Eastern Pende Mask

D.R. Congo Wood and rattan - 27 x 51 cm Provenance: Acquired from Willy Mestach in the early 1970s Ben Tursch collection, Brussels Panya ngombe mask Collection Tursch Born and bred in then Belgian Congo, Bernard "Ben" Tursch left for Belgium at age 18 to begin his studies at the ULB, where he graduated with a doctorate in chemistry. After a post-doctorate at Stanford and in Brazil as an assistant to Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the contraceptive pill, he returned to Brussels where he was initiated to African art by Jeff Vanderstraeten who would become his longtime mentor. With his friends Marc "Mac" Felix and Willy Mestach, Ben carefully collected his first important pieces at the time when the Sablon was a Mecca for the primitive art market. From 1969 to 1974, Ben made numerous trips to collect objects in Southeast Asia on board his boat. He spent many months scouring the islands of Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Marquesas Islands. In particular, he spent several months at Lake Sentani, where he made many dives. In 1974 Ben Tursch founded with Prof. Jean Bouillon a research station of the ULB in Papua New Guinea. Besides oceanographic research, this also allowed him to make many expeditions to collect objects in Papua New Guinea, notably by going up the Sepik and Ramu rivers. Ben returned to Belgium in 1981 where he took over a professorship at the ULB. During the following years, he never stopped making collecting trips to South-East Asia and as well as to West Africa.