Tribal Auctions Summer 2020
TRIBAL AUCTIONs
1. Dallas – Hertitage Auction - A ledger drawing by a Southern Cheyenne artist soared to $106,250 to establish a world record for a single ledger drawing and to lead Heritage Auctions’ Ethnographic Art: American Indian, Pre-Columbian and Tribal Auction Featuring the I.S.K. Reeves V and Sara W. Reeves Collection to $1,228,339 in total sales May 29 in Dallas, Texas. The auction boasted sell-through rates of more than 93% by value and by lots sold.
The auction’s top lot was part of the collection of Keith and Sara Reeves, who have spent more than half a century researching and pursuing artwork in an ongoing effort to improve their Florida-based collection.
A Southern Cheyenne Ledger Drawing by Howling Wolf soared to more than five times its low pre-auction estimate before finishing as the auction’s top lot and establish the new standard for individual ledger drawings.
“Howling Wolf, a Southern Cheyenne warrior, is the only Plains artist known to have created ledger drawings in all three phases of that art form: before the reservation era, during his prison exile at Fort Marion and after his return to the reservation,” Heritage Auctions Senior Ethnographic Art Specialist Delia Sullivan said.
Nearly a dozen collectors pursued a Large and Important Gran Cocle Gold Pendant Panama until it finished at $50,000, against a pre-auction estimate of $20,000-30,000. This impressive cast tumbaga pendant is in the form of a male holding a hollow cone-shaped object (perhaps a drum) and a long thin rod up to his mouth with his other hand. He is naked except for a five-strand bead necklace, and unusual human heads at his knees, and serpent heads emerge from each side of his head and from the outside of each knee. He is framed by a magnificent braided arch with 12 nearly identical curly-tailed animals climbing to face each other at top.
An Important Nazca Tunic from Peru found a new home at $32,500. Exceptional in both quality and size, this tunic is a masterpiece of Nasca weaving, composed of narrow bands of rectangles with repeated motifs of a stepped diagonal and a wide cross in alternating color combinations.
A Nez Perce or Blackfeet Bear Warrior Society Shirt ended at $30,000. Made from hide, pigment, fur, glass seed beads, glass pony beads, porcupine quills and metal, the lot was accompanied by a custom metal stand and a painted cloth cylindrical bonnet case in which it was presented by the Crow to their friend, artist Bernard Preston Thomas.
A Sioux Quilled Hide Jacket Belonging to Chief Rain-In-The-Face brought $27,500. A war chief from the Lakota tribe, Chief Rain-In-The-Face was among the Indian leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment at the 1876 Battle of Little Big Horn. The jacket, which includes natural and dyed porcupine quills, was accompanied by a cabinet card that shows it being worn by Chief Rain-In-The-Face.
Other top lots included, but were not limited to:
A Cheyenne Ledger Drawing Old White Woman: $22,500
An Apache Beaded Hide Tobacco Bag: $17,500
A Large Diquis Gold Figure: $16,250
A Plains Pipe Tomahawk: $16,250
A Sioux Ledger Drawing Skunk: $15,625
https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/news/auction-world-record-ledger-drawing-southern-cheyenne-howling-wolf
2. New York Sotheby's First Work of Classical African Art in Any Contemporary Sale
Fang-Betsi Ancestor Head leads $16 million Clyman Collection of African and Contemporary Art at Sotheby's in New York
Fang-Betsi Artist, Head of an Ancestor. The first work of Classical African art to be presented in any Contemporary Art Evening Sale achieves $3.5 million. Courtesy Sotheby's.
NEW YORK, NY.- Sales featuring property from the Collection of Sidney and Bernice Clyman concluded Tuesday, achieving $16 million across four auctions held during Sotheby's marquee auction week in New York.
Leading the collection was a Fang-Betsi Ancestor Head, which sold for $3.5 million (estimate $2.5/4 million) in the Contemporary Art Evening Auction on Monday night during Sotheby’s global livestreamed auction event. One of the most important works of African Art ever to appear at auction, the reliquary sculpture marked the first time a work of classical African Art was presented in any contemporary art evening sale.
The sale series finished on Tuesday with a dedicated auction of one of the finest groupings of African sculptures in the world, totaling $4.6 million and surpassing the high estimate by $1 million. A strong 97% of all lots sold with over 70% of sold lots making over their high estimates. In total, the full selection of African Art on offer from the Clyman Collection achieved $8.1 million.
Alexander Grogan, Vice President and Head of Sotheby’s African & Oceanic Art Department in New York commented: “The remarkable success of the Clyman Collection comes as no surprise—it has long been considered one of the premier collections of classical African Art with many museum-quality pieces that have been exhibited widely. Throughout Tuesday’s sale, we saw strong international bidding across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, with many new clients participating in one of our sales for the first time. And to showcase the centerpiece of the collection, the stunning Fang Head, in our marquee Contemporary Art Evening Auction—on the global stage of our innovative livestreamed auction event—is a testament to the sculpture’s aesthetic legacy in shaping the style of Western modernism, as well as the Clyman’s vision as collectors.”
Jean Fritts, Worldwide Chairman of African & Oceanic Art, said: “We are thrilled with the overall results from the Clyman Collection, which only further solidifies Sotheby’s strength in presenting art from Africa, Oceania and the Americas in New York. With the Clyman’s foresight of cross-category collecting as a guide, it is evident that collectors are increasingly blurring the lines of traditional categories, and we see great opportunities for growth in continuing to showcase classical African art, as well as art from Oceania and the Americas, alongside contemporary artwork.”
THE CONTEMPORARY ART EVENING AUCTION
29 June
The stunningly elegant female head from a reliquary ensemble expresses the universal artistic ideas developed by pre-Colonial African artists, which were transmitted to modern Western masters in the early 20th century, including Constantin Brâncuși and Amadeo Modigliani. This artistic connection is particularly evident in Modigliani’s famed stone head sculptures. Fang art, from present-day Gabon, has been described as ‘the very summit of African creativity’ and is perennially the style of African art most coveted by collectors. The Fang-Betsi Ancestor Head is one of the finest exponents of this tradition with its exceptionally elegant geometric form and important history.
Throughout its lifetime, the Fang-Betsi Ancestor Head has frequently been in dialogue with and positioned alongside modern and contemporary art. The first known Western owner was Charles Ratton, the Parisian doyen of African art dealers and connoisseurs who handled many of the most revered masterpieces in the field. Ratton published the head in 1931 in Masques Africains, an important work in establishing the canon of great African art. In the 1930s, the head was acquired from Ratton by James Johnson Sweeney, the visionary American modern art curator and writer who, with the assistance of Ratton, organized the legendary 1935 exhibition African Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Sweeney kept the head in his Mies van der Rohe designed New York apartment along with his small but exquisite collection of modern art, which included major works by Miró, Mondrian, and Calder. When Sweeney’s estate was sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 1986, the head was acquired by William McCarty-Cooper, who had inherited art historian and collector Douglas Cooper’s fabled collection of Picassos and other Cubist works. The sculpture last appeared on the market in 1992 when the Clymans acquired it at auction in New York.
The Contemporary Art Evening Auction also featured two other works from the Clyman Collection: Untitled (Virginia Landscape) by Arshile Gorky, which sold for $956,000 (estimate $600,000/1 million) and Willem de Kooning’s Seated Man (Clown), which achieved an above estimate price of $2.4 million (estimate $1/2 million).
AFRICAN ART FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIDNEY AND BERNICE CLYMAN
30 June
One of the finest collections of Sub-Saharan African Art in the world and one of the last remaining collections from the golden age of African Art collecting in the US during the 1960s and 70s, African Art from the Collection of Sidney and Bernice Clyman totaled $4.6 million surpassing its high estimate by $1 million. All but one of the 32 lots found buyers, accounting for a strong sell through rate of 97% with over 70% of all sold lots selling above estimate.
Particularly strong in classic reliquary sculpture of Central Africa, the collection was led by a large and radically abstract Mahongwe Reliquary Figure (above, estimate $500/700,000) from Gabon, which after a bidding battle between three clients, doubled its high estimate to sell for $1.4 million. This price doubled the previous record, establishing a new world auction record for a Mahongwe sculpture. Other highlights included a masterpiece by the greatest of all Kota artists, a Reliquary Figure by the Sebe River Master of the Skull Head (estimate $500/700,000), which was previously in the legendary collections of Charles Ratton, Morris J. Pinto, and Murray Frum, and sold for $560,000. Complementing the Fang-Betsi Ancestor Head, a full-figured cubistic Fang Reliquary Statue (estimate $250/350,000), previously in the collection of Gaston de Havenon sold for $475,000.
https://artdaily.com/news/125126/Fang-Betsi-Ancestor-Head-leads--16-million-Clyman-Collection-of-African-and-Contemporary-Art-at-Sotheby-s-in-New-York#.X2Z50WhKhsA
3. Editor's Note: Alexis Maggiar has replaced Susan Kloman who was retured to New York as a private dealer in African and Oceanic art. Christies Paris - Christie’s is pleased to announce that Alexis Maggiar has joined Christie’s as International Director of the Department of Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas.
Having started his career in 2001 with Alain de Monbrison and subsequently Calmels Cohen Auctioneers at the Hotel Drouot, Alexis joined an international auction house in 2007 where he evolved until becoming European Director of the African and Oceania Arts Department in 2017.
For more than a decade, Alexis has contributed to significant discoveries in the field, setting numerous auction records and participating in the success of collector’s sales in his category in both Paris and New York. The results obtained in this field salute the strength of his expertise and his aesthetic sense.
Fascinated by the dialogue between arts and cultures, his commitment has largely favoured the recognition of this category at the top of the art market.
Alexis will report to Cécile Verdier, President of Christie’s France, who will oversee this international department for which Paris remains the historic auction capital.
Cécile Verdier, President of Christie’s France: "I am delighted to welcome Alexis at Christie’s. I am convinced that he will bring to this department, in addition to his long experience, great knowledge, involvement and commitment to clients, a new business approach and market vision.”
The African and Oceanic Arts sales held two to three times a year at Christie’s are now a must-attend event. Alexis will therefore have the essential role of leading the global strategy and developing this category in France and Europe but also in the United States. He will work closely with Victor Teodorescu, in charge of sales in Paris, Rémy Magusteiro junior specialist and the entire international team.
The next sale of African, Oceanic and American Art will take place on December 3rd in Paris.
Christie’s longstanding commitment to diligent research requires that all objects have a verifiable provenance. There is a legitimate market for African art in which Christie’s has played an important role for many years. We are committed to this category and want to share and celebrate the arts and culture of different regions and historical periods with all communities.
https://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=261844
