Yaëlle Biro 135 W. 122nd Street #3 New York, NY 10027

135 W. 122nd Street #3
New York, NY 10027
831 236 0801
[email protected]
Twitter @yaellebiro
Yaëlle Biro
EDUCATION
Oct. 2004 – July 2010 Ph.D. in Art History, University of Paris 1 – Sorbonne, France, Honors.
Dissertation title: “Transformation of African Ethnographic Objects into
Works of Art: Circulation, Commerce and Diffusion of African Arts in
Western Europe and the United States, 1900-1920”.
2001 – 2003
D.E.A. (Research Master) in Art History, specialization in African Arts,
University of Paris 1 – Sorbonne, France.
Thesis title: “Changes in Taste. New Genres of African Works of Art on the
French Art Market between 1950 and 1990”.
1997 – 2001
B.A. in Art History, Non-Western and Contemporary Art, African Arts
major, University of Paris 1 – Sorbonne, France.
Thesis title: “The Leopard in the Arts of Cameroon’s Grassfields Region”.
PROFESSIONAL AND ACADEMIC AWARDS
2013
2012 Outstanding Small Exhibition Prize by the Association of American
Museum Curators (AAMC) for African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde
2011
2011 Dissertation Award from the musée du Quai Branly, Paris (Prix de
thèse du musée du Quai Branly).
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Since July 2014
Associate Curator for the Arts of Africa. Department of the Arts of Africa,
Oceania and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Exhibitions:
- Curator: In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa,
August 2015-January 2016, South Modern Mezzanine Gallery. Curated
with Giulia Paoletti.
- Curator: The Aftermath of Conflict: Jo Ractliffe’s Photographs of Angola and South
Africa, August 2015-March 2016, North Modern Mezzanine Gallery.
Curated with Evelyn Owen.
Since July 2010
Assistant Curator for the Arts of Africa. Department of the Arts of Africa,
Oceania and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Exhibitions:
-
Coordinator: Warriors and Mothers: Epic Mbembe Art, December 2014September 2015, Gallery 359.
Co-Curator: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of the Best in the Arts
of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. October 7, 2013-October 5, 2014,
Gallery 359.
Curator: African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde, November 21, 2012September 2, 2013, Gallery 359.
Organizer: A Grassfields Chiefdom: Paul Gebauer’s Photographs of Kom (19311961), January 15, 2011-May 05, 2013, AAOA Mezzanine rotation.
Co-Curator: Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and
Contemporary Artists from Three Continents, March 8 – August 21 2011, LAW
Spine.
Active curatorial involvement: Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic
Sculptures, September 19, 2011- January, 29 2012, Gallery 199.
June 07 – June 2010
Research Assistant for the Arts of Africa. Department of the Arts of Africa,
Oceania and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Exhibitions:
- Active curatorial involvement: A Legacy of Collecting: African and Oceanic Art
from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva at The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
June 2009-September 2009, Gallery 359.
- Active curatorial involvement: The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design
Without End, September 2008-March 2009, Gallery 359.
- Assistant to the curator: Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Reliquary from
Central Africa, October 2007-March 2008, Gallery 199.
June 06 – May 2007
Graduate intern in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the
Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Dec. 06 – April 2007 Research consultant for Sotheby’s - New York, Arts of Africa and Oceania.
Feb. – Dec. 2006
Cataloguing of a private collection of African Arts, New Jersey.
November 2005
Research consultant at the Museum für Völkerkunde Dahlem-Berlin,
Germany, for the Metropolitan Museum of Art – Department of the Arts of
Africa, Oceania and the Americas, and for French anthropologist Louis
Perrois.
Feb. – July 2005
Adjunct professor at University of Marne la Vallée, France.
Undergraduate survey class, African Art History.
Oct. 04 – Jan. 2006
Correspondent for Tribal, the Magazine of Tribal Art.
Exhibitions and books reviews.
Oct. 03 – March 2004 Internship at Artfacts.net, an international on-line guide for galleries and
museums of modern and contemporary art, in Berlin, Germany.
Feb. – July 2002
Intern at Sotheby’s – Paris, in the department “Objets d’Art.” Work in
collaboration with the specialists directing the first “Tribal Art” sale held in
Paris by Sotheby’s.
Sept. – March 2001
Assistant to the curator of the exhibition “Diamants” at the Museum of
Natural History, Paris.
June – August 2000
Summer Internship Program at Sotheby’s – New York, in the “Old Masters,
Modern and Contemporary Prints” Department.
1998 – 2003
Customer service at Attica, largest bookshop specialized in foreign languages
publications, Paris, France.
CONFERENCES and LECTURES
October 2015
Independent Curator International, New York
Conversation with photographic artist Jo Ractliffe and Dr. Evelyn Owen, in
conjunction with the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
March 2015
Musée Picasso, Paris
Colloque International : Revoir Picasso
Invited Speaker: “« La racine de l’art moderne » : Exposer et juxtaposer
Picasso et les arts africains au début du 20ème siècle.”
January 2015
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Sunday at the Met: Cubism across Cultures and Continents: The Leonard A. Lauder
Collection and Masterpieces of the Met
Invited Speaker: “Shared Forms, Shared Histories: African Arts and
Cubism.”
January 2014
Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, Arkansas
Scholars Symposium: Alfred Stieglitz Collection
Invited Speaker: “Unexpected Trajectories: African Art in Alfred Stieglitz’s
Collection.”
October 2013
Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana
Inaugural Cornet Archives Lecture Series
Invited Lecturer: “Mining Archives: Contributions to African Art History.”
September 2013
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris
Colloquium Charles Ratton: L’invention des arts “primitifs”
Invited Speaker: “Trajectoires imaginaires des arts africains à l’aube du 20ème
siècle”.
February 2013
College Art Association, New York, NY
Art History Open Session: New Approaches to the Study of Historical Arts in
Africa
Invited Speaker: “Unraveling the Foundation of African Arts in New York
during the Modernist Era.”
November 2012
African Studies Association, Philadelphia, PA
Speaker: “Reconstructing History: African Arts Commercial Networks at the
Dawn of the 20th Century”.
July 2012
Festival de l’Histoire de l’Art, Fontainebleau, France
Invited Speaker, with Constantine Petridis: “Une collection d’art africain
méconnue: les arts du Congo à l’University of Pennsylvania Museum,
Philadelphie.”
March 2012
Princeton Art History Department, Princeton, New Jersey
Graduate Symposium: The End of the “-ist” and the Future of Art History.
Keynote speaker: “No culture is an island; no artist walks on air; no object walks
alone”.
March 2011
Triennial of the Art Council of the African Studies Association. Los Angeles, CA.
Panel Chair: “Historical Perspectives on the Market for African Arts”, with
presentations by Constantine Petridis, curator at the Cleveland Museum of
Art, Cleveland; Christraud Geary, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston; Kathryn Wisocki, Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Fine Arts, New
York; and myself.
Presenter: “Blurring the Boundaries: Joseph Brummer and the European
Trade of African Arts (1900s-1914)”.
October 2010
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
Invited lecturer: “Crossing boundaries: The Trade in African Art and
Commercial Practices at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”.
September 2010
Baltimore Museum of Art, Friends of the arts of Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Invited lecturer: “Selling African Arts, 1890-1915: A brief overview of
commercial practices at the turn of the 20th century”.
February 2009
College Art Association, Annual Conference. Los Angeles, California.
Poster Session: “Charles Sheeler’s Photographic Album of the John Quinn
Collection: A Window onto the African Art Market in New York before
1920”.
November 2008
African Studies Association Annual Conference. Chicago, IL
“Researching Collection History: a Perspective on African Arts' Emerging
Market in Commercial Art Galleries (1911-1918).”
PUBLICATIONS
2016 (forthcoming)
Transformation de l’objet ethnographique africain en objet d’art: Circulation, commerce et
diffusion des arts africains en Europe Occidentale et aux Etats-Unis, 1900-1920
(Working Title). Les Presses du Réel, Dijon.
2016 (forthcoming)
“Picasso et les maîtres: exposer et juxtaposer Picasso et les arts africains
(1913-1923).” Actes du Colloque International Revoir Picasso, Musée Picasso, Paris.
2015
“Engagement et Poésie: Tristan Tzara et les Arts Africains et Océaniens.”
Tristan Tzara : L’Homme Approximatif, Strasbourg : Musée d’Art Moderne de la
Ville de Strasbourg, pp. 215-225.
2015
“In and Out of the Studio: Photographic Portraits from West Africa,” with
Giulia Paoletti. Tribal Art, Brussels: Primedia, pp. 82-87.
2015
“African arts between curios, antiquities, and avant-garde at the Maison
Brummer, Paris (1908-1914).” Journal of Art Historiography, No. 12, June 2015,
pp. 1-15. 2014
“The Museum of Primitive Art in Africa at the Time of Independence.” In
The Nelson A. Rockefeller Vision: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Summer 2014.
2014 (online)
Spectrum Spotlight: Yaëlle Biro
http://met.org/1j3ASmt
2014 (online)
“What’s New: Gallery 351”. Now at the Met. New York : The Metropolitan
Museum of Art
http://metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/now-at-the-met/2014/whatsnew-gallery-351
2013
“Nelson A. Rockefeller: The Museum of Primitive Art and The Metropolitan
Museum of Art” with Alisa LaGamma, Eric Kjellgren, and Julie Jones. In
Tribal Art, fall 2013, XVII: 4, number 69, pp. 82-91.
2013
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde: Exhibition Preview,” in
African Arts, summer 2013, Volume 46, no. 2, pp. 88-97.
2013
“Avant Charles Ratton. Commerce et diffusion des arts africains des années
1900 aux années 1920.” Charles Ratton et l’invention des arts « primitifs », Paris:
Flammarion, 2013, pp. 42-57.
2013
“A Pioneering Collection at the Turn of the 20th Century: Acquiring
Congolese Art at the Penn Museum, Philadelphia” in Tribal Art, summer
2013, XVII-3, no. 68, pp. 100-117.
2012
Content editor. “African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde,” Tribal Art,
Special Issue #3.
2012
“African Art, New York, and the Avant-Garde: Exhibition Overview,” in
Tribal Art, Special Issue #3, p. 10-19.
2012
“From Africa to New York: History and Genres of African Works in the
United States during the 1910s and 20s” in Tribal Art, Special Issue #3, p. 2022.
2012
“The John Quinn Collection African Art and its Photographic Album by
Charles Sheeler” in Tribal Art, Special Issue #3, p. 44-49.
2012
“When, How, and Why Modern Art Came to New York,” in Tribal Art,
Special Issue #3, p. 64-71.
2012
“Art Africain.” In 1917, Exh. Cat., Claire Garnier, Ed. Metz: Centre
Pompidou-Metz, 2012, pp. 89-90.
2012
“A Grassfield’s Chiefdom: Paul Gebauer’s Photographs of Kom in the
exhibition Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures”, African Arts, vol.
45, no. 1, Spring 2012.
2011 (online)
“Tutsi Basketry”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tuts/hd_tuts.htm
2011 (online)
“Reconfiguring an African Icon: Odes to the Mask by Modern and
Contemporary Artists from Three Continents”. Now at the Met. New York :
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
http://www.metmuseum.org/now-at-themet/features/2011/07/07/reconfiguring-an-african-icon-odes-to-the-maskby-modern-and-contemporary-artists-from-three-continents.aspx
2011 (online)
“Une nuit à Covè”. Cotonou, Benin: Fondation Zinsou
http://fondationzinsou.blogspot.com/2011/09/une-nuit-cove.html
2009
“Charles Sheeler’s Photographic Album of the John Quinn Collection: A
Window onto the African Art Market in New York before 1920”. In Man
Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens. Wendy Grossman, Ed. Exh. Cat. The
Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., October 10, 2009-January 10, 2010.
Washington: International Arts & Artists, 2009, pp. 33-34; 57-59.
2009
“Charting the Lives of Objects,” in A Legacy of Collecting: African and Oceanic
Art from the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Exh. Cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, May 30September 27, 2009. Geneva: Barbier-Mueller Museum, 2009, pp. 22-29.
LANGUAGES
French: native
English: fluent
German: fluent
Italian: listening and reading skills