Dear friends,
Now that it is announced in public:
The Yale Art Gallery-van Rijn
Archive of African Art is a collaborative project based in Brussels. Currently,
a copy resides at the Yale University Art Gallery. Yale University has plans for
a future on-line version, when and how it will be accessible is, due to legal
issues such as copyrights, not yet known.
These files are unique.
Well over 100,000 photos have been scanned and stored with associated
provenance data. Circa 90% of all auction catalogues (World-wide) are scanned.
Many private files are incorporated; auction houses, dealers, collectors,
scholars and public institutions have contributed with photo material and
information. Each year a few scholars with specific expertise are hired to help
to reorganize a region/ethnic groups. For this year Dr. Hans Witte is working on
Yoruba, and Hans Hamers is working on African ceramics at large. Frederick Cloth
who is a computer wizard helped to build the technical expects of the database,
he is also an expert on brass covered reliquary figures.
Frederic Lamp, the Curator of the Yale University Art Gallery, has placed an
announcement on The Net:
"We are looking for images of brass-covered reliquary figures from Gabon
and Congo for a special project identifying the style and distribution of these
figures. This is a project conducted for the Yale University Art Gallery by Guy
van Rijn and Frederic Cloth in Brussels, for a digital image archive analyzing
stylistic components in relation to documented sites of appearance and
collection. Photos of objects in collections, as well as field photos of the
objects, would be very welcome."
Please send digital images with front and back views and all available data
to: guy.vanrijn@chello.be
For non-digital images, please send to:
Guy van Rijn .Van Rijn Documentation Centre.
Avenue de Broqueville 225
Woluwe-St. Lambert
Brussels 1200
Belgium
For many years I am a user and contributor of these files, during this time
Guy became a personal friend of mine, I would urge people to contribute to these
files (Many of my members do already). If you contribute with material, you will
always get an answer. It is not uncommon that collectors receive a nice surprise
if an old provenance or publication that was lost is recuperated. It is also
possible that your object could be a subject for a future exhibition. Names of
owners are kept confidential, and in case of a possible publication, you will be
first contacted if you want to.
David Norden
Read also Who's Who in
African Art and Yale & Hans
Witte
