Imagine starting the day with a champagne brunch amid erotically provocative sculpture. That was the plucky attraction for patrons attending the Saturday morning opening of the annual New York International Tribal Art & Textiles Show on May 19. The libations and light breakfast treats, accompanied by live jazz music, were part of Caskey-Lees’ “sneak preview” for serious, well-heeled collectors. The sexual context was provided by Chinalai Tribal Antiques, Shoreham, N.Y., which assembled a special show exhibition, “Sex & Spirit.” More on that later.
It was “lucky 13” for the tribal art and textiles gathering, which, bracketed by sales of American Indian art and pre-Colombian art at the big New York City auction houses, drew dealers, collectors, institutions and the curious to the Park Avenue Armory from May 19 to 22.
For 13 years, Caskey-Lees, the Topanga, Calif.-based show promoter, has continued to enhance its flagship show, which is considered to be the best tribal art fair in the country. The year’s East Coast edition was marked by expansion, showcasing a total of 83 galleries, 22 of which were new to the show. “I added ten exhibitor spaces this year,” said Bill Caskey, “and most of the dealers †at least two-thirds of those responding to our postshow survey †said they did very well.”
This year, international exhibitors numbered 28, coming from ten nations: England, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Australia, Senegal and Singapore.
Caskey said a total of 5,867 people attended the four-day show, “down a little from last year, by about 100 people.” He noted that more museums made the trip into New York City for the event, and Saturday’s attendance was clearly bolstered by international visitors, judging from the lilt and energy that the foreign languages being spoken lent to the already exotic atmosphere on the show floor.
That energy was evident among buyers. Despite the slightly lower attendance, several dealers reported a robust showing.
“We had a great show and had sales every one of the four days it was open,” said John Molloy of Molloy Tribal Art in New York City. “Our sales were varied but were all Native American. We sold a third phase blanket to a museum. We took it down on Monday and sold the weaving that we put up †it had been at our gallery †to a dealer in the room. We had a good sale when the doors first opened on Saturday morning and we had yet another good sale a half-hour before the show ended on Tuesday. The audience was enthusiastic and we were heartened by the response.”
Jeffrey Myers of Myers and Duncan, New York City, had artfully arranged three Northwest Coast Kwakiutl masks of the Hamatsa society above a photograph by Edward Curtis that had appeared in his volume on the Kwakiutl Indians. All three masks sold.
“A very fine Eighteenth Century Eskimo shaman’s mask from Point Hope, Alaska, was sold, as well as an Eskimo walrus ivory carving of a flying polar bear, Dorset culture, from Canada,” said Myers. “I feel that this show was a cornucopia of wonderful objects that bring you back to basics, cultures, relationships †to very human people making adaptations to their environments. The objects are great examples of nonverbal communication in a city where you can’t walk down the street without hearing someone on their cellphone telling someone else that they are walking down the street.”
Auctioneers of pre-Columbian and tribal art, Arte Primitivo sold a fine pre-Columbian stone mask from Teotihuacan, a very fine, published Gelede, Yoruba mask and several other items, according to gallery owner Howard Rose. A monumental Jaguar deity, circa 600‹00 AD, from Vera Cruz, Mexico, guarded the New York City dealer’s booth.
Based on the results of a ballot and questionnaire distributed by show management to the exhibitors, there will be some changes to next year’s event. It will move downtown to the 26th Street Armory and the opening will be on a Thursday evening, with the show running through Sunday. “This makes infinitely more sense,” said Arte Primitivo gallery owner Howard Rose. “Thursday evening is a social evening as opposed to a Saturday morning opening.”
“I’m fine with it,” said Caskey, referring to the vote to move back to the Gramercy Park Armory and the new run-of-show dates. “The gate will be stronger.”
Seattle, Wash.-based dealer John Ruddy said he believed that this year’s show was “one of the best in recent years, in terms of the strength of the material, and quite a few visitors commented, quite genuinely, I think, that it was a visually strong and impressive show.”
Despite somewhat fewer visitors, Ruddy said the four-day run went fairly well for him, with those who did come seemingly informed and quite focused. Ruddy sold a number of textiles, notably a late Nineteenth Century pha sin women’s hipwrap from northeastern Laos, a Balinese ceremonial cloth and a highly unusual wedding blanket from the Miao people in southern China.
A highlight in the booth of Parisian dealer Xavier Monnet, participating in the show for the first time with his collection of rare textiles and jewelry, was a shaman’s coat woven from the tails of 50 horses that was more than 100 years old. From the Yao culture in southwest China, the coat was displayed with a felt hat, also worn by a shaman, but less aged, perhaps 50‶0 years old. Monnet explained that the merchandise that he exhibits is, for the most part, new on the market. It stems from southwestern Chinese minorities that have only recently, within the past 20 years, begun to be studied. Monnet was the only specialist of these goods in this show.
“My best sale was a wonderful silver head of water buffalo that was meant to be mounted on a wall during festivals,” said Monnet. “The rare piece was made in Ghizhou Province in a Miao village.”
Two years in curating †and many more in collecting †went into the creation of the show’s adventurous special exhibition, “Sex & Spirit.” Vichai and Lee J. Chinalai lent their collection of genital shrine pieces, phallic-shaped amulets of all sizes and yantra drawings. “It was quite an experience to plan for and curate a show of rather extraordinary objects, some of which stood as tall as a person and others that resembled trees with more phallic branches than the population of a small rural village,” said Lee Chinalai following the show. “But it was even more of an experience to observe people’s strong reaction †very few responded mildly.
“We would say 98 percent of the public †and, after all, it is a group with a built-in sensitivity to tribal art †responded very positively. Of the two percent who didn’t, half had a change of heart when they read the articles in the show catalog that explained the spiritual importance and meaning of the male and female objects, and thus realized that we had not presented an elaborate show of pornography.”
The dealer reported that sales were brisk. “Many customers left with not one or two of the amulets, but with collections of them,” she said. “Two of the most interesting sales were of a round sculpture that resembled a soccer ball enveloped in snakelike phalluses and of a phallic-tipped knife and similar sheath that fit together in the shape of a crocodile’s head †both its form and ritual function were fraught with meaning: in many cultures, knives are used traditionally to frighten away bad spirits.”
For show information, 310-455-2886 or www.caskeylees.com.
