Tribal Art Forum
Report: BRUNEAF XVI
by David Zemanek
The sixteenth Brussels Non-European Art Fair (BRUNEAF), the biggest fair for non-European art, was held from June 7-11, 2006. I will focus in the following article on a few galleries that I visited. This year, as last year, there was cooperation with the BAAF, dedicated to archaeology and the BOAF, dedicated to oriental arts.
I visited BRUNEAF for 3 days, and I think that was enough time for a good tour of the galleries. In the following lines I will share my impressions with you. But first I will take you in the world of the Sablon to reflect on a few things. The Verite sale is becoming closer to BRUNEAF; next week, the biggest event for years in the world of tribal art will take place in Paris. The Museum of the Quai Branly will be opened soon. The atmosphere is hot and you can feel the vibes in the people. Everyone hopes to snatch a piece of the Verite sale or from the Dintenfass collection from Sotheby's. A hype is created and it will become a unique event and sale in Paris. You can notice that the collectors and dealers tend to keep their money and don't spend it at BRUNEAF. My impression is that everyone is waiting for Verite. It looks to me as though the Verite sale was the breaking the neck of the BRUNEAF;.they should have done the fair one week later. If they did, all the disappointed European collectors who didn't get anything at Verite would have had a chance to buy at the BRUNEAF. Another thing I should mention is that the Brussels dealers didn't show highlight pieces. You could find a few important pieces at high end dealers, but that's all. They all waited for Paris, in orderto sell at the Parcour de Mondes. So the offerings were not as select as they were last year. During the time I stayed in Brussels I met many collectors and shared my passion with them. It's always great to meet the world in Brussels,but it was strange this year because there were not many visitors at the fair. So i don't think business was very good.
Now I can start my tour with you.
The first gallery I visited was the Vasco & Co bookshop, 48 Rue des Minimes, the same street on which Alain Guisson and Yannick van Ruysevelt were exhibiting. Vasco showed a fine selection of African photos from the Bernatzik archive, in the context of scarification. Guisson, as always, had a fine selection of Kongo objects.
Across the street, I visited the gallery of Serge Schoffel. He always has wonderful African and oceanic art. A really nice ancient Kota was noteworthy.
For me, the BRUNEAF highlight was the excellent quality that newcomers Philippe
& Lisa Laeremans offered; they set the standards. An excellent Songye and
a fantastic Kongo maternity figure were memorable.
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The next Gallery I visited was Taylor Dale's. He always has an interesting mixture of artefacts from around the tribal world; I really liked his fine Teke figure and an interesting Yoruba bullroarer.
Alex Arthur presented a very nice selection of African horns, and had a unique Haida minature mask that was really great. He made a nice arrangement of small fine and old objects form the tribal world. Also I liked his fine Baule mask and a strong Bwaka figure (perhaps from a nearby ethnic group).
Kevin Conru was my next stop. He always has fine material from South Africa, that has it special aesthetic. An old Makonde figure in his gallery was a great piece. I should also mention his fine Burkina plank mask, which has a unique shape.
Loed and Mia van Bussel showed a rare Rio Muni Fang figure and a fantastic Salomon
island piece.
Finally, I really liked a fine Dogon figure offered by Alain Lecomte.
All in all it was a nice time at the BRUNEAF, and the fair is always worth visiting. It's a place where you can discover pieces and meet collectors that share your passion. I hope the next BRUNEAF has more visitors again.
Text and images copyrighted to David Zemanek, 2006.