Vente Christie's - 27 juin 2018

ENGLISH TRANSLATION
that of a flm made by Pascali in 1966 for Italian
television using illustrations taken from various
publications, which, having been rephotographed
and retouched, were overpainted in some cases
using a bituminous medium to contrast with the
unpainted clear areas. So by the homogeneity of
the treatment used, Pascali's "Africa" of wild
animals, dancers, masks, totems and rock
paintings of hunters turns away from the expected
form of picturesque imagery to bring together a
unifying representation of a world in which nature
and culture become one, with neither
predominating over the other.
A Carla Lonzi interview with Pascali a year before
the artist’s death in 1968, was reproduced for
distribution to exhibition visitors, and here, Liliane
quotes some brief extracts from it. Suficient
extracts indeed to fully evidence and support the
case for bringing these two convergent sets of
pieces together. Reading everything that Pascali
said during the interview is to understand that his
conception of African art and the fact of it being
driven by the "dedicated zeal that characterises the
creation of a civilisation" aligned completely with
that of the Durand-Desserts.
In 2003, Jean-Claude Ménioux invited them to
contribute to the exhibition he organised between
May and January at the Halle Saint Pierre : among
other signifcant pieces, such as the Idoma with the
forehead decoration, the mask with the statuette
surmounted by a reliquary and the Tchamba
dancer, their loan also included the two Ejagham
panels and crests shown in the "Africa” exhibition.
In 2005, "Liaisons Africaines" in the same venue
provided another opportunity to view the Pascali
pieces, and also all the Ejagham pieces shown at
the Rue de Lappe in 2001.
At the initiative of its curator Guy Tosatto, the Musée
de Grenoble made large sections of the gallery
available to the Durand-Desserts in summer 2004
to host an important event entitled “L’art au futur
antérieur”, which they conceived and designed as two
quite distinct, yet complementary, exhibitions. The
frst - "L’engagement d’une galerie” - used around one
hundred and thirty contemporary works to chart the
milestones of intense activity during the period 1975
to 2004. The second, in the Tour de l’Isle that fanks
the main building, invited visitors to share “Un autre
regard” with eighty sculptures, the majority of them
African. However, at the point where these two
spaces met, there was a transition : a Richter, an
Alighiero e Boetti and a Pascali alongside a Kanak
door jamb and a tall Paiwana sculpture encircling a
long Bamileke drum in bovine form. “Each of these
imposing works retained its essential character and
was able to breathe by itself, while achieving harmony
with the others”. This consonance that Liliane
highlighted in a conversation with the editors of
Arearevue)s(, and published under the title “Futurs ou
archaïques, à jamais contemporains” was repeated
several times in interviews with Guy Tosatto and
Germain Viatte published in both Grenoble
catalogues. What emerges from these conversations
according to the Durand-Desserts is the relevance of
time in Art : the future cannot be interpreted without
considering the past.
Between 2005 and 2008, their collection expanded.
This period is evidenced by around ffty pieces
shown in this book, ten of which were purchased at
auction in 2006 and 2007. This expansion coincides
with the increased supply of pieces in their preferred
cultural areas, but also refects a new openness to
styles they had not previously explored or had been
unable to acquire as a result of their price.
Nevertheless, their preference remained the
inexhaustible creative resources of Nigeria and
its eastern borders. So, for example, when
several of the Mumuye sculptures collected by
Jean-Michel Huguenin in 1967 became available,
the Durand-Desserts seized the opportunity to
assemble a set of variants.
Originating in another of their preferred locations,
the area around the western border of Ivory Coast,
and in addition to other masks and statues, they
acquired two pieces in 2006 that represent
completely dissimilar aesthetics. Previously in the
ownership of Jaques Kerchache before passing to
Baudoin de Grunne, a large Kama maou mask,
whose accentuated facial features, the various
magical ingredient receptacles that surround it and
the headband holding the mass of feathers that
cover it, are covered by an encrusted coating. Its
opposite in perfection of craftsmanship "testifes to
nothing but its beauty" : a Dan statue of a woman
from the body of work attributed to the master
carver known as Zlan.
With the exception of one statue purchased in 1991
from the former Harter collection, Dogon sculpture,
with eight examples shown, had only recently
entered the collection. Also from Mali, covered in a
thick sacrifcial material, armed with a mouthful of
powerful teeth and bristling with multiple horns,
one of those Bamana Komo helmet masks that
have been referred to as "magnifcently horrible",
but which the Durand-Desserts prefer to describe
as the African version of the Asian dragon, whose
benefcial powers are well known.
It would seem that, with the exception of the
Songye "fetishes" they cast aside feeling that one of
them was too "savage", the only representatives of
the art created in the vastness of the former
Belgian Congo was, before 2005, limited to the
Beembe nkonde previously referred to, an Azande
mask and a monkey-like Songe/Luba mask. Since
then however, and as shown here, the collection
has gained ten or so remarkable sculptures : a
Kumu mask, two Lega carved masks, one in ivory
and the other in wood, a Basikasingo statue, a
Tabwa statue from the former Baudoin de Grunne
collection, and four Songye mankishi, the most
important of which belonged to Jean Willy Mestach
and originates from a workshop in the Eki region. It
certainly imposes its strong presence, which was,
however, felt to be less "formidable" by its current
owners than that of other "magic" statues of similar
origin. Coming from one Congo or the other, two
"nail fetishes" joined the set of "accumulative
sculptures" : a rare, powerful and refned Yombe
double reliquary, acquired at the “Vérité Sale", and a
“curvaceous” Dondo-Kamba fgure.
In what may have been a concession to prevailing
taste, in 2006 they acquired a Fang reliquary fgure
carrying the prestigious label : "former Paul
Guillaume collection - Inagaki base". In its
successful visual symbiosis of references that
should not work together - "little man and animal",
"child and old man" - this fgure is seen by the
Durand-Desserts as the model for this lost unity
that Art has the power to reinstate.
Purchased a few months later with a pedigree no less
eloquent, having since the 1930s been in the
successive ownership of Charles Ratton, Louis Carré
and the Albright Art Gallery in Bufalo, documented
earlier by Carl Einstein, and more recently the subject
of a 1966 monograph by Christian Merlo with the
unequivocal title Un chef-d’œuvre d’art nègre : Le
Buste de la prêtresse, a Fon sculpture, judging from
the location of his fnd in 1928 (the Hountondji district
of Abomey) and dated on the basis of material
analysis to the 17th or 18th century. Presumably
mutilated intentionally shortly after its completion,
this bust is deeply marked by the imprint of time, such
that the erosion has removed the softest sections of
wood ; its pores, which could be mistaken for a
superbly fne grain of skin (...), give it the vibrancy of a
simultaneously natural and supernatural life.
“Fragments du Vivant”, “Fragments du Sublime” this
piece and the representation of the "clairvoyant”
carved at the extremity of the Beembe
drum have become icons of the Durand-Dessert
African collection. Not without some pride, the
owners of the collection agreed to loan pieces felt to
be essential by the organisers of a few major
exhibitions of recent years : "Objetos-Signos de
África" in Zaragoza, 2000, "Bamana" in Zurich and
"Mains de maîtres” in Brussels the following year,
"Arts of Africa, 700 years of African art" in Monaco,
2005 and "Ubangui" in Berg-en-Dal, 2007.
However, the loaned works necessarily lacked the
connectivity they enjoy within the collection. In order
to translate their sensitivity to these interrelationships
beyond the words they customarily use with rare
precision, the Durand-Desserts have developed a
new approach specifcally for this book in order to use
images to create "a visual feeling of what cannot be
explained academically”. Analogously, they have also
designed rhythms and rhymes that structure and
energise these physical compositions within an
apparently unprecedented world of understanding.
The resulting structure of assonances and abrupt
breaks of tone should not suggest the application of a
process designed to be seductive, but devoid of
coherence. The brief evocation of the frst sequences
is enough to convince the reader of that. At the frst
questioning glance - the "look" that encourages
interaction or internally intensifes the expression of
concentration or, looking further, opens the mind to
the limitless horizons of dream, thought and
spirituality, succeeds abruptly in the afirmation of the
carved body in its full three-dimensionality. A sudden
shift of focus then emphasises the autonomous
treatment of torsos and how they convey power,
fertility and beauty. Then, suddenly, the attention
shifts to materials other than wood, as carved stone
and shaped earth invite the viewer to experience the
tangible splendours of distant times. And so, in bursts
and bounces, by the alternating use of wide shots and
close-ups, the sculptures come to life and seem to
respond to each other.
Nearly half the pieces in the collection have been
selected for this book. Renowned photographer
Hughes Dubois has captured one hundred and
seventy diferent sculptures in around two hundred
and sixty images. Engaged by the originality of the
project, he has applied all his talent to conveying
this world of forms in movement and materials
imbued with life ; a world on which Liliane and
Michel Durand-Dessert have focused their
dedication and passion. “To love an object is to
"recognise" it in every sense of the word ; it is to be
in resonance with it to the point where it becomes
an extension of our body and our consciousness”.
The fact that they wanted to share this intimacy
and allow others to share their vision of a
"re-enchanted” world through their own eyes, have
made it possible to capture the spirit of a collection
which is undoubtedly and authentically their work.
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