< Back DAN MASKS: GE GON The border between Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia cuts across several ethnic groups, including the Dan, Wee, Kran, and Grebo. In Dan society, dangerous immaterial forest spirits are translated into the forms of human face masks. Dan arts are notable for wood sculpture, including a huge variety of masks, each with unique forms and purposes. Dan masks are the most important art form of the Dan people. Artisan also produce traditional wooden spoons. Masks are the most important art form of the Dan people of Liberia. The Dan people refer to these masks as gle or ge, terms that refers both to the physical mask and the individual spirits the mask is believed to embody during masquerade performances. Whether or not they’re worn, such sculptured works are spiritually charged. This mask with its bird-like beak and oval eyes is known as Ge Gon. Originally pedagogical, historical, and regulatory, Ge Gon was described as a mask of wisdom. It has progressively become mostly used for entertainment purposes that appeals through its bird-like movements in performance. more details about this artwork

< Back CRUZ DE CARVALHO: CLASS III DESIGN Organically shaped desk with a rectangular tabletop, made of oak and walnut wood. Connected to the left-side table legs, a drawer block embellished by polished gilded brass handles stands out, including a reverse compartment. Designed by Cruz de Carvalho and produced for Altamira, this work is classified as a Class III / Luxury design, defined by Cruz de Carvalho’s design philosophy. Class III designs were characterized by the use of elaborate shapes and noble materials, classifying this office desk as a luxury design piece.
 more details about this artwork José Cruz de Carvalho (1930-2015) Portuguese designer Portuguese architect and designer Cruz de Carvalho applied a new artistic philosophy to Furniture Design with the main purpose of reshaping the industry, achieving international recognition for his innovation. Cruz de Carvalho created the renowned Altamira furniture brand in 1957, followed by his inauguration of Interforma a decade later, achieving national and international recognition in design production.
 The designer divided his works into three categories of Furniture design: utilitarian (class I), medium (class II) and luxury (class III). In 2003, José Cruz de Carvalho was given the career award by the Portuguese Center of Design (CPD), being nationally recognized for his work a designer.

< HOME OBJECTS & ART FAIRS ARCHEOLOGICAL VIEW NATURALIA VIEW ART FAIRS VIEW

< INFO CONTACT US First Name Last Name Email Subject Other Write a message Submit Your message has been delivered! We'll get back to you soon +351 935 167 270 GALERIA BESSA PEREIRA info@galeriabessapereira.com Business Hours 10h00 – 13h00; 14h30 – 19h00 Monday to Saturday Rua de São Bento 426 1200-822 Lisboa, Portugal

< HOME COLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS Learn more about our newest arrivals and highlights of our collection CERAMICS PRE-COLUMBIAN ART VIEW OFFICE DESK CRUZ DE CARVALHO VIEW CADEIRA DE TRÊS PÉS JOAQUIM TENREIRO VIEW VARÈSE SONIA DELAUNAY VIEW DAN GE GON MASK VIEW PAIR OF SIDE TABLES ADO CHALE VIEW

< HOME DECORATIVE ARTS DECORATIVE ARTS VIEW CERAMICS VIEW TRIBAL ART VIEW

< Back ADO CHALE'S ORGANIC DESIGNS Galeria Bessa Pereira presents an original pair of organic side tables by Ado Chale, from circa 1970, created with prime organic materials such as petrified sequoia, from a fossilized tree trunk the artist discovered during one of his travels to the Arizona desert. These cross sections were carefully sliced, enhancing its stunning patterns, then diamond polished, producing a couple of unique gleaming top surfaces in shades of vibrant rust with translucent grey clouds and burnt umbers, that contrast with the monochrome black lacquered steel in Chale’s iconic tripod bases. The importance of these artworks lies in their singularity, but most importantly in the representation of essential elements that defined Ado Chale’s production of late 1960s and 1970s, which is still relevant in the contemporary international Art Market. more details about this artwork Ado Chale (b. 1928) is an artist and designer of Belgian nationality, based in Brussels. Making his debut in the art world as a metalworker during the 1950s, Chale dedicated most of his work during this decade to the making of silver jewerly, also designing his first resin tables embedded with marcasite. Opening his first gallery in 1962, along with his spouse Huguette Schaal, in Rue de Livourne, Brussels, Ado Chale soon gained recognition for his work, taking part in the Pavilion of Europe at the Universal Exhibition in Montreal in 1967 and bringing the attention of international companies which would later acquire his artworks, as was the case of Brussels’ Hilton Hotel when ordering 25 marcasite mosaic tables from the artist, in the year of 1968. At the end of the 1960s, the artist dedicated his work to the search of gemstones, both precious and semi-precious stones, traveling to Arizona, India, France and Madagascar, amongst other places around the globe. Ado Chale’s production diversified and increased during the decade of 1970, in which he produced furniture designs best know for the use of organic materials and minerals such as fossilized sequoia, malachite and jade, but also their unique forms, textures and patterns. Chale’s work has been exhibited at the Ixelles Museum in Belgium, at the Palais des Papes in Avignon, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Nancy, at Seibu’s Museum in Tokyo, Japan, and most recently at the Parisian Galerie Yves Gastou in 2002. Ado Chale' s Atelier in Brussels, Belgium

< Back SONIA DELAUNAY'S COLLABORATION WITH ARTCURIAL Titled Varèse after Edgar Varèse (Paris, 1883- New York, 1965), this tapestry refers directly to the invention of simultanism in Music, founded by the cited composer, who bounded with visual artists of the early 20th century art movements. At the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Kandinsky-Archives preserve correspondence proving the friendship between Varèse and the Delaunay couple, who developed simultanism in plastic arts. According to Varèse, rhythm is the result of matter, energy and force, and is caused by the interaction of several independent and irregular levels. Sonia Delaunay applied in her artwork Varèse’s musical theory about how rhythm is based on the idea that sound objects are subject to physical forces of attraction and repulsion in space. This particular piece is a remarkable example of Delaunay’s simultanism, showing how some colors might seem like a different color when juxtaposed and revealing through the use of contrasting and discordant palettes how these combinations of colors create an impression of movement. more details about this artwork Sonia Delaunay (1885-1979) Ukrainian-born French artist "For me there is no gap between my painting and my so-called 'decorative' work. I never considered the 'minor arts' to be artistically frustrating; on the contrary, it was an extension of my art." Sonia Delaunay Born in 1885 to a family with few resources, Sonia Delaunay-Terk survived both world wars, and died at the age of 94 in Paris in the year of 1979. Her artistic formation was completed in Russia and Germany, before moving to France in the year of 1905, where her artistic production was influence by the Post-Impressionist and Fauvist art movements. Delaunay was co-founder of the french avant-garde movement Orphism, alongside her husband Robert Delaunay (1885-1941), and experimented with many other artistic styles, developing a theory of color based on scientific research known as simultanism, which she then applied to her work. Pioneer figure of abstract painting, Sonia Delaunay tried to overcome the barriers between the Arts, merging Life and Art in her works. Being a prominent figure in the 20th century art world, Sonia Delaunay became the first female artist to have a retrospective exhibition in the Louvre (1964) during her life-time. Sonia Delaunay, mostly known as a painter, was also a stylist and decorator, amongst other things, applying Orphism’s principles to artistic fields such as textile design, scenography and fashion, as well as jewerly and ceramic decoration. In addition to her paintings, Delaunay designed theatre scenery and costumes for Serge Diaghilev, collaborated in the fashion industry with Coco Chanel and Blaise Cendrars during the 1920s, and pursued a series of edition projects in France and the United States in the 1930s. In the decade of 1970, Sonia Delaunay initiated a collaboration with the French art gallery Artcurial , developing a range of textiles, table wear and jewelry inspired in the central themes of her pictorial work during the 1920s, transforming day-to-day objects and fashion accessories into artworks in its own right. Sonia Delaunay (right) and two friends in Robert Delaunay’s studio, Rue des Grands-Augustins, Paris, 1924. Artcurial Artcurial was inaugurated in June of 1975 by François Dalle, then chief of L’Oréal, in 9 Avenue Matignon, functioning as an art gallery and specialized bookstore, mainly as a publisher of multiples. Between the years of 1975 and 2002, when it was sold, Artcurial published works of 70 artists, including Armand, Sonia Delaunay, Giorgio de Chirico, Marino di Teana, Takis and François-Xavier Lalanne. Inspired in an original concept regarding the development of plastic arts under the form of artistic objects referred to as multiples, Artcurial’s founding ideas came from Guy Landon, a L’Oréal employee since 1953, who aspired to launch a project in the Contemporary Art field. In its twenty-five years of activity, over a thousand creations were produced with the collaboration of renowned contemporary artists — varying from sculptures, engravings, carpets and furniture to porcelain and jewerly— and offered to a wide public, who had been left out by traditional galleries. Simultaneously, Artcurial accommodated important retrospective exhibitions, allowing the public to perceive fine arts in a more intimate environment than institutional museums could provide. Achieving such a coherent project, Artcurial became well known for its original approach to reaching the vast public, who was quickly persuaded by the gallery’s way of “giving life to art”, as put by Sonia Delaunay, one of the first female artists to collaborate with Artcurial.

< HOME +351 935 167 270 GALERIA BESSA PEREIRA info@galeriabessapereira.com Business Hours 10h00 – 13h00; 14h30 – 19h00 Monday to Saturday Rua de São Bento 426 1200-822 Lisboa, Portugal NEWSLETTER LATEST ISSUE SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER We'd love to keep in touch! FILL OUT A CONTACT FORM

< HOME FINE ARTS Painting, Sculpture, Installation and Drawings CONTEMPORARY ART VIEW MODERN ART VIEW OLD MASTERS VIEW