Master of Buli

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Caryatid stool of the master von Buli in the Ethnological Museum Berlin.
Throne stool of the master von Buli or his school in the Linden Museum Stuttgart.

As a master of Buli , Buli master or Buli workshop , the creator (s) of a small number of sculptures and carved objects from the Luba culture , which are characterized by a characteristic style. These objects are among the most famous works of African art .

Origin of the name

Many African works of art that are now in ethnographic collections were collected on-site in Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries without detailed documentation. One of the consequences of this is that the name of the creator is only known for a few African objects from or before this time. In the 1930s, Frans Olbrechts from the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika in Tervuren tried for the first time to assign a small group of objects to a single artist. After the place where some of these objects were collected, it is given the emergency name Meister von Buli. Since it is still controversial today whether it was just one carver or several carvers in a workshop, the name Buli workshop is also common.

Description of the objects

As is typical for African art, the works are sculptures carved from a piece of wood or decorated everyday objects ( caryatid stools , vessels, headrests). The style of the master von Buli is characterized by particularly elongated shapes of the faces and hands. The master of Buli is mostly assigned to the Luba peoples, but is also influenced by the Hemba.

Importance in the art market

Objects by the master von Buli are rarely offered on the art market and are then among the most expensive objects in African art. The stool, acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1979 , set the then record for an African work of art. In 2010 another stool by the master von Buli was auctioned, its price of 4.8 million euros is currently the second highest auction price ever achieved for an African work of art (December 2010).

Works (selection)

Works that are assigned to the master of Buli can be found in the following collections:

Figure holding a jar

  • Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren
  • Private collection

Caryatid stool (carried by a crouching person)

Caryatid stool (carried by a standing person)

Caryatid stool (carried by two standing people)

headrest

  • Private collection

Standing figure

  • Ethnological Museum, Berlin
  • Collection of Drs. Daniel and Marian Malcolm
  • Private collection (legs of the figure not preserved)

literature

  • Claude-Henri Pirat: The Buli Master, Isolated Master or Atelier, Toward a Catalog Raisonné . In: Tribal Art Magazine . Paris / San Francisco, summer 1996, p. 54-77.
  • Claude-Henri Pirat: The Buli Master, A Review of the Case . In: Tribal Art Magazine . Paris / San Francisco, summer / autumn 2001, p. 82-95.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Mary Nooter Roberts & Allen F. Roberts: Luba , 5 Continents Editions, Milan 2007, ISBN 978-88-7439-297-1 .
  2. ↑ a b c Report at artdaily.com , accessed June 1, 2012 (in English).
  3. ↑ a b report at faz.net , accessed on October 29, 2012.
  4. ↑ Gustaaf Verswijver (Ed.): Masterpieces from Central Africa , Prestel, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7913-1683-4 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e Alisa LaGamma: Heroes - A New Look at the Art of Africa , Scheidegger & Spiess, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-85881-348-0 .
  6. ↑ Tom Phillips (Ed.): Africa: The Art of a Continent , Prestel, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-7913-1692-3 .
  7. ↑ Barbara Burn (ed.): Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and Bulfinch Press, Boston 1993, ISBN 0-87099-677-0 .
  8. ↑ Hermann Forkl: Linden-Museum Stuttgart, department leaders Africa , Linden-Museum Stuttgart., 1989
  9. ↑ Homepage of the Irma Stern Museum , accessed on February 1, 2016 (in English).
  10. ↑ a b Paola Ivanov, Peter Junge (ed.): Art from Africa: Plastic, Performance, Design , SMB-DuMont, Berlin and Cologne 2005, ISBN 978-3-8321-7662-4 .

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