Magazines - Tribal Art Autumn 2011

By Alex Arthur, conceptor and art director for Tribal Art magazine.

Introduction
The Wereldmuseum in Rotterdam is 125 years old and has grown dynamically since its origin as the Royal Yacht Club of Prince Henry in the nineteenth century. In celebration of this anniversary, a group of 125 masterpieces has been selected from the museum’s holdings of over 100,000 ethnographic objects and works of art. The choice was made largely on aesthetic criteria by a committee of collectors and connoisseurs of non-Western art.
The selection is displayed in a sober and elegant manner in the richly toned Victorian-era galleries of the Wereldmuseum. Almost every object is given space and light of its own, and some of the larger objects are unprotected by glass. The sensation of being able to almost touch them is vivid. Some parts of the exhibition are enhanced by the photographic work of Frédéric Dehaen, with details and abstract views blown up as large-format display prints.
Although broad in scope and featuring classical and tribal art forms, the 125 Masterpieces show holds up across the board by virtue of the sheer quality of the works selected.