This catalogue is part of Dalton Somaré Gallery’s research on classical African sculpture and ancient Indo-Buddhist art, and was presented on the occasion of BRAFA Art Fair 2020.
Texts: Dalton Somaré
Year: 2020
Format: 23 × 28.5 cm
Pages: 95, 25 colour images
Language: English
The value of beauty in art collecting
Collecting African and Asian art originates in the pursuit of beauty and in the dialogue between cultures, periods and visual languages.
When Carlo Monzino was asked about the underlying thread of his remarkable collection, which included pre-Columbian art, Cycladic sculpture, works byJackson Pollock, Francis Bacon and Lucio Fontana, Renaissance furniture and Flemish tapestries, his answer was as simple as it was revealing:
“I noticed that beautiful things go well together, and very beautiful things go very well together.”
This statement represents both a celebration of eclecticism and a profound reflection on the nature of collecting.
A humanistic approach to collecting
The idea that beauty can act as a unifying principle between works distant in time and space has guided Dalton Somaré Gallery for over twenty-five years.
Through travel, research and direct engagement with objects from different cultures, a key awareness emerges: no art is truly foreign and no art is ever simple.
Each work demands an attentive gaze, capable of moving beyond conventional categories and embracing the complexity of visual languages.
African and Asian art: universal languages
Whether expressed in the monumentality of African sculpture or in the conceptual refinement of Indo-Buddhist art, each work is the result of a complex intellectual process.
Ideas, values and worldviews are translated into material forms that speak their own language, initially perhaps unfamiliar, but progressively more accessible to those willing to engage with them.
The lesson of art
It is precisely in this process of understanding that the strength of art resides. African art, Asian art and the great artistic traditions of the world share the ability to push us beyond our perceptual and cultural limits.
Highlights thus stands as a catalogue reflecting a broad and inclusive vision of collecting, where aesthetic quality becomes the true criterion for dialogue between works, cultures and periods.
