—David Hine, “Strange Embrace”
MANDINGOHOOD
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After my father finally died, I was left alone in this mansion of gloom—its sole proprietor except for the large collection of antiques amassed by my insane father. He had been singularly obsessed like me with collecting and selling rare & expensive antiques to various & sundry well-to-do dilettantes and he himself kept a varied collection of valuable paintings and art objects in our mansion.
I was possessed and oppressed with the same addiction—it allowed no room for hesitation. I accordingly obeyed forthwith and plunged into collecting strange African carvings and masks hardly offering much cheerfulness to my so-called civilized society.
I’d always had this excessive and habitual rather peculiar sensibility for African art—beginning with Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.” The painting was originally titled “The Brothel of Avignon”—the models being young nude sailors. These nude sailors were gradually turned from being male prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyo (Avinyo Street)—into disconcerting, slightly menacing, angular and disjointed females with African mask-like faces.
I found Demoiselles so entrancing with its savage aura of Iberian danger and Primitivism that I plunged into collecting African and Tribal art unconsciously becoming possesed by such scandalous art. Knowing that the original models lurking beneath the surface of Demoiselles—were some young nude handsome sailor prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyo (Avinyo Street) simply made me even more obsessed with collecting African erotica.
Picasso, Matisse’s “Blue Nude,” Cezanne’s “Les Grandes Baigneuses,” Gauguin’s “Oviri,” El Greco’s “Opening of the Fifth Seal”—all of these European masters were just voyeurs of the Dinge Brothel of Africa, as far as I was concerned.
__________________
After my father finally died, I was left alone in this mansion of gloom—its sole proprietor except for the large collection of antiques amassed by my insane father. He had been singularly obsessed like me with collecting and selling rare & expensive antiques to various & sundry well-to-do dilettantes and he himself kept a varied collection of valuable paintings and art objects in our mansion.
I was possessed and oppressed with the same addiction—it allowed no room for hesitation. I accordingly obeyed forthwith and plunged into collecting strange African carvings and masks hardly offering much cheerfulness to my so-called civilized society.
I’d always had this excessive and habitual rather peculiar sensibility for African art—beginning with Picasso’s “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.” The painting was originally titled “The Brothel of Avignon”—the models being young nude sailors. These nude sailors were gradually turned from being male prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyo (Avinyo Street)—into disconcerting, slightly menacing, angular and disjointed females with African mask-like faces.
I found Demoiselles so entrancing with its savage aura of Iberian danger and Primitivism that I plunged into collecting African and Tribal art unconsciously becoming possesed by such scandalous art. Knowing that the original models lurking beneath the surface of Demoiselles—were some young nude handsome sailor prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d’Avinyo (Avinyo Street) simply made me even more obsessed with collecting African erotica.
Picasso, Matisse’s “Blue Nude,” Cezanne’s “Les Grandes Baigneuses,” Gauguin’s “Oviri,” El Greco’s “Opening of the Fifth Seal”—all of these European masters were just voyeurs of the Dinge Brothel of Africa, as far as I was concerned.
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