Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's Collection of Objects from Colonial Contexts

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Objects from Cameroon • Objekte aus Kamerun · Objets du Cameroun

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Cameroon was under German colonial power from 1884 until the beginning of the First World War in 1914. The Cameroonian objects from Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's collection are witnesses to this history of entanglement and its long shadows. The path of these objects to Europe is unknown; they may be loot from violent raids, so-called "punitive expeditions," but they may also have been exchanged, donated, or even produced and purchased for trade under the asymmetrical conditions of the colonial period. Almost all of the objects come from the Grassland region administered by royalty, where courtly art flourished. European enthusiasm for masks, figurines, and sumptuous utilitarian objects led King Njoya of Bamum to monopolize the art trade around 1930. King Njoya allowed to reproduce royal iconography for sale to foreign patrons.

The artistic traditions of the Grasslands region live on to this day, but the most significant historical pieces owned by the kings of Cameroon are in Europe and the U.S., especially Germany, and are part of restitution requests to German museums.