Stylistic Analysis of African Art: A Reassessment of Olbrechts' "Belgian Method"

Abstract

In 1946, Frans M. Olbrechts, then-Director of Musee Royal du Belge in Tervuren near Brussels, published a monograph, Plastiek ian Kongo, which William Fagg has called the classical work on Belgian sculpture, and the most systematic work yet produced for any large field of African Originally written as an extended catalogue for an exhibition entitled Arts of Belgian Congo held in Festival Hall of Antwerp in 1937-38, Flemish edition was delayed by war until 1946, but since Flemish is read by so few scholars, far more devastating was fact that French translation by Gilles de Pelichy was not published until thirteen years later in 1959 after Olbrechts' death. As a result, his major contribution was little read and hence failed to have impact on African art scholarship that it deserves. Although obviously badly needed, an English translation sponsored by late Daryll Forde of International African Institute in 1966 was effectively blocked by various political, linguistic, and nationalistic forces in Belgium, culminating in definitive loss by publisher of negatives of indispensable plates, making any future publication prohibitively expensive. Housed in a disused Exhibition Building at end of a streetcar line outside Brussels, Musee Royal du Belge/Koninklijk Museum voor Belgische Kongo, in these post-colonial but still monarchist days euphemized to Royal Museum of Central Africa, was planned as a showcase of Belgian policy in Congo, now Zaire, whose flora, fauna, geology, geography, town planning, and industrial development were featured in admirable displays. With rise of interest in African art after World War I, Olbrechts was put in charge of developing exhibits of their incomparable collection of Central African art and material culture unequaled by any other museum on earth, least of all in Zaire itself. His independent and rational approach was soon exemplified in outstanding displays combining art with pertinent ceramics, basketry, tools, and details of geographical and cultural context, well lighted and captioned, and with ethnographic facts and maps readily available. Under Olbrechts' successors and disciples, notably Maesen, van Geluwe, and Bastin, Museum remains a major shrine of African art in Europe. This same strong anthropological approach provided rationale behind 1937 exhibition and its catalogue. The displays included historical materials of Belgian presence in Africa, and European painting and sculpture inspired by as well as traditional African art. Olbrechts' stated goal was (1) to bring to light important African art objects previously known only to private collectors; (2) to demonstrate full range of traditional styles in Congo; and (3) to show social as well as esthetic functions of art. Although he felt that he had largely achieved these goals, he regretted not being able to spend more research time on stylistic analysis, study and meticulous description of different style characteristics, function of work of art in its culture, [and] personality and technique of artists, topics most of which are treated here for first time, and which remain major issues facing discipline today. Characteristically, Olbrechts begins his discussion of African art with an enumeration of its general characteristics as exemplified in figures: (1) absence of realistic bodily proportions; (2) exaggeration of size of head; (3) frontality and vertical symmetry; (4) static poses; and (5) little use of color, and that only in areas of strong European contact. He points out that although masks can also be classified by regions of origin, their