African Art in Polish Collections

Fülszöveg

Wat'law Korabiewicz is that rare speeliiieii ulio explores tlie lands and seas íor tiie editieation ot liis thirst for línowledne about man, his life, customs and art. liefore the uar, he first attracted attention by travelling to Indíái^in a canoe in order to collect material about the sculptures found on the river raits on the Indus Itiver. IJnt'ortunately, the entire edition oi the book was destroyed by lire on September 1, 19;íí). Dr. Korabie-wicz's war experiences bejjan with thel torpedoiufl oi the S.S. "rilsnd-ski," on whicii the author was serving as a doctor. Later in (íreat Itritain, Dr. Korabiewicz (»rtjani/ed aid íor I*o!ish prisoners of war in-terniMl in \azi camps, lie left tireat Britain for Brazil and linally in 1;M3 landed in Africa. Here in 19i(i, Dr. Koral)ievvicz be}|an to work with the Kiny (ieoryeV Alemorial Museum oi Dar es Salaam of Tanganyika and to collect museum pieces in the area oi East Atrica. In 1947 Dr. Korabiewicz established contact with the... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Wat'law Korabiewicz is that rare speeliiieii ulio explores tlie lands and seas íor tiie editieation ot liis thirst for línowledne about man, his life, customs and art. liefore the uar, he first attracted attention by travelling to Indíái^in a canoe in order to collect material about the sculptures found on the river raits on the Indus Itiver. IJnt'ortunately, the entire edition oi the book was destroyed by lire on September 1, 19;íí). Dr. Korabie-wicz's war experiences bejjan with thel torpedoiufl oi the S.S. "rilsnd-ski," on whicii the author was serving as a doctor. Later in (íreat Itritain, Dr. Korabiewicz (»rtjani/ed aid íor I*o!ish prisoners of war in-terniMl in \azi camps, lie left tireat Britain for Brazil and linally in 1;M3 landed in Africa. Here in 19i(i, Dr. Koral)ievvicz be}|an to work with the Kiny (ieoryeV Alemorial Museum oi Dar es Salaam of Tanganyika and to collect museum pieces in the area oi East Atrica. In 1947 Dr. Korabiewicz established contact with the Mnseum of Folk Cultures in Poland (now the State Ethnoj|rapiiic Museum) and the Museum of iVatural History in i\ew York.
Sincc 1953 he has devoted himseli exclusively to ethnographic work for the Warsaw Museum. He devotes his whole income from the practice of medicine to the expeditions, for search, purchase and transport of African objects of art and culture to I'oland. In the course of the past twenty-one years, Dr. Korabiewicz has explored (iliana, the Republic of the Upper Volta, the Republic of Mali, Mger, MgeriajTogo, Dahomey, Cameroon and Ethiopia.
Dr. Korabicwicz is known to the Polish reader tlirouqli his travel boolis ("Matto Grosso," "Kwaheri^" "Midiiuo," "To llie Minarets by Canoe" and others) in wJiieh he describes liis adventures in exolie countries. "Airiean Art" is a neu liind oi achievement ior the autlior. The present worli is written in an informal style and with a rather subjective approach to African culture, a luxury which a man conversant with so many of the mysteries of Black Africa, can allow himself. Dr. Waclaw Korabicwicz is not a scholar in the sense that he has not written a deep and scientilic treatise based on a biblioyraphy of African studies, ilc has conveyed in this short album a few private thoughts and impressions of African art which he knows at lirst hand us an amateur collector.
The group of works of art collected under the title "African Art" is organized aecordiuf) to catecjorics rather than according to tribe or region. The reason for this was the material available aiul the conclusion that it would be jnost expedient to arrange the illustrations according to the chissilication of tlie objects as determined by traditicm. These two factors lie at the basis of the rise of Negro art and constitute the common denominator in tlie art of all Africa.
The album contains only objects from the I'olish collection and we hope that this will introduce an original and fresh approach to the subject.
The present album does not pretend to show all the aspects of African art, nor to give an analysis of the art of separate regions. Our aim in publishing this volume was to introduce the reader to a new iield and to draw his attention to it. if we have succeeded to do this then the book has accomplished its purpose. Vissza