Collections - Tribal

“ Wave after wave has brought to our shores beautiful and mysterious treasures from unknown worlds: figurines, animals, fetishes, masks, ceremonial or useful objects.

“They are often called primitive for want of a better name.

“They are the most sincere and most unself-conscious art that ever was and ever will be. They are what remains of the childhood of humanity. They are plunges into the depths of the unconscious. However great the artist of today or tomorrow, he will never be as innocent as the primitive artist—strangely involved and detached at the same time.

“What could never have been written is there, all the dreams and anguishes of man. The hunger for food and sex and security, the terrors of night and death, the thirst for life and the hope for survival.”

Dominique de Menil, 1962*

Among the multifarious influences on modernism, tribal art is perhaps one of the most significant. Already deeply familiar with Cubism and Surrealism, the de Menils began to consider and acquire the art of primitive cultures. They delighted in its conceptual complexity and aesthetic elusiveness; the creative form and style as well as the incomprehensible mystery of these objects engaged them. The influence of tribal art on Surrealism in particular can be seen in “Surrealism & Witnesses.” A large part of this permanent installation—approximately 200 authentic and fabricated curiosities that inspired the Surrealists—consists of tribal art.

Exceptional among the Menil Collection’s holdings are examples of ancient Malian art, dating between the eleventh and nineteenth centuries. These perplexing works are distant in time, place, and sensibility from traditional African art. Also represented is a large selection of obscure Oceanic works. With its sacred Chinese and Malaysian themes, this art in particular nurtures the museum’s spiritual dimension. Both northern and southern styles of the Pacific Northwest coastal art also abound. From meticulously executed masks to daily essentials such as combs and bowls, the works are both practical and elegant, narrowing the boundary between art and life.

*Dominique de Menil, “Introduction,” The John and Dominque de Menil Collection (New York: The Museum of Primitive Art, 1962).