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Pablo Picasso. Head of a Woman\/Fernande, 1909 and element of a reliquary, Fang style, Gabon, known as the \u00ab Brummer Head \u00bb, as published in Um\u011bleck\u00fd M\u011bs\u00ed\u010dn\u00edk, 1912\/1913, Vol. 2, No. 8, p. 200-201.<\/p><\/div>\n
++Due to the measures to contain COVID-19, all events of the Forum Kunst und Markt \/ Centre for Art Market Studies take place online in the summer term 2022.++
++Title, abstract and CV are always written in the respective language of presentation.++<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/strong>: The first two decades of the 20th century constitute a pivotal art historical moment for the reception of African arts in the West. It continues today to largely define the discourses constructed around African objects and their commercial appeal. This presentation will focus on the secondary market for African works, after their removal from their original context in Africa\u2014an often violent phenomenon that went hand in hand with the conceptualization of \u201cAfrican art\u201d in Europe. I will demonstrate that the definition, promotion, and circulation of African objects\u00a0as works of art<\/em>\u00a0was the result of deliberate, concrete actions instigated by a narrow circle of individuals, who may be considered the principal European protagonists of the creation of the market for African arts before 1920. The exhibitions they organized, the works they published, and the aesthetic judgments they advanced, all had a lasting impact on the works’ definition as “art,” the establishment of their market values, and on the construction of the canon of classical African arts as it is still known today. \u00a0<\/p>\n