Galerie FlakAncient arts: Africa, Oceania, North America

News

1st - 30 April, 2021

Now !

New Digital Exhibition
Faces, Visible – Invisible

Jeudi des Beaux-Arts

A visage découvert!
An open exhibition in the windows of rue des Beaux-Arts galleries !

Faces, visible – invisible

New Publication!

War clubs from Oceania

Katsinam

New AcQuisitions

photo Maori spear

New AcQuisitions | New Zealand

Maori spear

photo Kachina Doll

North America | Arizona

Kachina Doll

photo Yup’ik mask

North America | Alaska

Yup’ik mask

Archives | U.S.A.

Iroquois

photo Lwalwa Mask

Africa | Democratic Republic of the Congo

Lwalwa Mask

photo Kachina doll

North America | Arizona

Kachina doll

photo Yup’ik mask

North America | Alaska

Yup’ik mask

photo Kachina Doll

North America | Arizona

Kachina Doll

photo Lega Mask

Africa | Democratic Republic of the Congo

Lega Mask

photo Malagan mask

New AcQuisitions | New Ireland

Malagan mask

New AcQuisitions | Papua New Guinea

Gope

photo Baining Mask

New AcQuisitions | New Britain

Baining Mask

photo Songye Mask

Africa | Democratic Republic of the Congo

Songye Mask

photo Kachina Doll

North America | Arizona

Kachina Doll

photo Punuk tool

North America | Alaska

Punuk tool

Discover our collections

CoLLECTIoNS

Instagram

This impressive, colorful kachina figure holding a

This impressive, colorful kachina figure holding a snake in his mouth represents the dramatic Snake Dance of the Hopi people in Arizona! It is part of our exhibition “Faces – from the visible to the invisible”. Discover more by visiting our website! (link in our bio).
This katsina doll was carved by Hopi Chief and master carver, Wilson Tawaquaptewa (1873-1960).

Aby Warburg was the first Western ethnologist to write about a Snake Dance ceremony which took place in 1895 or 1896 when he lived among the Hopi.
A. Warburg observed that during these rituals, priests held rattlesnakes through their teeth in order to transform them into catalysts for storms, dispensers of the beneficent rain.

Subsequently, many ethnologists and collectors became fascinated by this ceremonial cycle. André Breton (who owned a Chusona Snake Dancer Kachina doll in his collection) had the opportunity to attend a Snake Dance in 1945 in Mishongnovi.

Feel free to visit Rue des Beaux-Arts for a first glimpse of our show through the windows of the gallery with the @jeudidesbeauxarts group event “A visage découvert”, on view until April 20th. __ Snake Dancer Kachina doll
Hopi, Arizona Carved by Hopi Chief Wilson Tawaquaptewa, Oraibi (1873-1960)
Circa 1930s
Ex collection Andrew Ellicott Douglass (1867-1962), Tuscon, USA  Ex Sotheby's New York, November 30, 1999, lot 331 Ex private collection, USA

#GalerieFlak #JulienFlak #Faces #FacesVisibleInvisible #KachinaDoll #HopiPeople #Katsinam #WilsonTawaquaptewa #SnakeDance #NativeAmericanArt #NativeAmerican #NativeAmericanArtCollector #TribalArtExpert #TribalArtCollector #TribalArtGallery #ArtCollector #ArtAdvisor #Surrealism #Arizona

Two faces in a single mask! This extraordinary du

Two faces in a single mask!

This extraordinary dual mask from Alaska was used for shamanic rituals among the Yup’ik (Eskimo) people.

Feel free to visit our website “Faces visible / invisible” (link in our bio) to learn more about this Seal-Man mask which is part of our new exhibition at the gallery.
Shamans wore masks to facilitate communication and voyages between worlds (the world of men and that of animals, the tangible and the invisible, the living and the dead). The 19th century mask presented here has a fascinating provenance, listed below.

Feel free to visit Rue des Beaux-Arts for a first glimpse of our show through the windows of the gallery with the @jeudidesbeauxarts group event “A visage découvert”, on view until April 20th. __
Shamanic dual mask St Michael  Yup’ik Eskimo, Alaska Late 19th century Collected in Anvik, Alaska Ex collection Heye Foundation, Museum of the American Indian, inventory # 5/941 Sold in 1944 to Julius Carlebach (1909-1964) Ex Carlebach Gallery, New York Ex collection Jeffrey R. Myers, New York Ex collection Pinchas Mendelson, New York, acquired from the above in 2003 By descent

#GalerieFlak #JulienFlak #Alaska #Yupik #Arctic #Eskimo #YupikMask #AnimalMask #NativeAmerican #FirstNations #Anvik #ArchaicEskimo #Museum #Provenance #EskimoArt #AncientEskimo #TribalArtExhibition #Faces #FacesVisibleInvisible #ArtCollector #ArtCollection #TribalArtExpert #TribalArtGallery #TribalArt #ArtAdvisor

What a lovely smile! This exceptional, early Gope

What a lovely smile! This exceptional, early Gope spirit board is a part of our exhibition “Faces – from the visible to the invisible”. Discover more by visiting our website! (link in our bio).

As described in the reference book "Coaxing the Spirits to Dance" (Hood / Metropolitan Museum of Art), in the past, the primary focus of religious and artistic life in the Papuan Gulf region was on powerful spirits (imunu). Each imunu typically was associated with a specific location in the landscape, rivers, or sea, and was linked to the specific clan within whose territory it dwelt.

The majority of Papuan Gulf wood sculpture was two-dimensional, consisting of board-like carvings, known as spirit boards (gope or kopé), and figures with designs in low relief. Villages formerly had large communal men's houses divided into cubicles, each allotted to a particular clan or subclan. Every cubicle contained a clan shrine, which housed the Gope spirit boards, figures, human and animal skulls, and other sacred objects associated with the clan's various imunu.

This Gope spirit board was collected by Paul Wirz (1892-1955) in the 1930s. A famous field photograph shows this ritual sculpture in its original Men’s House along with other spirit boards, figures and skulls.
This sculpture notably appears on the cover of the book Weltvagant im Urwald und auf der Savanne, published by Paul Wirz in 1953.

Feel free to visit Rue des Beaux-Arts for a first glimpse of our show through the windows of the gallery with the @jeudidesbeauxarts group event “A visage découvert”, on view until April 20th. __
Gope spirit board Papuan Gulf, Papua New Guinea
Early 20th century
Height: 126 cm (46 ½ in.)
Ex collection Paul Wirz, Basel
Published

#GalerieFlak #JulienFlak #PapuaNewGuinea #PapuanGulf #Gope #GopeSpiritBoard #Spirit #OceanicArt #TribalArtExhibition #Faces #FacesVisiblesInvisibles #ArtCollector #ArtCollection #TribalArtExpert #TribalArtGallery #TribalArt #ArtAdvisor

This impressive, colorful kachina figure holding a

This impressive, colorful kachina figure holding a snake in his mouth represents the dramatic Snake Dance of the Hopi people in Arizona! It is part of our exhibition “Faces – from the visible to the invisible”. Discover more by visiting our website! (link in our bio).
This katsina doll was carved by Hopi Chief and master carver, Wilson Tawaquaptewa (1873-1960).

Aby Warburg was the first Western ethnologist to write about a Snake Dance ceremony which took place in 1895 or 1896 when he lived among the Hopi.
A. Warburg observed that during these rituals, priests held rattlesnakes through their teeth in order to transform them into catalysts for storms, dispensers of the beneficent rain.

Subsequently, many ethnologists and collectors became fascinated by this ceremonial cycle. André Breton (who owned a Chusona Snake Dancer Kachina doll in his collection) had the opportunity to attend a Snake Dance in 1945 in Mishongnovi.

Feel free to visit Rue des Beaux-Arts for a first glimpse of our show through the windows of the gallery with the @jeudidesbeauxarts group event “A visage découvert”, on view until April 20th. __ Snake Dancer Kachina doll
Hopi, Arizona Carved by Hopi Chief Wilson Tawaquaptewa, Oraibi (1873-1960)
Circa 1930s
Ex collection Andrew Ellicott Douglass (1867-1962), Tuscon, USA  Ex Sotheby's New York, November 30, 1999, lot 331 Ex private collection, USA

#GalerieFlak #JulienFlak #Faces #FacesVisibleInvisible #KachinaDoll #HopiPeople #Katsinam #WilsonTawaquaptewa #SnakeDance #NativeAmericanArt #NativeAmerican #NativeAmericanArtCollector #TribalArtExpert #TribalArtCollector #TribalArtGallery #ArtCollector #ArtAdvisor #Surrealism #Arizona

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