Kota-Obamba Reliquary Figure, Gabon

Félix Fénéon, Paris
Frank Crowninshield, New York
Annie Laurie Crawford Aitken, New York
Russell B. Aitken, New York and Newport, Rhode Island, by descent from the above
Christie's, New York, The Russell B. Aitken Collection of African, American Indian and Oceanic Art, April 3, 2003, lot 73
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired at the above auction

Probably Jacques Seligmann Gallery, New York, Exhibition of Sculptures of Old African Civilizations, January 4 - January 22, 1936
Brooklyn Museum, New York, African Negro Art from the Collection of Frank Crowninshield, March 20 - April 27, 1937
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Masterpieces of African Art, October 21, 1954 - January 2, 1955

Eckart von Sydow, 'Ahnenfiguren aus Französisch-Äquatorial-Afrika', Der Cicerone, Vol. XXII, January 1930, p. 217
'Exhibition of African Art', Vanity Fair, March 1935, p. 31
Probably John Graham, Exhibition of Sculptures of Old African Civilizations, New York, 1936, listed
Probably Brooklyn Museum, ed., African Negro Art from the Collection of Frank Crowninshield, New York, 1937, listed
The Brooklyn Museum, ed., Masterpieces of African Art, New York, 1954, p. 48, no. 149 (listed)
Ingeborg Bolz, 'Zur Kunst in Gabon: Stilkritische Untersuchungen an Masken und Plastiken des Ogowe-Gebietes', Ethnologica: Beiträge zur Afrikanischen Kunst, Vol. 3, 1966, pl. XLIII, fig. D
Louis Perrois, Kota, Milan, 2012, p. 95, pl. 14, and p. 147

The present richly-decorated Kota-Obamba reliquary figure was first published in 1930 by Eckart von Sydow, who recorded that it was then in the collection of the famed art critic and anarchist Félix Fénéon, an important early enthusiast of the arts of primary cultures. Coining the designation les arts lointains ('arts of faraway places'), Fénéon had asked the question: "seront-ils admis au Louvre?" ("will they be allowed in the Louvre?") in a 1920 editorial published in Bulletin de la vie artistique.  As de Sabran has described, his avant-garde position long pre-dated the manifesto published by Jacques Kerchache in 1990, "Pour que les chefs-d'œuvre du monde entier naissent libres et égaux..." ("Masterpieces from the entire world are born free and equal") (de Sabran, in Sotheby's, ed., "The 'Fénéon' Fang Mabea Figure", 2014, pp. 11-12). Kerchache's persistent devotion to this idea would set in motion the events that indeed finally led to African, Oceanic, Pre-Columbian, and Native North American artwork taking their rightful place in the Musée du Louvre at the turn of the 21st century.

Frank Crowninshield likely acquired the present figure from Fénéon through their mutual friend, the painter, collector, and theorist John Graham, another enormously influential figure in the development of the 20th century artistic avant-garde. LaGamma notes: "A member of the earliest generation of American connoisseurs of African art, Graham organised the pioneering 'Exhibition of Sculptures of Old African Civilizations' in 1936 at the Jacques Seligmann Gallery in New York. In doing so, he sought to stimulate interest in the formal qualities of African sculpture and to develop a system for aesthetically relating individual works to distinct regional traditions as well as to the broader history of art" (LaGamma, Eternal Ancestors, 2007, p. 152). Several 'Bakota brass masks' are listed, unillustrated, in the accompanying catalogue, and the present lot was most likely among them.

Perrois defines a style group of Kota reliquary figures which he situates on the right bank of the Ogooué River, between the Doumé rapids and Franceville, to which he assigns this accomplished sculpture. He notes that this reliquary figure "from the former Russell B. Aitken Collection and formerly in the famous Frank Crowninshield Collection (exhibited in 1937 at the Brooklyn Museum of New York) is [a] magnificent instance of this variant sometimes attributed to the 'Northern Obamba': the striking oval face has a motif projecting longitudinally on the front panel; two large plates are set in the centre of the face in the form of a cross, on which are affixed the nose and almond-shaped eyes. Fine strips stretch out to form a radiating motif in each quarter of the face created by the cross design; the side-buns are not very wide and are ornamented with a repoussé 'cord' motif, with diagonal projections. The beautiful crescent-shaped hairstyle stands out and its sharply tapering 'horns' drop down to touch the side-buns. A series of vertical points on the crescent recall the coils on the tops of Mahongwe figures" (Perrois, Kota, 2012, p. 58). He continues that this "series of little spikes mark where the feathers would have been fitted to signal the wearer's social status" (ibid., p. 147).  Such an elaborate program of design must indeed have indicated an association with a wealthy and powerful individual or clan.

This ornate Kota figure is of great historical importance by virtue of its distinguished former owners, and its appearance in pioneering publications and exhibitions of the 1930s, as African art from the great budding avant-garde collections of Europe was first discovered by an American audience.