Alexander Evgenievich Yakovlev

Paris, The Louvre Museum, Pavillon de Marsan, Exhibition The Croisière Noire, October - December 1926 (prolonged until February 1927)

The Studio, 15th November 1926, v.92, p.313
A.Yakovlev, Drawings and Paintings of Africa, Travel sketches and notes, Paris: Lucien Vogel, 1927, illustrated plate 6
C.Haardt de la Baume, Alexandre Iacovleff, l'artiste voyageur, Paris: éditions Flammarion, 2000, p.37
Léon Poirier, La Croisière Noire (film), Paris, 1926, featured in the sequence La danse du Kouli-Kouta

Original canvas. Needs a clean and touch up.
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From October 1924 until August 1925, Georges-Marie Haardt's team of explorers covered over twenty thousand kilometres of African desert, bush and marshland on a fleet of half-track vehicles as they made their way from Algeria to Madagascar.  

The Croisière Noire, an ambitious expedition across the African continent pioneered by André Citroën, amassed a huge body of scientific and cultural data and, with Alexander Yakovlev as official artist, over 400 oils and drawings depicting the inhabitants and landscapes of many as yet unexplored regions of Africa. The Kuli-Kuta Dance is one of the most important paintings to have been painted on the expedition's return.

In contrast to other Africanist artists who did not travel beyond the North of the continent, Alexander Yakovlev shed light on the almost virgin lands of sub-Saharan Africa, capturing the intensity of its ancient rites and primitive beauty better than anybody else. In November 1924, the explorers reached Niamey and were welcomed by a colourful and raucous crowd of brightly-clad Djerma horsemen, Hausa archers and a wonderful banquet of over thirty-five dishes (fig.1).

Suddenly, to the frenzied rhythm of the tam-tams, two women appeared in a makeshift arena and began the Kuli-Kuta dance, a parody of the ancient human sacrifices practiced in the kingdom of Dahomey. In the foreground of this striking composition, Alexander Yakovlev has depicted the priestess of Sango, the great god of thunder and lightning. Dressed in sacred white robes, she rhythmically sharpens her knives, as she prepares to sacrifice the most beautiful of all the young girls in honour of the victorious god. In his depiction of this erotic and belligerent dance, which was also captured in Léon Poirer's 1926 film La Croisière Noire, Yakovlev underscores the power of the priestess in pursuit of the young, sultry virgin, who undresses to offer herself. Followed by a band of frenzied musicians, the priestess is about to touch the languid body of the victim with her knives as the crowd, whom we hear in the film, chants "Diaram, diaram, diaram!" (fig.2).

Under the tutelage of the lauded draughtsman Dmitri Kardovsky at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, Yakovlev had perfected the art of portraying draped fabrics. His talent is illustrated here in the subtle movement of the priestess's white robe, which is brought into sharp relief by the contrast with the blue sky. This same harmonious finesse can also be found in the robes of Barma Mata, The Sultan of Zinder (fig.3).

Husband to a ballerina and, later, a close friend of Anna Pavlova, Yakovlev was fascinated throughout his life by the performing arts: theatre, music and especially dance. The offered work is dominated by a unique and very modern sense of movement. Its energy recalls another work from the Croisière Noire series on a similar subject, The Ganz'a: a trance dance performed over three days (fig.5). In both this work and the offered lot, the viewer is transported into that arena, and can believe they are listening to the deafening music, gripped by the rhythm of the dance.

The expedition returned from Africa to great euphoria. The magical words of the Croisière Noire opened the doors to everybody's imagination. In 1925, Paris moved to the rhythms of the roaring twenties. Black art had been discovered by Picasso and Braque in 1910 and Fernand Léger, the pioneer of Primitivism, was inspired by African sculptures and dances to create the sets and costumes for The Creation of the World (fig.4). This was also the time when 'Yakovlev came into contact with modern art from which he borrowed several key achievements: the density of planes underscored by Cubism; the use of perspective; brand new compositional layouts and harsh contrasts of tone and light' (R. Charmet, 'The painting of Alexander Yakovlev' in the exhibition catalogue Alexandre Iacovleff, Galerie Vendôme, 23 November – 1 December 1965).

In 1926, the Croisière Noire exhibition at the Louvre's Pavillion de Marsan benefited from this fashion for black culture, and met with such success that it was extended by three months. The Kuli-Kuta Dance was exhibited in the 'Black Art from Niger and Chad' section, behind the lavish saddles of the Tuareg and the Sultan of Zinder, which recalled the splendour and pomp of the black sultans. Riding the crest of the jazz wave, Josephine Baker drove Paris wild with her sparkling smile and frenzied dance, and sang in honour of André Citroën at Montparnasse: "I have two loves: my country and Citroën..." (fig.6)

It was said of Alexander Yakovlev, official artist of the Citroën expeditions, and great lover of dance that 'he bestowed the Negro with a magnificent style, and the savage and dynamic grace, which Josephine Baker made fashionable...' (Les Trois Moustiquaires, 'Alexander Yakovlev, the Artist' in Pourquoi pas?, Belgium, 6 May 1927). This wonderful and powerful painting is testament to that.

We are grateful to Caroline Haardt de La Baume, author of the forthcoming Alexander Yakovlev catalogue raisonné for providing this note.