Carton d'invitation pour l'exposition d'art nègre du 20 janvier au 20 février 1926 à la galerie d'art de la Grande Maison de Blanc

Rare and luxurious invitation card for the exhibition organized by art critic André Warnod on "art nègre," a term he coined in 1910 in the journal Comœdia to originally designate African and Oceanic statuary. From January 20 to February 20, 1926, four painters were invited to exhibit at the art gallery of the Grande Maison de Blanc, Place de l'Opéra in Paris. These were most likely the French artists Marguerite Guy-Lemm (née Lemaire) and Luc-Albert Moreau, the Uruguayan Pedro Figari, and the Dutchman Kees van Dongen.

Fine condition, light gray debossed lettering on soft dark gray paper, crease marks at upper right corner.

The "art nègre" theme that André Warnod explores through the works of the four artists in this exhibition likely reflected his own thinking on the topic, which he had set down in writing several years earlier:

“ [...] future generations will consider a work of art from the ancient Sudan an indisputable masterpiece, somewhat as the Venus de Milo, the Victory of Samothrace or the Mona Lisa are for us. We should also add that this archaic Negro art accords very well with the works of 'contemporary' artists, those of the avant-garde — possibly the classics of the future! When that time comes and possibly even before, Negro art may well be looked upon as a model for beginning artists. Greek art will be a thing of the past and will be considered a mistake that lasted for a few centuries.”

Comœdia, « Arts décoratifs et Curiosités artistiques », « L'art nègre », January 2, 1912

Through this analysis, Warnod introduced "art nègre" into the Western art world on his own terms. He envisioned it as an artistic form stripped of its ethnographic associations and poised to replace the classical Greco-Roman model. Several years later, Warnod put this thinking into practice with the present exhibition. At the Grande Maison de Blanc, he assembles painters schooled in Western traditions and presents his reconceived vision of "art nègre" as a pictorial movement, embodied in the canvases of Guy-Lemm, Moreau, Figari, and van Dongen—the latter having gone so far as to call himself a "white Negro" in 1910.

A handsome invitation card for Warnod's exhibition on (neo-)"art nègre," which the journal L'Europe nouvelle described as "most curious." Despite Warnod's efforts to establish his Westernized "art nègre" as a lasting movement, it will fail to gain a foothold in art history and will never achieve the "classical" status he envisioned. This invitation remains a rare witness to a singular artistic venture.