Magazines - Tribal Art Spring 2010

Marnix Neerman interviewed by Alex Arthur

Introduction
African Faces is a large and ambitious project that has spared no expense or space to photograph and reproduce 123 African masks in sumptuous detail through more than 500 photos. Conceived to appeal to a wide audience of art lovers, Tribal Art asks Marnix Neerman, who conceived the project, to explain the book.

Q: How did you come up with the idea?
I made a book on the bronzes of José Vermeersch with the photographer Hugo Maertens and, while he was at my house, he took some photos of African masks in my possession. They turned out just great! In the eighties I made a major book on Jean Rustin together with Edward Lucie-Smith and we also focused on details, surface, and texture. This way of looking at African art led to a series of images that often stand out as autonomous artworks.
Wayne and Paul Thiebaud told me to look up Merton Simpson in New York, so I visited him at his home and showed him our first trials. In his words, “Nobody has looked at African art like that before.” His involvement in and contribution to collecting African art since the 1960s is legendary, so his encouragement pushed me to continue.