Russell B. Aitken (1910-2002)
It is not surprising that a collection of African art of the quality of the Aitken collection should come from a man of such passion and wide and varied interests. Aitken was a ceramic sculptor, designer, expert marksman, photo journalist, adventure writer, philanthropist and connoisseur.
Russell Aitken studied ceramic arts in his native Cleveland, Ohio, and went on to do post-graduate research in Vienna, Zagreb, Budapest and Berlin. He set up his own studios in Cleveland, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and in New York and won numerous prizes for his works, examples of which can today be found in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art amongst others.
Aitken was a highly skilled marksman from an early age and during World War II he trained pursuit pilots for the US Army Air Force. He held the world record for a skeet run in 1942 and his life-long passion for all types of competitive and game shooting won him countless championships and awards and culminated in his induction into the National Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame.
By the age of 12 Aitken had already seen an illustrated article in print and he went on to contribute more than 300 articles to magazines such as 'Argosy', 'Sports Illustrated', 'Natural History' and 'Field and Stream', serving as editor of the last for four years. For the Field and Stream Film Library he produced documentary films about Africa and his book, 'Great Game Animals of the World' became a best seller and was translated into three languages. A regular traveller in Africa, he spoke several African languages and dialects.
Aitken would have been a young man of twenty-five when the seminal show, 'African Negro Art' was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1935. The show must have greatly impressed Aitken and may well have sparked his interest in African art. During the following five years he acquired his finest objects including two, the superb Bambara antelope headdress (lot 52) and the unique Yoruba horse and rider (lot 58), which were exhibited at the 1935 MOMA show. He was fortunate that his collecting interest and that of his first wife, Annie Laurie Crawford whom he married in 1957, coincided with the dispersal of the famous collection of the magazine editor, Frank Crowninshield in New York. Between them they bought no fewer than twenty-seven objects from Crowninshield's collection either directly or through the agency of major New York dealers of the time. The superb quality of Crowninshield's collection was due in no small measure to the assistance he was given by the painter, John Graham. Graham visited Paris in search of major acquisitions and knew all the leading dealers in that city. It is therefore not surprising that the collection so strong in objects from French colonies.
Annie Laurie Crawford not only shared Aitken's love of African art but also, like Aitken, was a ceramist and accomplished shot. Aitken designed a guest-house in 1942 for her home in Greenwich Connecticut which clearly demonstrated their shared love of Africa and Aitken's skill as a modern designer. The furniture he designed provided the ideal display for her African art collection. He made miniature ceramic copies of some of her African works of art which he displayed on a wall map of Africa. Aitken's ceramic screen entitled 'Devil Dance' and the extensive use of African animal hides completed the African theme.
African art was not Aitken's only collecting interest. He owned magnificent collections of duck decoys, arms and armor, pictures and furniture. He was a major benefactor to many national conservation organizations including the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, Ducks Unlimited, the National Audubon Society and The New York Wildlife Conservation Society. He also sponsored the Russell B. Aitken Seabird Colony at the Bronx Zoo and an Arms and Armor gallery was named after him at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The superb collection which we are now offering for sale has been virtually unseen since seventeen objects were loaned to the major exhibition, 'Masterpieces of African Art' at the Brookly Museum in 1954. After Annie Laurie's death Aitken married the widowed Irene Roosevelt, a close friend of them both. Irene Aitken has been extremely helpful in supplying historical information about individual items in the collection but many tantalizing numbers and inscriptions on the objects remain unidentified and will provide scope for research by passionate collectors for many years to come.
The following lots of books are sold not subject to return
Appleton, L.H., Indian Art of the Americas, New York, 1950; Firth, R., Art and Life in New Guinea, London, 1936; Anon., British Museum Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections, London, 1925; Corser, H.P., Totem Lore of the Alaskan Indian and the Land of the Totem, Wrangell, 1940; Newton, D. et al., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection Masterpieces of Primitive Art, New York, 1978; and six other volumes of related interest (11)
Details
Appleton, L.H., Indian Art of the Americas, New York, 1950; Firth, R., Art and Life in New Guinea, London, 1936; Anon., British Museum Handbook to the Ethnographical Collections, London, 1925; Corser, H.P., Totem Lore of the Alaskan Indian and the Land of the Totem, Wrangell, 1940; Newton, D. et al., The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection Masterpieces of Primitive Art, New York, 1978; and six other volumes of related interest (11)