Newsletter no. 9

Perrin Fine Art

Dedicated to the arts for the past three generations, the Perrin family is one of the most acclaimed authorities in French 18th century fine art. From its prestigious showroom on the Faubourg Saint Honoré in Paris, the Galerie Perrin radiates 17th, 18th and early 19th century art onto the world. Indeed, Galerie Perrin has been participating in the Paris Biennale since it was launched, and each year exhibits at the TEFAF European Art Fair,in Maastricht as well as in New York, at the BRAFA in Brussels and Masterpiecs in London. Galerie Perrin exemplifies the goût français in its most refined and ultimate luxurious attributes, offering a new vision emphasizing pure and sleeker outlines, bringing together past and future, classicism and modernity. As a result of its praised choices and notorious expertise in serving official organizations, Galerie Perrin has repeatedly been cooperating with the most prominent institutions throughout the years. Its clientele includes the château of Versailles, the Museum of Marly and the Mobilier national in France, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu in the United States. Thus Galerie Perrin is the ultimate destination for distinguished and discerning collectors, worldly international interior designers and museum curators seeking rare objects and reliable guidance.

Galerie Flak

Galerie Flak is located 8 rue des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France. It was founded in 1990 by Edith and Roland Flak. The gallery specializes in ancient arts from Africa, Oceania & North America.

Julien Flak is a certified expert in ancient arts of North America and Oceania, a member of the European Chamber of Expert-Advisors in Fine Art and Syndicat National des Antiquaires.

This year marks the 3rd participation of the gallery at FAB Paris (Fine Arts Paris/ La Biennale). The gallery also participates in important art fairs around the world including Parcours des Mondes or Paris Tribal.

About the Artwork

Elongated features, a pure, stylized face, a gaze from eternity… Are we looking at an idol from the Cyclades, a prehistoric Venus of Lespugue, or an ancestor from Easter Island? The truth is elsewhere: this sculpture carved in marine ivory, patinated by the cold, the wind and the passage of time, comes from those vast frozen lands of the Far North. This head is exceptional for the cleanness of its lines, its size and the expressiveness of the features. It is over 2000 years of age and comes from the Bering Stait region in Alaska.

The tautly stretched facial features are reminiscent of the art of Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi or Henry Moore.

This archaic carving demonstrates immense sculptural presence. From an artistic standpoint, it is both beautifully haunting and mystical. The carving displays a deep power and psychological force about it.

Redolent of sacredness, this exceptional, large head from an immemorial past seems to stare at us with a gaze that is infinitely poetic and magnetic.

This sculpture is a veritable miniature giant.

The head presented here is carved in the partially fossilized tooth of a walrus. Walrus ivory was the most abundant material found on St. Lawrence Island and near the coasts around the Bering Strait. Walrus ivory survived well-preserved for many centuries not only because of its dense material quality but because Okvik / Old Bering Sea artifacts ended up buried in ice and permafrost, the permanently frozen soil of Arctic lands. Their long interment imparted a rich coloration with subtle variations and deep patina to the ivory as can be seen here.

Only a short distance off the coasts of Siberia, in the hostile milieu of the Far North, the first ancient Eskimo civilizations crossed the Bering Strait to establish themselves in Alaska around 2000 B.C. According to William Fitzhugh, from the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution and Bryan Just from the Princeton University Art Museum (see

« Gifts of the Ancestors, Ancient Ivories of Bering Sea », Princeton, 2009), the purpose of these enigmatic human figurines and heads remains unclear. Analogies drawn from the historic period suggest that perhaps they were made as dolls, for use in fertility ceremonies, or for calling upon the “masters” of game animals. Other ethnographic parallels recorded in the early 20th century demonstrate that human figurines could be used by their owners as personal “assistants” and “spiritual helpers” to capture prey or as “guardians” to safeguard humankind from those physical and spiritual dangers encountered in the landscape.

The literature also describes other apotropaic functions: protecting against disease, serving as birthing amulets, and acting as general household guardians and deities. On St. Lawrence Island (Sivuqaq), guardian spirits communicated with their human companions in dreams and advised them of specific ceremonial activities to avoid sickness or to bring the family success in hunting. In such cases, spiritual assistants seemingly provided their human masters with a means to actively intervene in the cosmos.

Among the historic Chukchi of Siberia, guardian spirits were also believed to be embodied in specific kinds of human and animal figurines. The ethnographic information, coupled with the figures’ remarkable beauty, suggest a complex and important role for human figures in ancient Bering Strait cultures.

Galerie Taménaga

Founded by Kiyoshi Taménaga in Tokyo in 1969, Galerie Taménaga subsequently opened two additional spaces in Osaka and Paris in 1971. In 2021, exactly fifty years after the inauguration of the Paris branch, a new gallery was established in the city of Kyoto.

Galerie Taménaga was the first Japanese art gallery specializing in Western masters. As such, its collection includes numerous masterpieces by Impressionist and modern masters such as Bonnard, Chagall, Derain, Dufy, Picasso, Redon, Renoir, Utrillo, van Dongen, and others. Today, the gallery continues its work of representation and advisory services for collectors. In parallel, the gallery is also dedicated to the discovery and support of contemporary artists, including established artists such as Chen Jiang-Hong, Takehiko Sugawara, Kyosuke Tchinaï, Tamihito Yoshikawa, as well as American artist Tom Christopher and Spanish artist Lorenzo Fernandez.

More recently, the gallery has been keen on showcasing the work of young Japanese talents. For some who have just graduated, their respective works are considered true revelations, positioning the gallery as a major advocate for the contemporary Japanese art scene.