Information
H 25 cm
Mask.
Provenance
- George F. Keller antique collection (Bern) (Inv. G.F.K. 59);
- Former Paolo Morigi collection (Lugano);
- Former private collection (Lugano);
(*) Ernst Asher (Prague 1888 - 1980). He was a primitive art dealer who, by the 1920s, had already opened a gallery on the corner of Rue de Seine and Rue des Beaux Arts. “Old Asher”, as he was called in the Saint-Germain quarter in Paris, where he was based, also sold works to George Keller, including the Kota reliquary (lot 15).After World War Two, he contributed to increasing Picasso’s collection of “nègres” statues. They became such good friends that the two of them used to spend summer holidays on Napoule beach in Cote d’Azur.
Exhibition
- Lugano 2002, Palazzo Riva, Banca Svizzera Italiana (BSI);
Literature
- MORIGI PAOLO “Raccolta di un amatore d’arte primitiva”, Magliaso, Lugano & Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland 1980, fig. 105, page 107;
- VENTURI LUCA M. “Anime antiche, arte negra, da una raccolta di sculture dell’Africa occidentale” BSI Bank, Lugano 2002, fig. 14;
Documentation:
“Arts d’Afrique Noire n° 58, Summer 1986, page 17” Musée Barbier-Muller Archives;
LE FUR IVES & e other “Picasso Primitif” Musée du Quai Branly, Paris 2017, page 80;