One of the oldest works in "Corps et âmes" ("Bodies and Souls") is also one of the most famous: Noire et Blanche, a 1926 photograph by Man Ray. The model, Kiki de Montparnasse, is lying down, her face stylized by make-up, her hair shiny and black, holding in one hand a small African mask, probably from Côte d'Ivoire, whose patina is as dark and shiny as her hair. The work was first published in Vogue under the title Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène ("Mother-of-pearl face and ebony mask") before the unfortunate allusion to ebony and thus to the slave trade was removed. The image is usually celebrated for its balanced composition and elegant eroticism. But it is also fair to see it as one of the icons of what was then called "Mode Nègre" ("Negro fashion") in Paris, which celebrated with the same ardor Josephine Baker, the French colonial empire and the grace of a statuary that was appreciated only for its aesthetic qualities, without any consideration of either its original meaning or the conditions of its displacement to Europe.

Depending on how you look at it, Noire et blanche is either a hymn to beauty or the sign of a tragic history. A few steps away from Man Ray hangs a beautifully crafted gilded bronze sculpture by American artist Sherrie Levine, entitled Body Mask. From a distance, it looks like the naked bust of a pregnant woman. But it is a fertility body mask specific to the Makonde people (Tanzania and Mozambique), a type of piece highly sought after by collectors. By converting the wood into luxurious bronze, Levine suggests that this ritual mask is nothing more than an expensive work of art. To be content with admiring its volumes and its material would be to miss the essential meaning of the piece.

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