Lot 278 Dα

Mareidi’s Museum, the ´Galerie Schwarz-Weiß ’ in Munich

Sometimes our destiny turns out very differently from our expectations. Mareidi Singer (before her 2nd marriage Mareidi Stoll) an accomplished interpreter of English and French would never have imagined that she might one day trade in African art instead of undertaking skilled language translations. And she would definitely have continued in this work had it not been for her husband, Gert, who had to travel to Africa for Krupp, the world-renowned steel corporation. That was in 1965 – and Mareidi enthusiastically travelled with her six-month-old daughter to join him.

And there, in Lagos, the family immediately discovered a passion for African art – and started to collect and collect … It was fortunate that all the Nigerians they came across spoke a few scraps of English – the language of figures and money is, after all, international!

Living in Lagos, the Stolls, on their many forays around and up country and through the outskirts of the big city, were able to discover and select items which attracted them. During their home leaves they visited experts and museums in Europe and the US thus learning more about African art and the secrets of Yoruba cults and religion. And as, by lucky chance, they were in the right place, they were able to transfer what they had learned into immediate action.

Sadly – a large part of Mareidi’s heart was left in Lagos – the happy sojourn ended too soon and in 1968 the Stolls had to return to Germany; first to Essen, the headquarters of the Krupp company, and later to Munich.

And, of course, they did not arrive empty-handed. In Essen they found a place to establish what they called ´The Galerie Schwarz-Weiß ’. But not much time passed and after three years they moved to Munich where in the Widenmayerstraße they found a large apartment which they soon transformed ingeniously into a comfortable home and museum of African art. There ´The Galerie Schwarz-Weiß ’for decades attracted African art lovers from around the world, happy to have found a highly specialized institution where they would learn about Africa and the Yoruba, and at the same time were able to acquire works of art of high quality and – given the fact that at that time no fakes of Yoruba art were around – from reliable sources.

The many ibeji twin figures in their gallery, some carved by famous Yoruba carvers, such as Olowe of Ise (1875-1936), inspired Mareidi Singer and Gert Stoll to write the ibeji book, Ibeji – Zwillingsfiguren der Yoruba (Ibeji – Twin Figures of the Yoruba), 1980, which would become the first comprehensive standard work on the subject.

Karl-Ferdinand Schaedler