Make African and Alaskan art enter into dialogue with Modern art

What is striking in Ernst Beyeler's collection is his ambition to show links and echoes between different works of art. This is particularly true for Picasso and African or Alaskan art .

Beyeler: a photographic memory.

The following video is an excellent example of Beyeler's relationship to art and his extraordinary eye for art in general. This example will help us understand how works of art alude to one another within his collection. Here Beyeler explains the link he saw between Cézanne's Madame Cézanne au fauteuil jaune (1888-1890) and Picasso's Femme en vert (Dora) (1944).

Excerpt from Thomas Isler's documentary: Art Dealer, Ernst Beyeler, 2007

Here, the triangle-shaped head of Picasso's painting works as a reminder of  this Guinean Headdress.

Figure (Femme assise), 1930

Headdress, a mantsho-na-tshol, 19th/20th century

Here, the head of the Malian ritual pounder could be an example of Picasso's inspiration for this Woman (1907) and prefigures his Demoiselles d'Avignon -a landmark for Cubism-.

Ritual Pounder, deble,  1870

Work of a Senufo master from the Sikasso region, Mali

Femme, 1907

Here in Picasso's works the peculiar representations of the teeth are rooted in Alaskan art.

yup’ik Mask, 1900

Kuskokwim, Alaska

Femme dans un fauteuil, 1927

Chat et Homard, 1965

Another example of echo in Beyeler's collection is this Ceremonial Cloth of the Kuba and Paul Klee's Zeichen in Gelb (1937)

Ceremonial Cloth of the Kuba, 1920

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Zeichen in Gelb, 1937