User:Tribalartlover/sandbox

Jean-Baptiste Bacquart (born 1963) is an French art dealer, writer. He is the founder of Galerie Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, specialised in Tribal Art, participating in major international art fairs in Maastricht, Paris, and the United States. He is also the author of The Tribal Arts of Africa.

Life and career
Jean-Baptiste Bacquart was born in Paris (March 1963), the second of three sons, to French parents. He studied History of Art and Archaeology at both the Ecole du Louvre and the Université de Paris-Sorbonne, specialising in Roman and Middle Eastern Archaeology. He participated in excavation at Larsa, Irak, during the winter season 1987. There he worked on excavating ″house B59″, a primary example of Paleo-Babylonian private architecture. Additionally, he excavated at the Ras-Al-Jinz (Oman), under the auspices of C.N.R.S (Centre national de la Recherche Scientifique), during the winters of 1986 and 1987. This site is of key importance in demonstrating the links between the Indus and Mesopotamian civilisations at the advent of the second millennium B.C.E.

Following the award of his MA degree, he spent the two years (1988-1990) of his compulsory French military service as the Scientific Attache at the French Embassy in Rome. On either side of his military service, he worked at the Musee du Louvre in the Départment des Antiquites Orientales.

Toward the end of 1990, he was offered a position at Sotheby’s London, in the Islamic and Carpet department. In 1993 he was promoted to the Head of Tribal Arts. He held that position at Sotheby's, London until 2000.

At the end of 2000, his career entered a new phase in which he established himself as an independent Tribal Art dealer. Working principally from Paris, his gallery is located in the Saint Germain quarter, in a location previously occupied by Galerie 27, a prominent gallery dealing in Picasso prints and paintings.

He now participates in major international art fairs including TEFAF Showcase, (Maastricht, Holland), The Biennale des Antiquaires, (Paris, France) and Parcours des Mondes, (Paris) and advises international collectors and museums.

Whilst heading the Tribal Art department at Sotheby’s, London it became apparent to him that there was a gap in the market for a general book on African art. Toward the end of the 1990’s, he approached the London publishers, Thames and Hudson. He proposed writing such a book aimed at a wide general public and the connoisseur-collector alike. His idea was readily accepted and the result was The Tribal Arts of Africa, simultaneously published in English (Thames and Hudson) and in French (Assouline) in 1998.

The 240 page book contains over 850 illustrations and colour photographs, and has been reprinted twice (2002, 2010, representing 5 editions). The book has had worldwide sales of 40,000 copies in both hard and soft cover and is now widely acknowledged to be one of the key reference books on African tribal art.

It was described in The Sunday Times Book Review (November 15, 1998) as “… extremely detailed yet accessible.” According to Peter Uys ,″the book is a masterpiece…It is an indispensable reference source for the serious collector and a beautiful encyclopaedia for any art lover”

Key publications

 * The Tribal Arts of Africa- 1998 Thames & Hudson Ltd ISBN 978-0500018705
 * The Tribal Arts of Africa: Surveying Africa's Artistic Geography- 2002 Thames & Hudson Ltd ISBN 978-0500282311
 * L'Art Tribal d'Afrique Noire - 1998 Assouline ISBN 978-2843230783