Category: Tribal Art

Meet Rachid Khimoune

Rachid Khimoune
 Photo credit High End Weekly™
Q& A
with French artist Rachid Khimoune

HEW: Why Strange Fruit?
RK: After creating the Mask and Totem series, I felt the need to create a bigger piece. Thus I was inspired by Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit”. This song came to life in 1939 New York City. For me, it is invariably related to this city and the sultry  singer.

HEW: What fascinates you about African Art? 
RK: My work is more primitive art than tribal art. The message behind each piece relates to my life. The pieces are more Art Primal. The selection I’ve chosen are all recycled materials – from trees to pieces of metal. It is similar to Marcel Duchamp’s concept when he worked. The style is contemporary, the techniques are exclusively my own.

HEW: And so the message behind it is?
RK: Emotion. The reference is about life. The symbolic elements I used are water, energy, humanity.

Strange Fruit,  iron and bronze, (9 feet), 2012
Photo credit: Benjamin Didier
HEW: What’s the best part about living in Paris?
RK: Whether I’m in Paris, or Beijing, I view myself as an artist of the world. The main idea is to make a continuous connection between my work and the rest of the world. The more people I touch the better. The international language behind what you see is ’emotion’ and the capsule is art.

Rachid Khimoune’s “Gaulois” Totem, 2007, wood, iron and bronze. Right: Grand Masque, 2007,
mixed media on canvas, H: 85″ x W: 47″
Photo credit High End Weekly™

HEW: Conveying emotion through one’s work does make a strong conviction, yes. Your family came to support you at the Friedman & Vallois Gallery in New York during your opening. Tell me, what was the most exciting feeling you shared with your wife, whom I was told is an emblematic figure in the Opera world in France?
RK: My children and close friends did attend the opening, and it was very important for me to have them with me. My “compagne” for over 20 years now was there as well. Ève produces festivals, and is responsible for launching the career of French soprano, Natalie Dessay here in New York. Ève Ruggiéri stresses emotions with the ears, and I with the eyes. We complete/fulfill each other with both of our own realm of creativity.

Let’s Meet at Vallois!


Rachid Khimoune next to his Strange Fruit Installation 
Out & About
Friedman & Vallois hosted a successful art opening this past Thursday evening at their posh gallery location on East 64th Street. For the very first time in New York, an exclusive showing of French artist Rachid Khimoune‘s avant garde pieces were on display. The exhibition opened on November 8th and will run until December 21. Look for my brief interview with the artist tomorrow morning. And for additional images of the party, visit our Facebook page.

Rachid Khimoune, Robert Vallois
Margaret Le Coze (Le Bernadin) Rachid Khimoune, Eve Ruggieri
Barry Friedman, Patricia Pastor
Eve Ruggieri

Eve Ruggieri (center) and her friends
Thanhyen Nguyen
Patrick de Bourgues, Rachid Khimoune, Alexandra de Grece, Nicolas Mirayantz
Laurence Fayard
Alex Barlow, Karim Khimoune
Elodie Giancristoforo
Kahina Khimoune and friend
Photo credit Benjamin Didier

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

A New Identity

Cheska Mask by Rachid Khimoune

The art exhibitions at Friedman & Vallois have always held my interest. So imagine how pleased I was to learn that the gallery, best known for their exquisite art deco furnishings, were getting ready to showcase an exclusive major art exhibition of French artist Rachid Khimoune starting next week Thursday, November 8th until the 21st of December. This is a big deal because the last time Khimoune was in the big apple showcasing his work, the year was 1986, when the New York City harbor celebrated a selection of French artists on the occasion of the centennial of the Statue of Liberty.


Rachid Khimoune is a self proclaimed “assembler”. His art work is so entrenched in the history of tribal art, that at first glance, one will think it has been around for decades on end. He deftly uses materials which he qualifies as being miscegenation, a melding of a sort. With the use of manhole, he keeps on reminding his fans and critics of the poetic license of every single human expression, similarly the discarded wall outlet, or other salvage material are offered a new life from their insignificance. The materials that he uses mirror and embody the philosophy that the minority can have a positive influence in the majority. His recylced materials look and feel like the real thing. His work further suggests that knowing oneself, there’s no more room for fear. And so by working with these items, Rachid has truly found his true identity.
Small Bull
Tortoises
On the occasion of this exhibition, Rachid Khimoune will be presenting a recent series of totems, masks, and tortoises. He expressed this dramatically in June 6, 2011, when he installed a thousand tortoises on Omaha Beah, commemorating the landing of Allies in France marking the beginning of the conclusion War War II.
Wedding Groom Mask
African Woman
The Couple Masks

Rachid Khimoune will be present at his opening reception on Thursday, November 8th from 6 – 8 PM at Friedman & Vallois: 27 East 67th street, NYC, NY 10065. RSVP at: 212 517 3820.

Defining Art & Substance

Florence Vacher, Bangwa, 2012, Fabric
Tambaran Gallery

Photo courtesy High End Weekly™

Much of the art that I deeply appreciated at this year’s International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show had a strong masculine feel to them. And that’s a good thing, I think. Frou-frou interiors have never been my thing, so I am a big advocate for adorning my clients’ homes with various pieces of art that make a bold statement and continue to enrich their imaginations as the years go by. So this much anticipated fair met my expectations with its extraordinary attention to detail, breathtaking variety and exacting standards.

The grande dame fair brought together works of art that spanned continents and millennia — among them many of museum quality, furniture, paintings, sculpture, textiles, ceramics, glass, clocks, watches, arms, armour, rare books, manuscripts, jewelry, objets de vertu, Fabergé, silver, antiquities and ethnographic art, are among the many different categories exhibited and for sale. Prices start from as little as a few hundred dollars but rise into the millions. With that much said, here are some of the most desirable and interesting pieces that I liked.

Axel Verdoordt Gallery
Douglas Dawson Gallery
Bernd Goeckler Antiques
Maison Gerard
Tomasso Brothers Fine Art

Michael Goedhuis Gallery
Phoenix Ancient Art
Phoenix Ancient Art
Whitford Art

Tambaran Gallery

Trinity House
Martin du Louvre
 My friend Cole Harrell admiring the art, but also stopped to “smell” these gorgeous orchards.


The International Fine Art & Antique Dealers Show opened on Friday, October 19th until Thursday, October 25th, 2012.

Images courtesy High End Weekly™
All rights reserved

This Week in New York

Tambaran
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
4 PM – 8 PM

The Macklowe Gallery

Tuesday, October 8, 2011
6 PM – 8 PM

667 Madison Avenue

(between 60th and 61st Streets)
New York, New York 10065
Although I’m partial to Art Deco, I admire the fact  than Art Nouveau represented a period of artistic expression of feminine liberation in fin-de-siècle Paris. I mean, back then women were freed from restrictive, corseted fashions and suddenly were experiencing the freedom of movement that public transportation and bicycles provided. Many of us can easily agree that Art Nouveau celebrated this new kind of woman.

Marking its 40th year on Madison Avenue, Macklowe Gallery is presenting a landmark exhibition of Art Nouveau sculpture, consisting of nearly 300 examples dating from 1880 to 1914. We were told that curators Lloyd and Benjamin Macklowe spent over two years assembling a collection of the world’s finest examples, including approximately 100 works borrowed from private collections, making this the greatest exhibition of Art Nouveau sculpture since the Paris World’s Fair of 1900. In conjunction with the show, Macklowe Gallery will publish a lavishly illustrated and deeply researched book entitled Dynamic Beauty: Sculpture of Art Nouveau Paris, featuring a foreword by Benjamin Macklowe.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
6:30 PM – 9 PM
30 West 21 Street
New York, New York
Friday, November 11 – Monday, November 14, 2011
Everyday from 11 AM – 8 PM
Park Avenue Armory
(67th Street)
New York, New York
November 13 – 14, 2011
Jacob Javits Center
North Hall

More than 3,000 designers, architects, purchasers and developers, 

along with hotel owners and operators, will attend Boutique Design New York

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

Gallery of The Month: Friedman & Vallois




T H E   K O T A   A N C E S T O R S   E X H I B I T


Undoubtedly one of the finest exhibition for the month of May.  The Kota Ancestors will reign supreme at the elegant, art deco gallery of Freidman & Vallois from May 11 to June 11, 2011.











We will have an exciting coverage, and will present a blow by blow account of the story behind this much anticipated show that is rightly aligned with the Africa Oceania Americas Tribal Art of New York. Stay tuned.