Fabriquer Le Regard : Marchands, Réseaux Et Objets D'art Africains À L'aube Du Xxe Siècle

In the West, the aestheticising view of objects from elsewhere is neither neutral nor spontaneous. In the case of African art, this constructed view was forged in the early 20th century, in the context of a colonised Africa, through concrete and deliberate actions initiated by a small group of actors, led by Guillaume Apollinaire: avant-garde artists, critics, collectors and dealers.

Drawing on a largely unpublished archive, this book focuses on the role played by art dealers at the turn of the last century in defining, promoting and circulating African objects as works of art in Europe and the United States. This fabrication of the gaze was activated by a narrow circle of individuals who can be considered the main protagonists in the creation of the market for African art on both sides of the Atlantic before 1920: Joseph Brummer, Robert J. Coady, Marius de Zayas, Paul Guillaume and Charles Vignier. Through the selection of works they made, the exhibitions they organised and the books they published, they were largely responsible for the construction of the "canon" of African art, and influenced its perception in the West to this day.