A Fang male, Ntumu, Reliquary Guardian Figure

Gabon

Details

A Fang male, Ntumu, Reliquary Guardian Figure
Gabon
base by Kichizô Inagaki (1876-1951)
Height: 20 in. (51 cm.)

Provenance

Paul Guillaume, Paris, inv. number 588
Possibly Patrick-Henry Bruce, New York (1881-1936)
with Valentine Gallery, New York, 1940
Mrs George W. Crawford (Annie Laurie Crawford Aitken) (1900-1984), acquired from the above
Russell B. Aitken, acquired by descent
Christie’s New York, The Russell B. Aitken Collection of African, Oceanic and American Indian Art, 3 April 2003, lot 68
Private Collection

Further details

Kichizô Inagaki: In the heart of the avant-garde effervescence
By Charles-Wesley Hourdé

About a Fang reliquary figure

The superb Fang reliquary figure presented here is mounted on a stand crafted by the Japanese cabinetmaker Kichizô Inagaki. Far from being a mundane detail, this stand allows us to place this artwork squarely in the Paris art market of the early 20th century; a market typified by the advent of African art to modern European consciousness and the emergence of avant-garde trends in art.

This Fang sculpture makes its first appearance in Paul Guillaume's Album of 1930. Having adopted Fang statuary as his specialty (see Christie's, December 3, 2015), this Paris art dealer worked regularly with the Japanese cabinetmaker, as is clear from the many objects owned by him that are presented on a stand crafted by Kichizô Inagaki.

The letters PH are clearly inscribed in green paint on the reverse of the stand. Although Patrick-Henry Bruce, an American artist living Paris, was in the habit of marking his art objects with his own initials (PH.B), we do not currently have sufficient knowledge to confirm that this work once belonged to him. On the other hand, the Kichizô Inagaki stand, here with atypical treatment and off-center stamp, does provide the opportunity to remind ourselves of his relationship with the artistic ferment at the beginning of the new century.

Rodin and Japonism

In terms both of their figurative effects and materials used, the works of Rodin are clearly inspired by Japanese art. As Garnier (2007) reminds us: "Japan burst loudly and spectacularly into the artist's lives, simultaneously new and ancient, and all the more mysterious since it was completely absent from the art landscape of his youth, dominated as it was by Greek and Roman art." He was regularly seen in company with the elite of Japonism in Paris and visited Asian art collectors, including Goncourt and Cernuschi. Publicized and popularized by a number of international exhibitions, Japonism emerged in Paris at the end of the 1860s. A circle of connoisseurs formed: dealers, collectors and artists, including Cézanne and Monet, both great admirers of Japanese prints, and especially those of Hokusai and Hiroshigé, which they eulogized at the 1893 exhibition. The dispersal of major collections of Japanese art after the death of Edmond de Goncourt and other contemporary collectors marked the end of Japonism (Garner 2007). Having fed his imagination on the print collections of his friends, Rodin himself became a collector. Art objects alone were not enough for him, and he immersed himself in the Japanese community of Paris, inviting artists and intellectuals to his studio on a regular basis. His Far-Eastern collections and the conversations he had with his guests fueled his imagination.

It was at this time that Rodin, a loyal customer for, and insatiable collector of, Mediterranean antiquities, discovered the work of Inagaki in Brummer's shop during 1912. Rodin asked one of his acquaintances, Iokichi Naito, to introduce him to the Japanese craftsman working for Brummer. Rodin had for some time been looking for a craftsman with the skill to restore his damaged works and create frames and stands for the many objects in his collection. He particularly admired the sophistication of Inagaki's wooden pieces, which were radically different from the standard items of the time: heavy quadrangular or flared pedestal bases in marbled colored stone. Imbued with the Oriental style, they resonated perfectly with his all-consuming passion for Japan. Rodin commissioned him to mount his collection of antiquities on such stands. The result was a very close and mutually respectful working relationship. It wasn't long before Inagaki received a monthly salary and became one of the sculptor's closest friends right through to his death in November 1917.

In 1914, they planned a joint exhibition of their respective work under the sober title of Stone and Wood. But the outbreak of war put an end to that. A low screen created for the exhibition is still in the ownership of the Inagaki family. Later, he would ask Rodin to help him mount an exhibition in Tokyo's Imperial Palace. Despite his connections and Rodin's persistence, he was eventually forced to bow to the fact that no Japanese artist could be presented at the Palace.

From African art to modern art

Inagaki had already worked for the Paris art market before his collaboration with Rodin. Having created small pieces in wood prior to 1910 for sale from a pavement stall, Inagaki was noticed by the famous 'Negro' art dealer Joseph Brummer referred to earlier. It was he who encouraged Inagaki to create bases for works shown in his gallery. Gradually, the work of the Japanese craftsman became noticed and orders flooded in. Amongst others, Inagaki worked for Béla Hein, Paul Guillaume, Louis Carré, Ernest Le Véel, and Maurice and Charles Ratton. An article by the latter published in the catalog for the sale of the Josef Mueller collection is one of the few documents to praise his work: "He brought with him not only his charm and sophisticated taste, but also a large number of tools made by himself. The majority were small in size, but all were terribly effective. (...) His reputation was very quickly established thanks to his sense of volume and love of wood. (...) It was in the company of Georges de Miré, one of the greatest collectors of our generation after Albert Barnes and Franck Haviland, that I visited him for the first time. I then returned on very many occasions, because it was hugely pleasurable to watch him at work surrounded by his customers and friends, keen to engage in conversation, even though his entire attention was focused on creating bases or restoring objects. His workshop became a well-known meeting place. I sometimes drove Josef Müller there by car with his latest acquisition. I can also remember meeting André Breton there on one occasion."

This period coincides with the golden age of so-called 'primitive art', when its defenders strove to strip 'Negro' objects of their ethnographic character in the hope of introducing them straight into the Universal History of Art. With their understated elegance, the creations of Kichizô Inagaki presented the object precisely in line with this desire to showcase the African object in a very straightforward way.

With its tendency towards simplicity of form and line, this esthetic was totally consistent with the aspirations of the time, allowing Inagaki to make his contribution to the resurgence of decorative art. His compatriot Sugawara introduced him to the furniture designer Eileen Gray sometime around December 1918. Inagaki was to work with her for several years on crafting furniture components and complete pieces, as is clear from invoices and letters dated between 1919 and 1922. The Japanese craftsman inspired her and she drew on his experience to learn new wood finishing techniques and the art of decorative carving. It is likely that it was through Miss Gray that Jacques Doucet came into contact with the talent of Inagaki, since he placed an order with him for a series of small furniture items and boxes for his Les Parfums de Rosine brand.

In 1925, Inagaki and his fellow countryman Osoumi were selected as judges for the wood and leather section of the celebrated Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes held in Paris. Although the appointment was particularly gratifying, it seemed that Inagaki was destined never to receive public recognition. But his undeniable talent did not escape a few influential art world celebrities. The fact is that it remains hard to believe that Ingaki's clients, who included some of the greatest protagonists and trailblazers of the art scene of the day, came to him by chance. His industrious and unobtrusive character certainly played to his disadvantage in this sense.

So working in the shadows, this Japanese craftsman has made a measurable contribution to the greatest art movements of the 20th century: from the Japonism of Rodin, the advent of African art, to Art Deco and the fashion industry. An Inagaki stand is a cradle of dreams and a work of art in its own right; together with the object it supports it forms an integral part of the great history of African and Oceanian Art.

Bibliography
Garnier, B., Rodin, le rêve japonais, Paris, 2007
Hourdé, C.-W., “Kichizô Inagaki dans l’ombre des Grands du XXe siècle”, in Tribal Art Tribal Art Magazine, Issue 66, Winter 2012
Hourdé, C.-W., “De l’ombre à la lumière, Un pont entre Paris et New-York, Kichizô Inagaki-Helena Rubinstein”, in Christie’s, The William Rubin Kota, 23 juin 2015
Hourdé, C.-W., “La figure de reliquaire Fang de la collection Fourquet”, in Christie’s, Un Chef d’œuvre Fang de la collection André Fourquet, 3 décembre 2015
Ratton, C., in Christie’s, African Art from the Collection of the Late Josef Mueller of Solothurn, Switzerland, 13 juin 1978.

Lot Essay

Notes on the Guillaume-Aitken Fang, Ntumu, Figure
by Louis Perrois

This male ancestor statue with a stately bearing, standing at 51 cm tall, is a magnificent example of the impressive ritual statuary of the Fang people of Equatorial Africa. Collected in the early 20th century, it dates from the century before, judging from the very classical quality of the sculpture and its finishes, as well as the sumptuous and thick black patina, which is satiny and lustrous in places. Here is a religious object which has seen long use. It represents a naked ancestor who must have presided, seated in majesty, on the reliquary chest containing the relics passed down through the generations. As is often the case, this statue has been separated from its skulls and other bones, almost certainly when it was collected.

From a stylistic perspective, its elongated structure and drawn-out shape are characteristic of the craftsmanship of the Ntumu of northern Gabon. Both from the front and in profile, the cylindrical torso, which is an extension of the neck and has the same diameter, gives the effigy an aloof appearance, conveying dignity. Proportionally, the head and trunk account for more than half the height of the sculpture. However this deliberate elongation (an eyema byeri ancestral image being a generic symbolic representation rather than a portrait of a specific person) features skilful working of anatomical details – shoulders, pectoral muscles, arms, etc. – and great care over the perfectly polished surfaces. The artist, in full control of the material, has succeeded in softening the usual, sometimes harsh, treatment of the distortions in style, particularly avoiding any rigidity in the figure’s posture.

The arms, beneath the broad, round shoulders, are fixed at right-angles on each side of the torso with the rough outline of hands, supporting a sort of chalice, held against his sternum. In line with usual Fang craftsmanship, the biceps are well defined, with recesses indicating bracelets accentuating the relief.

The stomach is slightly flared, creating a “barrel-shaped” bi-truncated cone, with a discreetly marked circular edge by the navel, which stands out in cylindrical relief. The gender is indicated by an erect phallus, as is fitting for an ancestor, one of whose main functions is to encourage female fecundity and therefore the survival of the lineage. The thighs, in a seated position, form a right-angle with the calves, both with a fleshy, rounded shape.

Viewed from the back, we see that the artist has not neglected this part of the work, even though it is less directly visible. The back is decorated with a long flattened area, cutting lengthways down the cylinder of the torso in an extension of the dual curves of the shoulder blades; this flattened area vertically intersects the point where the belt changes direction. Beneath the buttocks is a fairly wide appendage for fixing the statue to the edge of an ossuary box (nsekh byeri – see Perrois, Arts du Gabon, 1979, p. 40, “Le Culte des Ancêtres Chez les Fang, le Byeri”).

We note that the sculptor has created two rectangular orifices under the figures arms, perhaps designed for inserting sticks for suspending or carrying it during ancestor “resurrection” rituals, during melan ceremonies and the initiation of boys (see Tessmann “Die Pangwe”, 1913, vol. II, Tafel XXIV and Abb. 47 p. 123, “Danse des Figures d’Ancêtres Pour le Culte des Morts, Ebaangon, clan Esseng, Ntumu”).

The head is of a remarkable sculptural quality, very “classical” but highly skilled in the harmonious articulation of the shapes (curved forehead, hollow cheeks, hairstyle with a central ridge falling down over the neck) and the finish of the surfaces. Beneath the rounded forehead, in a perfect quarter circle, the eyebrow arches determine the concavity of the cheeks either side of an exceptionally narrow and relatively long nose. The large “coffee bean” eyes are carved in relief, with curved closed eyelids, evocative of a death mask. Beneath the nose, whose tip and sides are discreetly suggested, the lips of the wide mouth are puckered outwards forming the “Fang pout” so characteristic of works from northern Gabon.

In profile, we note the subtle composition of the shapes: the rounded forehead, inverse curve of the cheeks, the mouth protruding the same distance as the nose, the curve of the jawbone, with a slight under-bite, supported at an oblique angle by the cylinder of the neck, pushing the face forward and giving breadth to the nlo-ô-ngô ridged hairstyle falling in a ponytail down the neck. Also note the small oval ears placed very high up.

In terms of works for comparison and reference, we can mention a whole series, all from northern Gabon and neighbouring regions, including, for example, the 53cm Ntumu statue from the former Folch collection, Barcelona (in Perrois and Sierra Delage, 1991, L’Art Fang de Guinée Equatoriale, cover and no. 2, p. 106 and p. 111 [Fundacion Folch, Ediciones Poligrafa and Aurore Editions d’Art]) from the north-east of the Rio Muni, with its face with large “coffee bean” eyes, the working of the pectoral muscles and particularly the scarified patterns in longs triangles around the lower stomach indicating Mvaï craftsmanship. We could also mention a 52cm Ntumu statue studied in Perrois "La Statuaire Fañ", Orstom 1979, p.222, from the former Pierre Vérité collection since the 1930s, notable for its face with “coffee bean” eyes, the scarifications in long triangles on the lower stomach, typical of Mvaï and the sculpted pectoral muscles; as well as another, a little smaller at 35.5cm, from the former Pierre Peissi collection (circa 1950), exhibited in 2004 in New York by the Galerie Bernard Dulon, also with “coffee bean” eyes although slightly flatter and comparable working of the shoulders and pectoral muscles. Finally, we should also mention the 50cm male Fang Ntumu statue, from the former collections of Charles Ratton, Valentine Dudensing (Valentine Gallery New York), Frank Crowninshield and Miguel Covarrubias, Mexico (see sale catalogue from Sotheby’s New York “The Kuhn Collection of African Art”, 20 November 1991, lot 79. Note the elongated structure of the figure, the face with “coffee bean” eyes and the working of the pectoral muscles.

From a stylistic perspective, the remarkable 51 cm statue from the former "Russell B. Aitken Collection", from the Paul Guillaume collection (Valentine Gallery, New York, 1940) is, like the other works mentioned above, an example of an "intermediate" style between the Ntumu and Mvaï creations, the two communities being represented by very talented master sculptors. This eyema byeri effigy is typically Ntumu in structure, in other words very elongated in terms of the torso and the neck, but of a craftsmanship and decoration reminiscent of the Mvaï style.

In reality, these two Fang groups, although demographically dissimilar – the Mvaï being much smaller in number than the Ntumu – were in contact in the 20th century in what is now northern Gabon, in the Ntem region (see Tesmann, 1913). The Mvaï can be easily identified from their sculptural approach to the thighs and calves, which are generously shaped, with feet stylised in angular lines, as well as from the presence of “chequerboard” scarifications on the upper abdomen and in a long triangle just beneath, as well as a strip of semi-circle patterns to the back and, finally, by muscular arms accentuated by the use of relief and pectoral muscles well defined with some relief, combined with round shoulders. The “heart-shaped” face also features the “half coffee bean” eyes typical of Mvaï work.

This work, of an exceptional sculptural quality, is a good illustration of the “permeability” between various Fang styles, without this habit of incorporating a few unusual details from a particular group into a work (probably to mark the alliance of different family lines via inter-community marriages) harming the final aesthetic result. On the contrary – the styles are from open societies in constant transformation, reflecting their vitality over time. Epitomized by this masterpiece.

Bibliographical references:
Dapper Musée, 1991, Fang, text by Ph.Laburthe-Tolra, Ch. Falgayrette-Leveau, excerpts translated by G.Tessmann, Die Pangwe, 1913.
Grébert F., 2003, Le Gabon de Fernand Grébert, 1913-1932, Editions D & Ethnography Museum of Geneva, Geneva (texts by Cl. Savary & L. Perrois).
Perrois L., 1972, La Statuaire Fañ, Gabon, Editions Orstom, Paris.
_____, 1979, Arts du Gabon, Arnouville.
_____, 1985, Ancestral Art of Gabon, Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva.
_____, 1992, Byeri Fang, Sculptures d'Ancêtres en Afrique, Editions RMN, Musée des Arts Africains, Vieille Charité, Marseille.
_____, 1997, L’Esprit de la Forêt. Terres du Gabon, collection, Editions Somogy, Paris (Musée d'Aquitaine de Bordeaux)
_____, 2006, Fang, ‘Visions d’Afrique’ series, Cinq Continents Editions, Milan.
Tessmann, G., 1913, Die Pangwe, Berlin.

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