Specifications

• Height: 60 cm.
• Material: wood
• Position: standing
• Gender: male
• Indigenous name: adu zatua
• Price realised: € 7.680,-

Provenance

Kurt Mengers (1893-1977), Berlin; Drouot, Paris 7-11-1929, lot 92; Louis Aragon (1897-1982); George Sadoul (1904-1967); Calmels Cohen, Paris 23-6-1997); Bruce Frank, New York; Bonham’s, Brussels 17-12-2024, lot 134.

Publications

Exhibitions

Additional information

Georges Sadoul (1904–1967) was a renowned French film critic, historian, and writer, celebrated for his significant contributions to the study of cinema and his active role in the Surrealist movement. Educated in philosophy and literature, he became closely associated with Surrealist circles in the 1920s, alongside notable figures such as Louis Aragon and André Breton. Like many Surrealists, Sadoul developed a fascination with non-Western art and collected African and Oceanic artworks. Part of Sadoul’s collection was sold at an auction in Paris in June 1996. Among the lots was the present figure, believed to have been acquired during a sale at Drouot on November 7–9, 1929. The description of lot 92 from that sale, and its dimensions, closely match this figure, suggesting they are almost certainly the same. Records from the 1929 auction show it was a single-owner sale, the seller being Kurt Mengers (1893–1977), a German art dealer specializing in non-European art. However, the buyer of the object was not Georges Sadoul, despite his acquiring many lots during the auction, but Louis Aragon. Throughout their lives, Louis Aragon and Georges Sadoul shared a close and enduring relationship, both as members of the Surrealist movement and later through their political work in the Communist Party. Sadoul contributed film reviews to Lettres françaises, the literary journal directed by Aragon, and also wrote a study about him, Aragon (Paris, Seghers, 1967), which the poet personally reviewed and revised. Given their strong connection, it is highly likely that Louis Aragon gifted, exchanged, or sold the present lot to Georges Sadoul.

We are grateful to Marina El Chalouhi for her assistance in the research for this note. (catalogue note Bonham’s)

Large, rather crude and Central Nias.

Photo credits

Bonham’s, Brussels