The Fang reliquary head in particular exemplified the integration of form with function that had created a centuries-old tradition of abstraction in African art before the European colonial period – and its formal features powerfully influences modernist artists that had began collecting non-Western art during the early twentieth century. Fixed upon a bark vessel, the most important individuals of an extended family would be preserved here; hence the sculptural element can be considered the embodiment of the ancestral spirit. Therefore, the representational style is abstract rather than naturalistic; the balanced form in the figures signifies the qualities that the Fang admired in people – tranquillity, vitality and sense of virtuous balance. This is shown through the juxtaposition of straight lines (the neck, hair) and sinuous curved facial features, alongside the symmetrical nature of the piece.
This and other Fang sculpted heads held provenance in London at the time, this piece specifically featuring in the collection of Vorticist associate and long-time friend of Picasso and Matisse, Sir Jacob Epstein – it is unsurprising therefore to find many of the Fang stylistic features present in his work. Taking the Female Figure in Flenite (1913) as a key example that follows African rather than European sculptural conventions – Epstein acknowledges the ‘primitive’ free sexuality and creativity displayed in the Egyptian, Assyrian and African art that he collected, to which he expresses here through the pregnant female form. The large head, short limbs and symmetrical pose are also congruent with African aesthetics, and alluding to the aforementioned Fang head, once again there is a stark contrast between the lithe curvatures and the strict rigid straight lines. It is arguable that even the choice of material is seeking to reflect the deep dark tone that most African sculpture uses; the Fang head attained this through repeated application of palm oil to the wood over many years, but it seems for better sustainability, Epstein chose a material called Serpentine, which he dubbed ‘Flenite’ in reference to the flinty hardness of the stone. To a lesser extent, these points are also applicable to Epstein’s Rock Drill.
The artists of the Gabonese Ambete clans showed a similar approach to the abstraction of the humanist figure, though with more of a focus on movement. Picture below right is another Reliquary piece, this time taking the form of a standing figure with a hollowed torso accessible through the removal of a back panel. Notably striking for its juxtaposition of active and still attitudes, it is the exaggerated flatness of the face, and the lack of general affect that typify elements of African aesthetics that were frequently evoked in modernist paintings and sculpture.
Colour is also key here – outwardly appearing as general terracotta and clay tones, the combination of red, black and white holds a huge amount of symbolic relevance, and most importantly, abstraction. Keep in mind, this piece is a receptacle for ancestral relics and remains. Red here is representative of life force, black of death and mourning, and white of social order and unimpeded perception; the use of all three colours allude to the work’s status as an abstract portrait of distant ancestors, more so by where on the body they appear. Returning to the juxtaposing activity and lack of motion – notice the legs and feet feature shades of both black and red, life intertwines death essentially. The central figure and cupped hands in white could be read as denoting the living memory of the ancestor, the arms and hands being their actions, the chest and torso being their soul and strength, and the sexual organs their offspring. The head however, features all three colours, for what can be perceived as a number of reasons, assuming the spiritual importance of the face in African cultures. Perhaps the black border of the face alludes to the encasement of the central life force (the red face), and the white of the forehead being of unbreakable mind. However, due to the aforementioned lack of knowledge or (in most cases) interest in the symbolic or active functions of any of these artefacts, it is the facial form in this case that can be noted as an influence to a number of key modernist works – most noticeable in a number of Matisse and Picasso’s works.
Matisse, a seasoned museum browser, had likely encountered African sculptures at the Trocadéro museum with fellow Fauve painter Maurice de Vlaminck, before embarking on a spring 1906 trip to North Africa. Upon his return, Matisse painted two version of The Young Sailor (pictured right). In the second version of the painting (below), a more rigidly abstract visage was used, reminiscent of a mask, compared to the first versions naturalistic contoured facial features. Much like the Ambete piece – here the face is flattened, and more noticeably, there is a major contrast between the still quality of the sailor’s face, and the wild, frenetic brushstrokes of his clothing. Whereas the eyebrows, nose and lips are all painted with concrete, heavy lines, his pants and sweater are composed of wild painted curves and turns; a move, in short, from the figurative humanist to the abstract and strategic.
At about the same time, Picasso completed his portrait of American expatriate write Gertrude Stein, finalizing her face after ninety repaintings in the frozen, masklike style of archaic sculptural busts from his native Iberia. In the Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1913), Stein wrote an account of Matisse’s fall 1906 purchase of a small African sculpture, now identified as a Vili figure from the Democratic Republic of Congo, at a curio shop on his way to visit her home. She recalled that since Picasso was present, Matisse showed it to him. Picasso later told writers and curators of the pivotal visits he subsequently made to African collections at the Trocadéro, beginning in June 1907. He famously described them revulsively, as being dimly lit, musty galleries – but also noted his inability to turn away from his study of the objects’ inventive and elegant figural composition. The African sculptures, he said, had helped him to understand his purpose as a painter; not to entertain with decorative images, but to meditate between perceived reality and the creative human mind. To be ‘exorcised’ from fear of the unknown but giving form to it.
Similarly inspired by Gauguin’s posthumous retrospective exhibitions and the savage power evoked by paintings such as The Moon and the Earth (1893) that had helped throw forth the widespread interest in what was dubbed ‘Primitivism - Picasso followed previous successes with paintings of oversized nude women, and monumental sculptural figures in the autumn of 1906. In 1907, after hundreds of preparatory sketches, Picasso completed the seminal Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, the painting to whose masklike faces and faceted female forms (alongside the geocentricism of Cezanne’s later work) some attribute the birth of Cubism and a defining role in the course of modern art throughout the twentieth century.
“L’art nègre? Connais pas!” – Pablo Picasso, 1920
A sad testament to the naivety of Western society at the time, Picasso emphatically denied any influence of African art on Les Demoiselles (‘African art? Never heard of it!), asserting instead that the primitivism in his work was primarily influenced by Iberian sculpture – during, before and after the painting of this piece. However, the stylistic sources for the heads of the women have been the subject of much debate, bringing in possible Oceanic and archaic Greek sculpture as potential factor.
“When I went to the Trocadéro, it was disgusting. The flea market, the smell. I was all alone. I wanted to get away, but I didn't leave. I stayed, I stayed. I understood that it was very important. Something was happening to me, right. The masks weren't like any other pieces of sculpture, not at all. They were magic things." – Pablo Picasso, 1921
The three leftmost Demoiselles in the painting indeed follow Iberian sculptural form, in the sense of their rounded contours and expressionless disposition, though this is not so obvious in the two figures on the right, who’s fragmented planes, colouring and static brushstrokes seem much more influenced by African tribal designs. Biography John Richardson recounts in A Life of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907-1916, art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler’s recollection of his first visit to Picasso’s studio in July 1907, and seeing ‘African sculptures of majestic severity’, with Richardson commenting ‘so much for Picasso’s story that he was not yet aware of Tribal art’. A photograph (left) featured in the biography shows Picasso in his studio in 1908, surrounding by African and Oceanic sculptures; a victim of society perhaps, that Picasso could not state his clear fascination in Ethnic sculpture publically.
A younger member of the School of Paris was painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, who acted as a key contact between the school and the Futurist artists based in his native Italy. He was singular in his adaption of stylistic influences primarily from the Baule of today’s Ivory Coast. Baule carving tradition embraced embellished functional objects, mask forms that enhance performance and sculptures that facilitated relations with the spirit world. In Baule society, aesthetics play an important role not only in providing the sculptor with a worthy source of inspiration but also in ensuring the sculptures worth. Modigliani made sketched of these elongated faces in figures and masks, heart shaped and narrowing to a point at the chin beneath a small mouth placed unnaturally low on the face. He later adapted this distinctive facial style in a series of sculptures, including the Woman’s Head (1912), pictured right, and in paintings such as Reclining Nude.
The Woman’s Head perhaps best encapsulated the changing stance towards Ethnic art, both through Modigliani’s open acknowledgment of the stylistic influence that African masks and busts had on his work, but also in its dual-stylistic combination. As mentioned, the sculpture follows the Baule aesthetic – the face is elongated at nasal length, following down to a small square mouth placed abnormally close to the base of the nose, with the chin tightening into a clenched-like ridge – yet is also intrinsically linked with traditional European sculptural design. Aside to being carved in limestone, notice the Greco-Roman curled hair styling, formally carved in front, yet wildly stubbed at the back, giving the appearance alongside head shape of a more masculine figure. Questionable, also, is the use of closed eyed rarely featured in African sculpture; only in ritual masks as a sign of respect for the ancestral past and only otherwise if the wearers’ eyes were visible to some extent. It is disputed as to whether this holds any wider significance, but it is my belief that this goes some way to symbolize Modigliani own sense of mourning - his often stated sadness at societal ignorance towards the African and Oceanic art he treasured so dearly.
It is quite conclusive, from brief overview of this handful of the most significant artists of the early 20th century, that African and Oceanic sculpture was fast becoming the most important (and least acknowledged) visual influence in modernist art. This lack of acceptance however meant many ‘artefacts’ of West and Central Africa were still found as market stall bargain, and rarely featured publicly in major collections or exhibitions, and never was it described as ‘art’. This would remain the case for another twenty five years.
The real turning point for African art came in 1938, when thirteen bronze heads were unearthed outside the Nigerian city of Ife, with four more being discovered shortly after at the same location. Ten years later, after being traded, sold and in some cases lost entirely, the majority of the remaining bronzes found their way to the British Museum. There, in 1947-8, the figures were cleaned and examined more closely. It was established firstly that these figures were not bronze, but made from leaded zinc brass, and also further theorized that the crowned figures were realistic or idealistic portraits of sacred rulers of Ife, dating back to 12th-15th century.
The fascination sparked by the Ife heads was due to both their proposed age and their conventional appearance by European standards. They represented an artistic tradition of naturalistic bronze casts, compared to the abstract and the wooden sculptures known to the Western public. Made with a great deal of skill, the heads strongly reminded the European public of their own art history, and thus it was not believed that they had been created by African artists. In no circumstance could faces of such extraordinary detail, and constructed in hollow casted brass, have been made by such technically underdeveloped craftsmen. The real-idealistic quality of the face, on par with Greco-Roman renaissance sculpture lead to the widespread belief that what had actually been found was the lost kingdom of Atlantis. It was only after a series of technical and stylistic studies that experts finally came to believe that seventeen small heads were part of an African artistic tradition spanning centuries.
To conclude, however much it was denied by the creative industry, the aesthetic values of African sculpture had an enormous influence on all forms of art in the modern era, stemming from the Modernist periods of early 20th century France, and expanding through the works of Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani and Epstein (to name but a few) to establish itself as one of the most key artistic forms in the entirety of world history.
Image Bibliography
{1} Reliquary Head (Nlo Bieri) – (C19th-20th)
Gabon; Fang, Betsi group
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
{2} Female Figure in Flenite (1913) – Sir Jacob Epstein
Tate Collection, UK
{3} Male Reliquary Figure- (C19th)
Gabon/Congo – Ambete
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
{4} + {5} The Young Sailor I & II (est. 1906)
Henri Matisse
(I) Tate Collection (II) Metropolitan Museum of Art
{6} Moon & The Earth (1893)
Paul Gauguin
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
{7} Les Demoiselles D’Avignon (1907)
Pablo Picasso
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
{8) Seated Male (C19th-20th)
Ivory Coast; Baule
Metropolitan Museum of Art
{9} Woman’s Head (1911)
Amadeo Modigliani
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
Further References
The Life of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907-1916 – (1991)
By John RIchardson
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (1913)
By Gertrude Stein
Traditional African Aesthetics: A Philosophical Perspective (1998)
Extract by Innocent C. Onyewuenyi
from The African Philosophy Reader
By Pieter Hendrik Coetzee, A.P.J Roux
British Museum Objects in Focus: Bronze Head of Ife (2010)
By Editha Platte
Exhibition: Kingdom of Ife: Sculpture from West Africa (2010)
