The New York Tribal Art Week - Fall Edition officially begins next Tuesday, November 12th, when several commercial galleries holding welcoming parties, and the main auction rooms clear the decks for dealers and collectors to view a vast array of traditional African, Oceanic, South East Asian and Pre-columbian Art. Collectors, enthusiasts, and connoisseurs of ancient and tribal art from around the world are expected to gather in New York for the auctions and exhibitions.

Following the Tribal art shows in Paris, London and Amsterdam the New York Tribal Art Week turnout mainly depends on attendance from major auctions houses like Sotheby’s, Christie’s and Bonhams.

Sotheby’s will take center stage during New York Tribal Art Week as they offer The Collection of Allan Stone: African, Oceanic, and Indonesian Art – Volume One.

San Francisco Tribal Art Dealer James Willis  had this to say: Allan Stone was for many years my best client, and more than that, he was unlike any collector I ever met. He was a unique individual with wide ranging tastes and enormous confidence in his ability to select what hit his nerve. He was not following trends, he was not listening to what’s in fashion, he followed his own discerning taste. He did not care what anyone else thought of his collection. Collecting was his most personal passion, and he created his collection just for himself.

Allan was perhaps one of the twentieth century’s best and in every case one of the most influential art dealers, yet he was always modest and friendly. He enjoyed every aspect of life and experiences. He created entire environments with his art collection, at his homes and his gallery.

No one else would buy like him. His inquisitiveness was such that he could buy a major Songye power figure at the same time as a cluster of Polynesian clubs. In his home in Purchase, New York, he always had a spot in mind where he could fit in his next new piece. He loved the art and intimate objects appealed to him just as much as important ones.

Bonham’s will also offer a New York sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-columbian Art. The African, Oceanic and Pre-columbian Art auctions at Bonhams feature unique, fresh-to-the-market artworks from sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania (Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Indonesia and Australia) created in the early 20th century or earlier, and works from Central and South America created prior to European contact in the 16th century. Made by artists for religious, ceremonial or secular use within their culture, artworks in the sale include figurative sculpture, masks, reliquaries, shrines, architectural ornaments, clubs, shields, vessels, stools, neck rests, instruments, body adornment and many daily utilitarian objects.

Also during New York Tribal Art Week is Tribal & Modern, an  exhibition by the young, bi-coastal gallery owner and tribal art dealer, David Cassera. From the 12- 17 of November at 16 East 79th Street (Between Fifth and Madison), Cassera Arts Premiers is very pleased to announce a collaborative exhibition in New York City this November on the exclusive Upper East Side of Manhattan.

David Cassera has joined forces with the prestigious Galerie Mourlot, a descendant of Atelier Mourlot, founded in 1852, which was a lithographic print shop located in Paris, France. Mourlot became famous for assisting Matisse, Braque, Bonnard, Rouault, Joan Miró and many others in the creation of important lithographs. In 1945, Pablo Picasso elected the Mourlot studio for his return to the lithographic medium.

Also located in the same townhouse is the Michelle Rosenfeld Gallery who has presented exhibitions and sold; Arman, Basquiat, Braque, Calder, Chagall, Condo, Dubuffet, Dufy, Francis, Katz, Hirst, Leger, Lichtenstein, Metzinger, Miro, Moore, Monet, Murakami, Picasso, Renoir, Rivers, Van Dongen, Warhol, Wesselman, to name a few.

Together they will present an extraordinary exhibition of Tribal & Modern Art beginning the second week of November. This special showing runs concurrently with Sotheby’s sale of the Allan Stone Collection of African, Oceanic and Indonesian art and Bonhams’ sale of African, Oceanic and Pre-columbian art. PREVIEW:Tuesday, 12th November, 3 – 5 PM,  COCKTAIL PARTY: Wednesday, 13th November, 4 – 8 P, SHOW HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday, 12th – 16th November 12 – 7pm Sunday, 17th November 11am – 4pm, Location: 16 E 79th Street New York, NY (between Fifth & Madison).

Another exhibition also taking place during New York Tribal Art Week is the Madison Ancient & Tribal Art Show (MATA). The MATA show will present a wide range of antique figurative and abstract sculpture as well as ancient
artifacts from traditional peoples of Africa, Oceania, Indonesia, Asia, and the Americas. MATA dealers include Peter-Michael Bod (African art), H. Kellim Brown (African art), Bruce Frank Primitive Art (African, Oceanic, and Indonesian art), James Stephenson African Art, Amyas Naegele African Art, Marc Assayag (African and Oceanic art), Jacaranda Tribal (African art), Charles Moreou (African and Oceanic art), and Michael Oliver (African art). MATA members exhibiting in satellite locations include Arte Primitivo (3 East 65th St.), Pace Primitive (32 East 57th St.), and Tambaran Gallery (5 East 83rd St). Along with auctions and gallery exhibitions there is a museum show coinciding with the events at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The New Exhibition Celebrates Vision Underlying Nelson A. Rockefeller’s Pioneering Collection of Non-Western Art and Its Transformative Impact on Metropolitan Museum.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (AAOA) will celebrate the genesis of its permanent collection with a special exhibition that opens October 8. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of the Best in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas is organized to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of The Museum of Primitive Art, the direct precursor to the Metropolitan’s Department of AAOA. The Museum of Primitive Art was a pioneering cultural institution that featured Nelson Rockefeller’s non-Western art collection. The announcement by Rockefeller of an agreement to transfer his collection to the Metropolitan Museum was made in 1969 and in January 1982 the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing opened to the public.

The exhibition is made possible by the Friends of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

Highlighting some 50 masterpieces and many unpublished documents selected from the more than 3,000 Rockefeller gifts encompassing three areas—Africa, Oceania, and the Americas—the exhibition will reveal his vision for The Museum of Primitive Art, the first institution dedicated entirely to the artistic excellence of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. While a selection of historically significant works from the collection will be highlighted in a gallery for special exhibitions within the AAOA department, the overview of its founding vision will permeate all of the AAOA galleries, where additional commentary on works on permanent display will expand upon that narrative.

“A generation before ‘globalism’ became a household name, Nelson Rockefeller’s vision for The Museum of Primitive Art was to make evident the enormous spectrum of artistic expression absent from the Metropolitan’s fine arts holdings,” said Alisa LaGamma, Curator in Charge of the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, “When a survey exhibition of The Museum of Primitive Art’s collection was presented at the Met in 1969, Governor Nelson Rockefeller announced at a press conference that his non-Western art collection would be given a permanent home at the Met, thus ‘rounding out its art archives of the creative accomplishments of [humankind].’ This development and subsequent transfer of The Museum of Primitive Art to The Michael C. Rockefeller Wingmarked the culmination of a quest that was sparked in the 1930s, when a young Nelson Rockefeller first began a lifelong engagement with Latin America and its Pre-columbian artistic heritage.”

Works highlighted in the exhibition will be presented together with archival documents. They will include the template for the collection developed by René d’Harnoncourt recorded in a series of notebooks titled “Desiderata and Collection” (and “Catalog and Desiderata”). Additionally correspondence concerning the shaping of the collection through the 1960s and installation drawings and photographs of influential The Museum of Primitive Art exhibitions will also be integrated into the installation. Examination of these documents will reveal the systematic approach developed by The Museum of Primitive Art’s curatorial staff to advise Nelson Rockefeller on shaping the world’s great collection of non-Western art, or as Museum of Primitive Art curator and the AAOA department’s first head, Douglas Newton, described as “the best of everything.”

New York Tribal Art Week organizer David Cassera says, “I am extremely pleased to see a unified and organized week of events in the fall, creating excitement for everyone involved. I hope the auction houses, dealers, galleries and museums will see the importance of this unity and strive to make New York Tribal Art Week an important time on their calendars each May and November so the buzz can continue to grow in the years to come.”

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