Ivory Coast

THE ANDRÉ LEVEL WÈ MASK

This iconic mask was published for the first time in 1917 by Paul Guillaume (1891-1934) in Sculptures Nègres which presented 24 objects with a foreword by the famous French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire. André Level had bought several paintings by Amadeo Modigliani from Paul Guillaume before and both were strong advocates of African art, which was placed at the heart of Modernism with the 1917 publication. The caption in the publication reads: “Masque de Guerre de la Cote d'Ivoire” (War mask from Côte d'Ivoire); while the word Guere indeed might have been associated with the mask, it was no misspelling of Guerre (‘war’), but rather a reference to the group from who this mask orginated: the Guere. This mistake would be repeated when Clouzot and Level published the mask in 1919 as a ‘rare war mask’. However, this incorrect attribution made it possible to identify the mask in the unillustrated exhibition catalogue of Paul Guillaume’s Première Exposition d'Art Nègre et d'Art Océanien, at Galerie Devambez in Paris. Under catalogue number 126 we read : « Masque de guerre (Côte d’Ivoire) - Collection A. Level », confirming this mask was included in this highly-acclaimed exhibition. Unfortunately, André Level never documented were and when he acquired this exceptional mask. As a front-row witness to the emergence of Cubism, its deformed deconstructed qualities surely must have struck with him. Published in the famous Guillaume catalog from 1919, the mask would much alter be mentioned by Picasso specialists William Rubin and Peter Stepan in their analysis of his ‘primitivist’ period. The mask itself would only resurface in 1995, when a Parisian auction house sold the collection of Alfred Richet (1893-1992). Richet was mainly a collector of modern art, but also one of the early collectors of “Art nègre”. Among his friends were André Level, René Mendes-France and André Lefèvre. He was as well involved with Level’s galerie Percier and thus in all likelihood acquired the Wè mask directly from Level. After World War II, Richet would become Vice-president of Société des Amis du Musée de l'Homme. The sale of his collection of African art somehow stayed under the radar, and it is only very recently this mask was rediscovered in a prestigious private Parisian collection.

PICASSO, PRIMITIVISM AND LEVEL’S WÈ MASK

Pablo Picasso, in turn, began his fascination with art nègre around 1907, and one finds numerous references to African art objects in his work from this period. These served as sources of inspiration, possibly just prior to the last creative phase or just after the completion of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, the monumental canvas by which he intended to place himself once and for all at the forefront of the Parisian avant-garde. The genesis of this painting, finished in June-July of 1907, has already served as a theme for various exhibitions and publications. A frequent observation is that Picasso took inspiration from African masks in his painting of the faces of the two figures on the right. A famous sickness mask from the Pende in the collection of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, has often been quoted as a direct source of inspiration. How reminiscent its deformed face might be to some of Picasso’s works, research has shown he could have impossibly seen the work at the time. Authors such as Peter Stepan, however, have suggested another mask with facial distortion might have been accessible to Picasso in 1907: the Kru (sic.) mask of André Level (Picasso's Collection of African & Oceanic Art. Masters of Metamorphosis, p. 32). Several preparatory drawings for the face of the sitting figure at the front of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon indeed very much recall the Level Wè mask. Etude pour la demoiselle accroupie: tête de femme, le menton dans la main shows a similarly bend nose and a displaced mouth in a shape very reminiscent of the masks’ mouth. Picasso had already been in contact with André Level at the time of the creation of Les Demoiselles and it is not unlikely the latter showed him the present Wè mask. Constantly on the lookout for new impulses, the mask must have had a strong impact on the artist, confirming him in his constant quest to innovate the ways the human face could be represented. While Picasso only started collecting African art himself after the completion of Les Desmoiselles, through his contacts with Pierre Matisse, André Derain, and André Level he certainly had already been in touch with it. William Rubin does also mention the Level mask as a possible source of inspiration in his chapter on Picasso in his catalogue for the acclaimed exhibition Primitivism of 1984 (p. 263). In 1907, Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon as a key work of proto-Cubism distorted facial features in a way that was very innovative, in anticipation of later even more radical deconstructions of the face by the so-called “High Cubism”. The Level mask might have played a small step in this process, making its rediscovery a highly important art-historical event.

"Picasso is the greatest of the Modernists, we know this, but over what timeframe does his superiority stretch ? One of my friends believes that when we come to talk of our art, as we do now of the Egyptians and the way we conflate their many dynasties, so will we talk of Giotto and Picasso, without any sense of interval between them.” - André Level, in a letter to Guillaume Apollinaire, 1914.

THE AVANT-GARDE’S AVANT-GARDIST: ANDRÉ LEVEL

André Level (1880-1954) was a Parisian businessman, critic, and art collector from a prominent French family of industrialists who established a reputation as a champion of the avant-garde and expert on African art. A great visionary, Level was a well-informed and enlightened patron of the artists of his time. Guided by a strong spirit of discovery, over the years he asserted his collector’s instinct for “sniffing out” fine pieces. Inspired by a sound sense of aesthetics, he turned his focus to the avant-garde rather than to well-established artists. Among the many artists who's work became a focus for Level, it would be for Picasso that he would develop a particular passion. From the moment it was opened in 1901, André Level regularly visited the Berthe Weill gallery, where he discovered Pablo Picasso with a sense of fascination and lost no time in purchasing two paintings by the young artist. He would be one the most important buyers of Picasso’s work for nearly 15 years. However, André Level refused to buy expensive art; what’s more, his financial resources were not boundless. As such, he turned to the young avant-garde of his time. André Level is famous for creating La Peau de l’Ours (“The bear’s skin”), a highly successful investment venture that made it possible for him to purchase more major works of contemporary artists – an idea he probably got from Henri Matisse (of whom he was an early supporter). Level initiated La Peau de l’Ours in 1904, and over ten years, he and his twelve investors purchased 145 works by 60 artists (including Dufy, Gauguin, Matisse, Picasso, Redon, Gogh, and Vuillard). The venture’s collection was sold at Hôtel Drouot, Paris, on March 2, 1914. Carefully staged and widely advertised, the auction was a major event in Parisian art circles and brought immense financial success (with Picasso’s Bateleurs – now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. – selling for 12 times the acquisition price of 6 years earlier), a record for the artist at the time and the first time he got tested at auction. Notably, the shareholders also agreed to split profits from the sale with the artists. Five months after the Drouot sale, Germany declared war on France and Level, who was not called up due to his age, supported the families of artist friends who had gone to war by buying some of their paintings. In 1914, Level often visited Picasso, Apollinaire and Max Jacob in Montparnasse and also met Modigliani, purchasing some of his works with the help of Léonce Rosenberg and Paul Guillaume. After the acquisition of Les Bateleurs in 1908, Picasso had opened his studio to Level, and would also introduce him to Gertrude Stein. In his memoirs, Level wrote: “This is how I made the acquaintance of a man who became my friend and a painter who has given me the greatest pleasure as a collector”. Picasso himself acknowledged the collector by pasting one of his business cards onto a 1914 collage that is now in the Centre Pompidou. In 1927, Level decided to sell his personal art collection at Hôtel Drouot. Assembled since the 1890s, it included many Cubist works by Picasso, Juan Gris, and Fernand Léger, as well as paintings and works on paper by Giorgio de Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, and Chaim Soutine – this incredible selection makes it clear why Level was called the avant-garde’s avant-gardist. In the meantime, Level had also expanded his interests beyond modern and contemporary art to non-Western art. He actively began collecting, publishing, and exhibiting African art. Together with Henri Clouzot he published, among others, L’Art Nègre et L’Art Océanien in 1919, and Sculptures africaines et océaniennes, colonies françaises et Congo Belge in 1925. In 1922, having only just retired from professional life, Level established Galerie Percier in Paris together with the prominent contemporary and African art collector André Lefèvre, whom Level advised on art purchases. Picasso, Level’s personal friend, also lent his support to the gallery by giving the dealer some of his work for the gallery’s stock. In addition to his writings on African art, Level is also the author of Picasso’s third biography, which appeared in 1928. André Level continued collecting art and managing the Galerie Percier, compiling his memoirs in a book entitled Memoirs of a Collector, which would only be published posthumously in 1959.

MASKS AMONG THE WÈ

The Wè people (also known as the Gere-Wobe), who live south and southeast of the Dan in Ivory Coast, share many cultural similarities with the latter. However, a substantial difference can be found in the design of their masks. While the Dan in general create idealized representations of the human face, the Wè opted for more expressive interpretations. The field-research of the Belgian scholar Pieter-Jan Vandenhoute in the Dan-Wè region in 1939 has shown that sculptors knew and analyzed each other’s creations. People would travel from afar to commission a new mask from a famous carver, so it was crucial for them to maintain one’s reputation. This resulted in a constant competition among mask carvers to come up with new, creative inventions that would stun the public. Innovation was highly stimulated. Moreover, not only the earthly spectators would be positively influenced by a masks’ spectacular composition, but also the ancestors would act benignly if a masks’ appearance pleased them.

Masks fulfill a predominant role within Wè society. As not a single facet of Wè life remained untouched by the interference of masks, it is safe to speak of a mask culture. The Wè used them to secure the consent and support of the supernatural world through their ancestors. The latter were the direct representatives and mediators of the living in the supernatural world, primarily for their own relatives. With mask performances, the living strove to please their ancestors to make them positively sympathetic towards their acts. Other masks regulated village life or performed during circumcision. Since each mask could play different roles within society, it is impossible to identify the function of a mask purely on the basis of its shape. The character, status, and function of these masks could evolve during the life of their owner. Just as a person might climb the social ladder, so too could a mask ascend in rank. For example, in the course of its career a mask associated with entertainment could transform into a mask used for judgment purposes. Though the appearance of a mask often did not change substantially throughout the years, its reputation often evolved through age, as they served a purpose during several generations. What is exceptional about this mask is that appears to be recarved one or several times after its creation. While it was conceived with distorted nose, the mouth appears only the be resculpted much later – as the contours of its original, much larger, shape are still visible. The eyelids of the coffee-bean shaped eyes also appear to have been scraped of; especially the left eye was resculpted dramatically. An X-shaped incision on the right cheek adds another unique element to this mask. The research of Vandenhoute has shown that Dan and Wè sculptors often dreamed up a new type of mask. Such a dream might thus have been the at the origin of this mask. It could have also been commissioned by someone struck by such a face distorting affliction. The morphology of the mask’s face indeed is very reminiscent to the symptoms of a very evolved case of yaws, a tropical infection of the skin, bones, and joints, present in 19th century Ivory Coast. Perhaps, while the disease’s symptoms evolved and worsened, the mask was adapted accordingly. It is the only so-called ‘sickness’-mask known from the Wè people.

Accompanied by musicians during its performance, this mask would move around dynamically when it appeared. Masks often spoke, sung or made strange unearthly sounds reflecting their supernatural origin. This wooden mask of course was the centerpiece of an elaborate costume. A fiber headdress once was attached to the holes at its edges. Covering the body of its wearer, the shape and materials of which it was made, would comply with the specific character the mask incarnated. The surface’s deep patina, as well as the extensive erosion to the holes, indicates this mask had a long ritual life. Even after its arrival in Europe, far from the original context it once operated in, the reputation of this superb mask has only grown as it would find itself in the hands of the trail-blazing collector André Level.