Suku Flywhisk, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Dr Paul Chadourne, Garches
Alain de Monbrison, Paris, acquired from the above
Merton D. Simpson, New York
Martin and Roberta Lerner, New York, acquired from the above in 1984

In many central African traditions high-status objects of regalia served both a practical and a sacred ritual function; images of ancestors reference the clan lineage of the aristocratic bearer, confirming his power and authority.  The present flywhisk is composed of a dramatically-rendered image of an attenuated human body, with deeply sweeping arms grasping at the mouth in an expressive posture seen frequently in Suku, Yaka, and Hungaan art.  A deeply layered glossy patina attests to a long period of use in situ.  Both the configuration of the figure and the construction of the fibrous bindings connecting the animal-hair whisk to the handle relate closely to two early examples published in Bourgeois (Arthur P. Bourgeois, Art of the Yaka and Suku, 1984, p. 47, figs. 16-17).

This flywhisk was once in the collection of Paul Chadourne, critic, journalist, and an occasional member of the Dada group around 1922 [see fig. 1]. Like his friends Paul Eluard and Tristan Tzara, Chadourne was a collector of African and Oceanic art. He lent objects to several of the most important exhibitions of the twenties and thirties, including the exposition d'art africain et océanien at the Galerie du théâtre Pigalle, Paris, in 1930 and African Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1935.