“This exhibition is the fruit of an encounter between the Galerie des Tuiliers and a man with a passion for art and culture, who lived and worked in Central Africa for some thirty years in important agro-industrial activities.
During this long period, and in contact with many old traditional chiefs from various regions, he developed a passion for tribal customs, ceremonies and stories, as well as for the practices and statues, masks and magico-religious works that had been their constant support for generations, and which bear witness to a multifaceted, in fact highly sophisticated, art that was discovered in stages by the West and the rest of the world from the mid-18th century until the 1950s.
An important collection was thus assembled over the years, some of which are presented in this exhibition as reminders of ancient works, set against contemporary works by young painters, descendants of the great sculptors and blacksmiths of yesteryear”.