Fang Reliquary Head, Gabon

Presumably Charles Vignier, Paris
Marius de Zayas, New York
John Quinn, New York, acquired from the above, May 1919
American Art Association, New York, The John Quinn Collections – Paintings & Sculptures of the Moderns, February 9-11, 1927, lot 638
Joseph Brummer, New York, acquired at the above auction
André Derain, Paris, presumably acquired from the above
Hotel Drouot, Étude Rheims-Boisgirard, Collection André Derain et a Divers Amateurs, March 9-11, 1955, lot 107
Possibly Merton D. Simpson, New York
Carlo Monzino, Castagnola, by 1971
By descent to the present owner

Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Torino, 1971
The Center for African Art, New York, African Aesthetics: The Carlo Monzino Collection, May 7 - September 7, 1986

Charles Sheeler, Photographic Album of the John Quinn Collection, May-June 1919, pl. 3 (scheduled for publication but unrealized, the original copy of the portfolio is preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)
Susan M. Vogel, African Aesthetics: The Carlo Monzino Collection, New York, 1986, pp. 125-127 and 216, cat. 98
Wendy A. Grossman (ed.), Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens, Washington, D.C., 2009, p. 57, pl. 3

Good condition overall; large vertical crack on reverse of head and neck, five large iron tacks inserted to prevent further enlargement (possibly native repair); minor crack on right side of neck; ears and central segment of coiffure pierced; small slits around the circular outline of the eyes indicate the original location of tacks that would have kept in place today missing metal discs; some scratches and minor chips resulting from traditional use; dark lustrous brown patina.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For nearly the whole of the twentieth century, African art sparked the interest of some of the greatest Western artists and collectors alike. The offered Fang Reliquary Head, once owned by Marius de Zayas, John Quinn, Joseph Brummer, André Derain and Carlo Monzino and photographed by Charles Sheeler in 1919, represents one of the most exemplary objects for this central current in modern art history.

In the early 1910s, Marius de Zayas, a Mexican living in New York, arrived in Paris with only a cursory awareness of either Avant-Garde or African art. However, an encounter with Pablo Picasso and subsequent visits to his studio proved a revelation and made de Zayas one of the most devoted promoters of Cubism and African sculpture. In the early months of 1911, he joined Alfred Stieglitz in organizing Picasso's first exhibition in America at Stieglitz's now legendary gallery 291. De Zayas organized an exhibition of African sculpture at 291 in 1914 and further exhibitions at his own Modern Gallery, which he opened in 1915. In 1916 he published African Negro Art: Its Influence on Modern Art, which became the American equivalent to Carl Einstein's German book Negerplastik (1915). In his gallery, de Zayas offered both Avant-Garde and African art.

In 1919, de Zayas sold the offered Fang Reliquary Head to John Quinn (1870 – 1924), a New York lawyer and collector described by Alfred Barr as "the greatest American collector of the art of his day" (Reid 1968: 662). Barr's judgment was perhaps based on his admiration for the quality of the works which Quinn was able to acquire in relation to his financial means, and whilst not as rich as Alfred C. Barnes, that other great American collector of African and Modern art, Quinn was nonetheless able to form a highly distinguished collection which contained masterpieces by Brancusi, Braque, Rousseau, and Seurat. Described by Braque as "an intense personality – a challenging spirit always ready to fight for his ideas" (Saarinen 1958: 234), Quinn was an impassioned collector who declared that he bought art for "the pleasure of helping artists" and so as to have "important examples of the work of artists in whom I believe" (Reid 1968: 553). Quinn's ledgers describe the Fang Reliquary Head as a "Large Head and Drum" (a misinterpretation of the function of the bark box which served, in fact, as container for the mortal relics of deceased clan elders), a description which testifies to the purely aesthetic approach which  de Zaya's and Quinn took to "primitive" art, an attitude typical of many of the pioneering collectors of the early twentieth century.

Quinn's initial interest in African art was doubtless stimulated by his friend Jacob Epstein, the sculptor and celebrated collector of African art in London. Although it appears Quinn bought his first African object in 1915 (Biro in Grossman 2009: 33) his correspondence with Epstein shows that it was at the very least a topic of conversation for some time before this. In June 1913, for instance, Quinn wrote refusing to lend Epstein £200 to buy the cottage in which he worked, proposing instead to send £150 so that Epstein might acquire African objects for Quinn in Paris (Reid 1968: 160). In 1919 Quinn reached the conclusion that the only good sculpture was carving (ibid.: 396) and it is clear that he thenceforth took a greater interest in his collection of African art. He devoted more money to new acquisitions and in May 1919 commissioned a portfolio of photographs of his African objects from Charles Sheeler, in which the offered lot is featured as plate three (the two metal discs - now lost - which were once attached to the eyes are still visible in this photograph). Originally intended for a wider distribution, the portfolio was never published, in part due to Quinn's early death in 1924. Today only one copy survives in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on long-term loan from a private collection,

Quinn's entire collection of over 2,500 works was dispersed in 1926 and 1927 (see Zilczer 1979), culminating in a five day auction at the American Arts Association in New York, where the offered lot was acquired by Joseph Brummer. Brummer, who at first built his business in both African and Modern European art before switching to Classical Antiquities and Medieval art, played a particularly important role in the Modern art movement, launching amongst others the career of the "Douanier" Rousseau. Following the First World War, Brummer went on to become Brancusi's dealer and staged a landmark exhibition of his work in New York in 1926. However, it is little known that Brummer started out as a dealer of African art around 1908 and by the mid teens had established himself as one of the foremost dealers in African art. Brummer not only encouraged Carl Einstein to write Negerplastik (1915), the first book presenting African and Oceanic objects as artworks, but also supplied one of the largest group of illustrations for the book from his personal archive and paid the cost of the publication.

Brummer was well acquainted with the French painter André Derain, having organized several exhibitions of the painter's work in New York. We can assume that Brummer sold the Fang Reliquary Head directly to Derain. Derain, who famously purchased a Fang mask from Maurice de Vlaminck in 1905-06 (Flam in Rubin 1984: 214), had an outstanding eye for African art and his collection was famous for its quality. One of the most famous Fang reliquary figures in the world, now in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (published in Lagamma 2007: 2 and 163, cat. 23), was once part of Derain's collection. See Flam (ibid: 216-220) for further discussion of the influence of tribal sculpture on Derain's own work from the Fauve period forward. Following Derain's death, the offered lot was sold at auction in Paris and presumably purchased by the American painter and art dealer Merton D. Simpson of New York. By 1971 it had entered the collection of Carlo Monzino, one of Italy's leading collectors of Post-war art. Monzino started to build his painting collection as early as 1956, and it would eventually include works by Jackson Pollock, Sam Francis and Lucio Fontana. In 1958 he expanded his interests to African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, Indonesian and Cycladic art. His interest in these art fields culminated with the acquisition of Jacop Epstein's landmark collection, which contained arguably the best group of Fang sculpture ever assembled.

The offered Fang Reliquary Head, with its elegant lines and its intense stare, offers a round trip through the art world of the twentieth century, from Picasso and Derain to Pollock and Fontana.