Post #309595 by Cammo on Tue, May 29, 2007 12:46 PM

I've been tracking down the history of the Trocadero Museum, apparently the largest and oldest, and probably most influential collection of Primitiva and Oceanic art on Earth.

It's a really bizarre history, and somebody should do a real in-depth study of it, the more I find the crazier it all is. Anything anybody has to add to this, or if anybody has visited the place recently and taken pictures...!

Chronologically, then...

1500’s The King of France and various nobles collect “Cabinets of Curiosities”; strange objects collected from around the world by French explorers.

1840’s French colonialism in Africa and the South Seas is rampant. Many Tiki and Primitive artifacts are collected dating from 1790’s – 1820’s. These are taken mostly at gunpoint, as war booty, or simply lifted after an entire village has been burned to the ground.

In 1878, The Ethnographic Museum of Scientific Missions opens at the Universal Exposition in Paris, the 3rd French World Fair. This was the first pseudo-scientific institution dedicated to classifying and comparing tribal art specimens from around the world. Intent of the museum is to show how clearly primitive the peoples of Africa and Oceania are, and therefore how necessary French Colonization is. Emphasis is put on collecting bizarre, horrible monstrosities to shock the public. Tikis and scary African mask carvings form the center of the collection. The wild success of this exhibition led to a wing of the Palais du Trocadero becoming dedicated to “tribal art” from around the world.

This was, and the collection still is, the largest assembly of African and Oceanic art in the world.

1880 - Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro established.

1887 - Paul Gauguin tours the museum and his paintings begin to change. Not being able to take the museum objects home, he begins to collect African carvings. He is equally influenced, however, by Japanese art.

1891 - Gauguin sails to Tahiti.

1905 - the first painter of the modern era, Maurice de Vlaminck discovers Primitive art. Derain agrees; it was in his studio that Picasso and Matisse saw his white Ivorian mask and were both impressed and disturbed by it. Later that year Matisse sees a mask in Emile Heyman’s shop, and acquires it for fifty francs. He later shows it to Picasso and Appollinaire.

1906 - Matisse is owner of twenty pieces of African and Oceanic art.

1907 - Picasso visits the Trocadero. His is mesmerized and deeply disturbed by the art he finds. The Trocadero by now is damp, evil smelling, with poor displays and empty of visitors.

1907 – Picasso paints his first truly bizarre picture.

1931 - Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens established, for the ‘Colonial Exposure’ exposition. More Primitive art is collected as it becomes the most popular art in Paris.

1937 - Paul Rivet designs the Museum of Man for the new Paris World’s Fair. This inherits the Ethnographic department of the Trocadero.

As of May 3, 2003, the ethnological collections covering the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific close at the Museum of Man, much against the wishes of the directors. Also, the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens closes. All objects are now to be displayed in a new museum.

Opened in 2006; the Musée du quai Branly. A project led by French President Jacques Chirac, meant as a testament to his regime.

More to Come...