Press release | 11 November | rb

Out of Africa – Art Transfer in the Colonial Context

The latest volume of Technische Universität Berlin’s open access “Journal for Art Market Studies” is available on online

The exponential growth of an export market for cultural assets on the African continent starting from the mid-19th century is the focus of “Africa: Trade, Traffic, Collections” - the new online issue (vol. 4 no. 1) of the English-language “Journal for Art Market Studies” (JAMS). The journal is published by the Chair of Modern Art History. Interesting to note is the changing perception of such objects as merchandise and collectibles, from “ethnographic” objects to “primitive art” through to the current market for African objects.

How and under what circumstances did acquisitions and object transfers take place in the colonial context? To what extent did economic and political interests play a role? What do we know about trade at that time?

The concept for the new issue of JAMS was developed by guest editor, art historian Dr. Felicity Bodenstein. Bodenstein teaches at Sorbonne University in Paris and has conducted research at TU Berlin as a research associate in the “translocations” cluster led by Professor Dr. Bénédicte Savoy, where her work focused on objects from the Kingdom of Benin.

JAMS is compiled by managing editor Dr. Susanne Meyer-Abich, working closely with different experts on each issue. The journal is edited by Professor Dr. Bénédicte Savoy, head of the Chair of Modern Art History at TU Berlin and professor at the Collège de France, Paris, in collaboration with Dr. Dorothee Wimmer and Dr. Johannes Nathan.

The topics covered by the expert contributions to the current issue include the link between the slave trade and the widespread acquisition of African material culture, post-colonial developments in the art market and cultural heritage practices and protective measures in present-day Africa.

Contents of the latest issue

1. Editorial

2. Felicity Bodenstein: Africa: Trade, Traffic, Collections (introduction)

3. Zoe Cormack: Violence, globalization and the trade in “ethnographic” artefacts in nineteenth-century Sudan

4. Jan Hüsgen: Colonial Expeditions and Collecting: The Context of the “Togo-Hinterland Expedition” of 1894/95

5. Richard Tsogang Fossi: Itinerary of a Cameroon Cross-River Collection in Art Market Networks. An Analysis of Transaction Correspondence between Hamburg-Berlin-Leipzig

6. Léa Saint Raymond / Elodie Vaudry: The vanishing paths of African artefacts: Mapping the Parisian auction market for “primitive“ objects in the interwar period

7. Alexandre Girard-Muscagorry: Zing-Foumban-Paris: Tracing a Mumuye Mask from Nigeria to France

8. Silvie Memel-Kassi: The Illicit Circulation of Ivorian Collections: Challenges and Prospects

9. Julien Bondaz: Book Review of Zachary Kingdon, Ethnographic Collecting and African Agency in Early Colonial West Africa, 2019

10. Felicity Bodenstein: Book Review of Yaelle Biro

11. Maureen Murphy: Interview with Jean Roudillon

Click here to read the latest issue of JAMS “Africa: Trade, Traffic, Collections”.

Contact

Dr.

Susanne Meyer-Abich

Chair for Modern Art History

s.meyer-abich@tu-berlin.de