Posted 11 years ago
austrohung…
(584 items)
This is our Anzengruber African woman playing drums. She lives “at the other house” on top of a red 50s kidney shaped table.
Unfortunately she's unsigned., and she lacks the bronze earrings other Anzengruber women have. In any case she's a beauty!
I've always wondered how this stuff became so fashionable in the 50s. I remember one of our neighbours had several African flat heads on her walls when I was a kid. Of course I liked them, perhaps because they were so exotic, and maybe that's what made this stuff popular in a post-war Europe: images that made them feel happy, images that were completely new, far from their own cultural references. If I remember well, it was in the 1950s when Leni Rieffenstal went to Africa and took all those amazing pictures of the Nubas.
beautiful !!! stunning !!!
Thanks vanskyock, manikin, vet, sean and aghcollect for loving it!!!
I am wondering how the Americans among you feel about this kind of figurines...
I would love to own just some of these stunners!! and your very welcome austro!!
Interesting isn't it Austro how we view things now that seemed OK when made. Here in Oz there is a very collectible range of black figurines and lamps made by a company called Barsony (check the out if you don't know them ...I think you would like them, and..George Barsony was a Hungarian immigrant), 50s and 60s, still great now but would probably not be acceptable if a current product. It's like all the indigenous motifs on pottery thru the 50s and 60s (Brownie Downing etc) probably considered disrespectful now, but indicative of a more "colonial" psyche maybe.
Having said all that I do really love this!
I love Barsony! :)
In Spain we've still got some chocolate-covered peanuts called Conguitos (http://www.conguitos.com/) that, against all odds, still use the image of African characters... they've been here forever, but I know visitors -specially from the US- get really shocked when find out about them ;)
By the way, in the 50s there was a huge fashion for Africa (that actually started with the 20th Century and had a peak moment with Art Deco): zebra skins, masks, etc... and it even had an big influence in the arts. probably these figurines were just the kitschest aspect of that fashion :)
In any case i must say I see nothing racist or colonialist about it... no more than a flamenco dancer figurine anyway :D