CAG on museums: West African art and the Fred Uhlman collection

In exploring the history of a collection of West African art, I’ve discovered a rather interesting story about its collector. In a previous post I talked about my interest in a collection that exists at the Hancock Museum, which was collected with artistic aesthetics in mind and not with an anthropological ethos (http://calianthropologygirl.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/cag-on-museums-african-art-and-artistic_3.html).

Portrait of Fred Uhlman by Kurt Schwitters credit: TWAM

The collector is named Fred Uhlman, and the portrait shown of him above is by famous artist Kurt Schwitters, and belongs to the Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums service at the Hatton Gallery. Created in 1940 while both Uhlman and Schwitters were in an internment camp together on the Isle of Man after fleeing from Germany, this portrait is a departure from Schwitters’ more famous artworks and style.

Uhlman was originally a lawyer, but after he was forced to leave Germany he became a painter while living in Paris, which is also where he purchased his first West African art piece. He was interested in the works of Picasso and Modigliani who were influenced by African art, and so he also took part in the movement. He began to love African artworks for their aesthetic value and ability to ‘move him’.

Bambana N'tomo mask

Uhlman lived with his wife Diana in Hampstead in a house that became the centerpoint for discussions and meetings for the anti-Nazi Free German League of Culture group, which he founded. Despite these anti-Nazi activities, he was interned in the Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man where he met many German artists. He continued to collect African art and before his death he donated the 70 carvings, sculptures, masks, and figures from the Bambara, Dogon, Senufo, Gouro, and Baule tribes to Newcastle University out of fear that the collection might be dispersed. Although I’m still working on exploring the more anthropological contexts of this West African art collection, it’s very interesting and helpful to find out the collector history.

CAG on museums: African art and artistic inspiration

I’ve been working at the Great North Museum Hancock for two months now, and I’m finally getting more familiar with their ethnographic collections. I’ve discovered a collection of mainly Dogon and Ashanti artworks collected in the 1970s. As far as African art goes, I don’t have a world of experience and knowledge, but I was reminded of the first presentation on Dogon art that I ever saw in my favorite documentary series The Tribal Eye.

In this series, David Attenborough treks across the world exploring the arts of tribal cultures in 1975. The first episode in the series is on the life and customs of the Dogon people of Mali. Attenborough draws a connection between the fervor for Dogon artworks in the European art world and also links the use of African artifacts that inspired artists like Picasso.

Me looking at a Dogon equestrian god sculpture in the stores

The idea of ethnographic collections being inspired by European art world collection trends has been looked at as one of the least culturally valid reasons to assemble a collection, but in reality expressions of art from all parts of the world have been inspiring collectors and viewers of these artworks across continental boundaries. For example, there was a copy of the Ice Age female figure found in Italy (thought to be 22,000 years old) that Picasso had in his studio for inspiration. This figure can be seen in the current ‘Ice Age Art: arrival of the modern mind’ exhibition at the British Museum.

Female figure lent to British Museum by Château-Place Charles de Gaulle, copyright BMP

The point being, there hasn’t been much work on the Hancock collection of 1970s African art (purchased by the Hatton Gallery), but I’m really excited to look deeper into the collection and come up with some interesting research points.

After all, even one of biggest collectors of Dogon art, Lester Wunderman said, ‘Dogon art can hardly be called primitive. It contributes to expanding and enriching the life of those for whom it is carved; it is an integral part of Dogon society. Nor is that society as I saw it, necessarily primitive either...It is simply another course, an alternative method of human organization.’

Asanti bronze weight, man with fowl and bowl

These collections weren’t made as part of an agenda to classify and categorize cultures, unlike many world collections, but were seen as a way of relating to another world through the shared paradigm of art.

Ashanti bronze weight, man with rifle