Category: Bernard Dulon

The New PAD

Pictured: A stunning wing chair designed by Frits Henningsen, Denmark, circa 1940s, Modernity
The Park Avenue Armory reopens its doors to another antique fair this past Thursday, November 8th. The show will end on Monday, November 12th. Salon Art + Design was created by veteran show producer Sanford Smith. It is the first American fair to collaborate with the Syndicat National des Antiquaires, Europe’s most prestigious association of dealers. Most of the dealers were in attendance at the renowned Biennael des Antiquaires in Paris, this past September. Altogether the mix of genres, periods and styles reflected the eclecticism of today’s collector.
While this show highlighted 20th century and contemporary art and design, historic design were represented by the oldest decorative arts gallery in Paris, an Old Master dealer with multiple European locations, and a selection of dealers in ethnographic and Asian material. Collectors in attendance welcomed, once again, the opportunity to pair a Brueghel with a Jean Michel Frank table or a tribal mask with a Le Corbusier painting. The range and caliber of material at the Salon will attract discerning collectors, designers, and art enthusiasts  around the world.
The venerable Tribal art dealer from Paris, Bernard Dulon
Top left: A Teke People Mask, congo, before 1920
Luba: Shankadi people, D.R. of Congo, 19th Century – wood, Galerie Bernard Dulon

Clean lines, overwhelming elegance: Top left – a Jean-Michel Frank’s wooden X lamp covered with tobacco-colored leather, L’arc en Seine 
Galerie Valois
Victor Vasarely, Naissance-Pas, 1958, Painting on panel
Yayoi Kusama “Pollen” chair, circa 1984, Vivian Horan Fine Art
Left: A rare and unique Gaston Suisse, Wooden dark gray and black lacquer furniture (c. 1939) opening with three doors and eggshell on the handles,  Galerie Felix Marcihac
Carpenters Workshop Gallery
An extremely rare large drawing of Le Corbusier
Galerie Downtown
Two door cabinet of welded aluminum, black enameled steel from Paul Evans, Bernd Goeckler Antiques
Wendell Castle
A masterful sculpture by Wendell Castle from “A New Environment”, Barry Friedman
The insightful and playful art dealer Jason Jacques
Horror Vacui from Morten Lobner Espersen, Jason Jacques Gallery
A very whimsical Jean-Marie Fiori bull-dog, lacquered bronze, and signed from Galerie Pierre Dumonteil
A series of stained pine Zig Zag chairs from Gerrit Rietveld, circa 1950s – early 1960s

A single Otto Wagner, post chair from Modernity
A favorite pair of Andre Sormay armchairs, circa 1925, Galerie Alain Marcepoil
Images courtesy High End Weekly™
All rights reserved

Country Figures in the Metropolis

“There is a history in all men’s lives”
William Shakespeare
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, scene 1, line 75

Starting Wednesday, May 11, until Saturday, June 11, Friedman and Vallois, an art deco gallery in the upper east side, will present one of the most comprehensive and illustrious exhibit on tribal art called The Kota Ancestors. In view of the fact that some museums and galleries in the city have all together ceased to feature African and Asian art, and instead opted for more contemporary art work (this is mainly due to the high cost incurred by most African and Asian exhibits), I can comfortably say that this display is a breath of fresh air, and it will certainly attract some of the most ardent art lovers.

The Kota Ancestors Exhibition is from the private collection of Bernard Dulon, an art collector, and dealer from Paris.  Dulon will be at the gallery during the opening reception on Thursday, May 12th between 4 – 8 PM.

Who were the Kota people? 
They were made up of numerous smaller groups of folks who practiced ancestor worship.  That simple fact was the foundation of their art.  Throughout eastern Gabon, this sort of thing was widely practiced, and their art forms are connected in one way or another to the veneration or storage of ancestral remains.  In some respect, what makes Kota art so different is the fact that they are unique and distinctive, as they are made of reliquary figures with stylized heads covered in copper sheeting.

When you visit the Friedman & Vallois gallery during the Kota Ancestors Exhibit, you will step into the world of a very old, and revered tribe of people, who were both remarkable and unique.  Altogether the collection is made up of twenty pieces from the nineteenth Century culled from an esteemed private collection.

Friedman & Vallois

27 East 67 Street
New York, NY 10065
212.517.3820
www.vallois.com
www.expertiseartafricain.com

This exhibit coincide with the inaugural of the Tribal Art New York/Africa Oceania Americas from Thursday, May 12 – Sunday, May 15, 2011 from 11am – 9pm.  Th participating galleries are:

Tambaran Gallery:  5 East 82nd Street, NYC
Alaska on Madison:  1065 Madison Avenue, NYC
John Molloy:  49 East 78 Street, NYC
John Giltsoff at Mallett:  929 Madison Avenue, NYC
Bernard Dulon at Friedman & Vallois:  27 East 67 Street, NYC
Galerie Schoffel-Valluet:  34 East 67 Street
NASSER & Co:  34 East 67 Street, NYC
Bruce Frank Gallery:  215 West 83 Street, NYC
Pace Primitive:  32 East 57 Street, NYC
www.aoany.com

KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Mahongwe people Gabon 19th century wooden frame
with copper and brass plates

Tribes of the Kota Obamba group would place a copper and brass plated wooden figure on top of their ossuaries which then took the generic name of mbulu ngulu (literally basket with a figure).  Each piece was given its own name, thus implying an actual attempt at physical portrait.
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Obamba people Gabon 19th Century wooden frame
with copper and brass plates
KOTA RELIQUARY FIGURE
Obamba people Gabon 19th Century wooden frame
with copper and brass plates
 RELIQUARY FIGURE OR MBULU NGULU
Kota-Obamba people, Gabon 19th Century wooden frame
with brass and copper