1913-1923 : L'esprit du temps

Set in a gallery conducive to contemplation, the exhibition focuses on narrative: letters, archives, period photographs, and sculptures interact to retrace, step by step, the journey that brought Oceanian masks and figures to the heart of the Parisian avant-gardes. We follow the Montparnasse scene, home to Derain, Vlaminck, Matisse, and Picasso, to the showcases and salons of the Right Bank, and glimpse through documents and images the intense curiosity that transformed creators’ and collectors’ perspectives. Rather than simply displaying masterpieces, the route highlights key players and pivotal moments: dealers and gallerists like Joseph Brummer, Paul Guillaume, or Charles Vignier, as well as poets and artists Apollinaire, Picasso, and Matisse, who contributed to this shift. Founding events are also reconstructed, such as the First Exhibition of Negro and Oceanian Art (Devambez Gallery, May 1919) and the institutional loan at the Marsan Pavilion, marking the transition from the private market to museum consecration. The path also evokes lenders and interlocutors of the era—André Level, Georges Menier, Léonce Rosenberg, Jacques Doucet, Henri Clouzot—whose collective action reshaped the landscape of collections. For visitors who enjoy exhibitions that tell a story, this “1913-1923” offers a documented and sensory immersion: archival images restore the atmosphere of workshops and galleries, while carefully presented sculptures and objects testify to the formal strength and captivating power that, a century ago, shifted Western taste. It’s an invitation to see classics in a new light and to extend the visit through the museum’s permanent collection; the Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Gallery is ideally located for composing an afternoon or cultural evening (late opening Thursday).

This section elegantly and precisely recreates the moment when African forms entered the visual field of avant-garde artists. Through objects, studio photographs, and period documents, one measures how these sculptures, statuettes, masks, and figures were observed, collected, and reinterpreted on easels and in studios. The route recalls that Picasso likely acquired his first objects from Émile Heymann, a dealer on rue de Rennes, and that Matisse owned a Vili statuette from Congo as early as 1906, which he incorporated into one of his paintings: tangible traces of this exchange. Rather than just lining up pieces, the scenography juxtaposes artworks and sources—sketchbooks, letters, photographs—that narrate the artists' gesture and attention. For the visitor, it's a rare pleasure: to see in one place the forms that inspired now-iconic paintings and to understand, step by step, the genealogy of a new taste. An ideal introduction for those who wish to then follow these objects' trajectory to the Right Bank and Parisian galleries.

The meteoric rise of a visionary dealer Nothing predestined Paul Guillaume for his career as an art dealer. A clerk at a tire dealer on Avenue de la Grande Armée, he decorated the shop windows with African statuettes sent by rubber producers. Apollinaire noticed them and, charmed by the young man, introduced him in 1912 to Joseph Brummer. Guillaume supplied him with sculptures from Gabon and Ivory Coast, acquired through classified ads in colonial magazines. That same year, he founded the Society of Black Art and Archaeology, then opened a gallery in 1914 on Rue de Miromesnil. 63 Copies of Sculptures Nègres, a work published by Guillaume and Apollinaire in 1917 His rise was meteoric. He provided about twenty works to the Gallery 291 in New York, run by Alfred Stieglitz and Marius de Zayas, for the first exhibition devoted exclusively to classical African arts. In 1916, the Lyre et Palette association hosted a landmark exhibition in a sweltering Montparnasse studio: avant-garde paintings and African and Oceanian sculptures were presented for their artistic value. All of Paris flocked there to the sounds of Erik Satie’s melodies and Jean Cocteau’s poems. In 1917, Guillaume and Apollinaire published Sculptures Nègres, composed of twenty-four photographic plates. The following year the magazine Les Arts à Paris was born, spreading the discourse about these arts beyond the circle of insiders. D'mba mask, Baga, Guinea, 19th century, Wood (Afzelia africana), inv. 71.1902.38.1, Gift of Paul Brocard The d'mba shoulder mask is among the most spectacular sculptural forms of African art. This monumental mask, worn over the shoulders by a dancer whose body was concealed beneath a voluminous skirt of plant fibers, represents a female figure with generous breasts, embodying the Baga ideal of femininity: physical beauty, fertility, and measured behavior. The majestic dance of the d'mba mask made it a true village ambassador, invoked to attract blessings and abundance during community ceremonies. The ancient d'mba masks, extremely rare since their disappearance in the 1950s under Sékou Touré's regime, are among the icons of classical African art. Only about fifteen ancient examples are counted in public and private collections worldwide. The one at the Musée du quai Branly, chosen for the exhibition poster, testifies to the plastic power of these creations which deeply influenced avant-garde artists.

From the private market to institutional recognition From May 10 to 31, 1919, Paul Guillaume organized at Galerie Devambez, 43 Boulevard Malesherbes, the First Exhibition of Black Art and Oceanic Art. One hundred and forty-seven works were displayed, including about twenty from Oceania. Most belonged to Guillaume, but the circle of lenders had widened: André Level, musician Georges Menier, gallery owner Léonce Rosenberg, and Jacques Doucet. Henri Clouzot and Level signed the catalogue and published the same year Black Art and Oceanic Art, a two-hundred-page book illustrated with forty plates. Interest grew in the United States. In 1923, Guillaume sold about thirty objects to American collector Albert Barnes. That same year, the curator of the Museum of Decorative Arts, Louis Metman, organized at the Pavillon de Marsan of the Louvre the exhibition Indigenous Art from the French Colonies and the Belgian Congo. André Level was the commissioner. 1,450 Pieces gathered at the Pavillon de Marsan in 1923, the event was extended by one month One thousand four hundred and fifty pieces from forty-six private lenders and six public lenders were gathered. The success was such that the event, scheduled from November 9 to December 30, was extended by a month. "1913-1923: The Spirit of the Times" at the Musée du quai Branly, Jacques Chirac highlights the dual perspective, aesthetic and ethnographic, applied to these objects at the threshold of a profound transformation of the art market. Kota reliquary guardian statue, Gabon, 19th century, Wood, copper, brass, iron, Former Paul Guillaume collection, Gift of Domenica Walter-Guillaume