask reached the Linden-Museum Stuttgart. According to the letters on the back „L39” it can be assumed that the mask had been purchased in progress of intensive acquisition efforts in the early times of the museum. With the destruction of the museum in World War II all inventory cards were lost, so there are no further documents about the whereabouts of the Kuba mask. We know about the financial shortage of the museum as well as the lack of genuine original material so objects were sold again. In 1948 the mask did not belong to the museum any longer.
Georg Neuner (1903-1962), son of a royal chocolate manufacturer in Bavaria, acquired the Einstein mask by Ludwig Bretschneider, one of the most important dealer for Africa in Munich. They had been friends and it was Bretschneider who advised him in non-european art and musicial instruments, that Neuner started to collect in the twenties.
Without doubt the Einstein mask belongs to one of the most superb masks among royal art of the Kuba in central Zaire. It captivates with its refinement and form-completed elaboration as well as its beautifully smoothened surface and a slightly shining reddish-brown patina; there are only two small indigenous repairs right above.
Function and social meaning of this mask are not clearly proven till today, it points a stylistic proximity to the Bwoom-type of mask, which is identified in important royal ceremonies of the bushspirit Ngesh.
According to expert opinion the time of origin of the mask is dated around 1850. For certain it was made in the second half of the 19th century during the zenith of the Kuba kingdom, before it declined towards the end of the century.
For further information please contact us.
