Beaded bag
Accessories
2018.6.20.3.AC.BG.C1910.FR
Description
Beaded purse with celluloid clasp and handle. The motif reflects the cubist revival of African traditional art.Around 1907, European artists began to collect sculptures from Africa. This attraction for African objects was not new. Since the 15th century contacts between Europe and Africa exist and these objects brought back from trips were introduced into European collections of exotic curiosities.
At the beginning of the 20th century, French colonization took root in Africa, artifacts were plundered and scattered in Parisian museums, considered as exotic and colonial curiosities. But this movement, which began in Paris in 1906, insisted on sculptures (masks and statuary) for inspiration.
In 1907, Picasso spends all his time in Trocadero Museum of Ethnography in Paris and it turns as a great revelation, the shock for him. He is captivated by these masks and sculptures with expressions full of power and vital force. At the point, that throughout his life, he will get hundred of objects comming from West and Central Africa, which he will exhibit in his workshop. Infuenced by this abstract art with expressive and transcendent power, he will use a new vision of space and volumes, presenting several angles of view within a single painting. He will twist the elements as African sculptors do, while using more and more geometric forms.
Following his visit to the Trocadero Museum, he completed "Les demoiselles d'Avignon", considered to be the most infused painting of the 20th century, thanks to the stylistic and conceptual break that it proposes: it is the birth of cubism, directly inspired by African art.
This passion for African art quickly spreads all over the Europe and goes international until around 1920.
Materials
Glass beadsCelluloid
Metal
Silk
Origin
vers 1910 FranceDimensions
Width : 6 cmLength : 19 cm
Height : 28 cm