Art For Sale Archive - Page 33 of 49 - Oceanic Arts Australia

A Superb Old New Guinea Bowl Tami or Siassi Island Huon Gulf Morobe Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Bowl Tami or Siassi Island Huon Gulf Morobe Province Papua New Guinea

This monumental size Food Bowl is from Tami or Siassi Island in the Huon Gulf Area of Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea. Carved from a single large piece of hardwood in a deep oval-shaped bowl. The outside of the bowl is finely carved with high relief a prominent ancestor’s face at either end of the bowl. The other designs are stylised birds & fish carved in high relief and highlighted with a white lime infill into the design. These old bowls are family heirlooms that are kept through generations and used on ceremonial occasions. Important old bowls are also used in traditional dowry payments made by a young man’s family. This old bowl dates from the early 20th Century.

Tami bowls were carved from a type of hardwood known as kwila. The process of hand-hollowing was a long and tedious process considering that nearby islands had mastered the much-expedited process of hollowing with fire. The incredible hardwood used for Tami-style bowls also made working with traditional Papua New Guinean tools like stone or shell adzes and animal teeth all the more difficult.

Designs were chosen with great care. Especially before production moved from Tami to Siassi, each bowl was marked by a design serving as kinship group’s trademark. To copy the design of another carver was enough to start a feud, and it was often avoided. This is one of the reasons why the region’s bowl production was localised on Tami Island for as long as it was. The anthropomorphic figure seen wearing a three-peaked headdress at opposite ends of the bowl pictured upside-down is a benevolent spirit called a balum and may come from the mainland New Guinea folk adjacent to Tami Island. Crocodiles which for the Tami were also representative of powerful spirits feature heavily. Generally, designs without anthropomorphic faces have pairs of either stylized crocodiles or lizards somewhere along their sides.

Provenance: Collected in 1920s by Dr Edwin Archibald Holland who was in New from 1927 to 1933.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

I first went to Papua New Guinea in 1985 for an adventure & what I found was that I really enjoyed being with the people of New Guinea, over the next 38 years I spent extensive time spent collecting and documenting traditional art & ceremonies in remote areas of Papua New Guinea & West Papua, The Solomon Islands & Vanuatu & the other Pacific Islands countries. During these travels, I made major collections of New Guinea & Oceanic Art for major Museums and Public Art Galleries

I was honoured by being in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine for the collections I made for The Museum of African & Oceanic Art Paris in 1996 (now the Musee Quai Branly) for the exhibition “Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

I have artwork for Museums & Art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specialises in New Guinea & Oceanic Art. Sydney is just a couple hours’ flight to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbours.

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If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Old New Guinea Food Pounder Coastal Sepik River Area Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Food Pounder Coastal Sepik River Area Papua New Guinea from 19th to early 20th Century

This superb old Food Pounder is from the Coastal Sepik Area or Schouten Islands and it was used for smashing taro root into a pudding. The finely carved finial is in the form of an important clan male ancestor with a possum or cuscus on his head. People in New Guinea made very beautiful daily-use objects like this food pounder that were always a reminder of their powerful clan ancestors.

Carved from a single piece of hardwood and it has a deep dark patina from years of use and from being stored in a smokey house. Old pounders like this one were family heirlooms passed down through generations.

Provenance: The Dr Peter Elliot Collection Sydney Australia ( 1927-2014) Dr Elliot was a great collector of Oceanic Art and Indonesian among a large collection of Australian Indigenous & non-indigenous fine art. Parts of his collection are now in major public collections around Australia and around the world.

The Todd Barlin Collection of Papua New Guinea and Oceanic Art

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Old New Guinea Abelam Spirit Figure East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Abelam Ngwallndu Spirit Figure, Sepik Plains East Sepik Papua New Guinea

This Monumental Abelam Spirit Figure is one of the finest Abelam Sculptures I have ever seen.

These large sculptures, mainly depict the all-powerful ngwallndu spirits and in this case, a birdman-form spirit figure.

Abelam spirit houses are as distinctive as their art. From the air, they are said to represent a bird resting on the ground because the Abelam believe their founding ancestor was a bird. They are tall A-frame buildings (up to 80 feet /24 meters high) with sweeping wings and a sharp drop from the front to the back, or from the head to the tail of the bird.

When seen by the initiates for the first time inside the sacred men’s house the Spirit Figures should shimmer with spiritual energy, the ochre painting on the figures is a very important part of Abelam’s Art. This is the original ochre paintwork when it was collected in the village setting in the 1960s. The Bird Man figure with an extended belly and head is surmounted by an ancestor figure laying horizontally & on the opposite side of an ancestor’s head, there are other totemic animals present in this sculpture; a bird, and a snake.

Provence: Collected in the 1960s by Dr Fred Gerrits.

Gerrits was born in 1933 in Bandung, in Indonesia. After graduating with a degree in medicine in Holland, he settled in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s, where he met his future wife Nel. As of 1964, the Gerrits worked in various hospitals in New Guinea until Fred was appointed as the Tuberculosis and Leprosy Control Officer for the provinces of West and East Sepik, with a base in Maprik at the foot of the Prince Alexander Mountains. Gerrits collection is featured in major museum collections around the world.

Provence: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Old New Guinea Asmat Canoe Prow Ornament West Papua Irian Jaya Indonesia

A Superb Old New Guinea Asmat Canoe Prow Ornament from the South Coast of West Papua (Irian Jaya) Indonesia

This very fine Asmat Sculpture was once on the front of a large war canoe that held about 20 to 25 warriors standing up and paddling. The canoe & canoe prow ornament were caved from a single large tree. The Asmat relation to trees is part of their creation mythology where the creator Fumeripitsj carved the first Asmat people from a tree & brought them to life by playing his drum.

The main figure in this fine sculpture is a highly abstracted figure of a bird, likely a black Cockatoo which is an important Asmat symbol associated with ritual headhunting in their past. The canoe prow can be viewed in either position either as a vertical or horizontal sculpture, my photos show both views.

Michael Clark Rockefeller who was collecting Asmat Art and was presumed dead there in November 1961 was when the world became aware of the Asmat People & their art. The artworks he collected are still beautifully displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

This amazing canoe ornament I field collected in the remote Northwest Asmat area in 1985. I was told that it belonged to the grandfather of the owner going back probably to the 1940s or 1950s, it was kept as a family heirloom.

This Canoe Prow along with other artworks was collected by Todd Barlin over a 2-year period from 1985-1986, most of these artworks are now in major museum collections around the world including The Musee du Quai Branly Museum in Paris. When you walk into the Oceanic Art Pavilion the first thing you see are monumental Ancestor Poles from the Asmat & Mimika along with a Soul Boat, Shields, and Dance Costumes from the Asmat & Mimika, all of those artworks were collected by me at the same time as this Canoe Prow. Above are two photos from the groundbreaking exhibition “The Asmat & Mimika” at the National Museum of African & Oceanic Art in Paris now part of The Musee du Quai Branly Museum.

Provenance: Collected by Todd Barlin and later sold to Peter Hallinan and it was part of his world-famous collection displayed in his home on the Gold Coast in Queensland Australia.

The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

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If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Fine Old New Guinea Asmat Ancestor Figure West Papua Irian Jaya

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A Fine Old New Guinea Asmat Ancestor Figure West Papua Irian Jaya

This beautifully carved Maternity Figure is from the Asmat People on the South Coast of West Papua Indonesia. Likely carved in the 1950s-1960s period, it shows the great artistic skills of Asmat Master Cavers or Wow Ipits in the Asmat Language. The standing female figure with her hands raised towards her chin is a common Asmat theme. The baby holding onto the back of her mother with her arms holding the mother’s shoulders and the legs wrapped around her waist.

The main Asmat creation myth is about the creator Fumeripitjs who was lonely so he carved figures from wood and then he made a drum, when he played the drum the carved wood figures came to life and that is how the first Asmat people were created.

I spent a lot of time in the Asmat region in the early 1980s and Ancestor Figures of this quality in the Coastal and Northwest Asmat Areas were rare. Many of the artworks I field collected then are now in major museum collections around the world including The Musee du Quai Branly Museum in Paris, when you walk into the Oceanic Art Pavilion at The Musee du Quai Branly the first thing you see is the monumental Ancestor Poles from the Asmat & Mimika along with Dance Costumes Shields and large Soul Canoe , all of these were field collected by me. Originally they were in an exhibition ” Asmat et Mimika at The National Museum of African and Oceanic Art in 1996 (now that museum is part of The Musee du Quai Branly). The exhibition the Asmat and Mimika in 1996 was published in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine see the link below and a photo of the exhibition above.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea & Oceanic Art. Sydney is just a couple hours’ flight to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Pair of New Guinea Carved Portrait Heads Middle Sepik River East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Pair of New Guinea Carved Portrait Heads Middle Sepik River East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

This Pair of finely carved and ochre-painted Ancestor Portrait Heads are from the Iatmul People in the Middle Sepik River Area, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea

These Ancestor Heads are so sensitively rendered as if they are portraits of real people that the artist knew. Depicting a male & female ancestor, they are each carved from a single piece of hardwood and decorated with real human hair and caved wood ear ornaments that look like real shells, the eyes have inset shells, and the ear lobes have shell earrings, finely painted in red, white & black ochre.

The base of these heads are socketed so that they could have been placed on a larger figurative sculpture as is common in the Middle Sepik area. Sometimes these wood heads were replacements for older over-modeled skulls of deceased relatives that were part of the ancient ceremonies of ancestor worship.

Tribes along the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea practiced a unique form of ancestor skull worship. Taking clay and mud from the riverbed, they would coat the skulls, giving them a new skin. In some cases, the ancestor’s head was mounted atop a carved figure, giving a “body” to the ancestor.

These earthy vestiges of the past were then painted, traced with designs, and decorated with wood, bone, fiber, real human hair, fur, and shells. When decorating the skull, it was believed that the spirit and vitality of the deceased would channel through the head, and help advise living descendants and imbue them with power.

Provenance: Collected in 1958 by an Australian Colonial Patrol Officer & The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

I was honored by being in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine for the collections I made for The Museum of African & Oceanic Art Paris in 1996 (now the Musee Quai Branly) for the exhibition “Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Old New Guinea Massim Canoe Splash Board Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea

See more Canoe Ornaments from Canoe Ornaments Gallery

A Superb Old New Guinea Massim Canoe Splash Board Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea

This is a superb Massim Canoe Splash Board from the Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea. Old & well-used this was once on the front of a large ocean-going canoe that was used for trading and was part of the complex Kula trading circle that built lifetime trading partners & commitments between a large group of small islands in the Milne Bay Province and sometimes further.

The main design elements are stylized birds on the upper section and below are four snakes, the designs are highlighted with white lime and remnants of old red paint. The Canoe Splash Board has considerable age and dates from the early 20th Century

Provenance: From the collection of the late David Baker (1943-2009 ) who was the president of The Oceanic Arts Society of Australia and was a great collector, expert & supporter of Oceanic Art & Cultures.

The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

It is called a “splashboard” because it closes the dugout hull of the canoe on both ends, deflecting waves and sea spray when sailing. Massim splashboards are cut from a single piece of wood – often the flat buttress root of a Ficus tree. The splashboard is incised in low relief and decorated on one side only. Visually, the splashboard has a central part with abstract motifs framed by two asymmetric volutes that spiral out and down to either side.

The archipelagos of the Massim region of southeast Papua New Guinea are renowned for their ancient and ongoing inter-island exchanges of ceremonial valuables and other objects. The most extensive of these exchanges is known as Kula and it is carried out in profusely decorated seagoing canoes carved from locally sourced trees. In the Kula, people travel to neighboring and distant islands to obtain one of two types of shell valuables: decorated armbands made of conus shells (known as mwali in Kilivila, one of the languages of the region); and necklaces made of red spondylus shells (known as bagi, veiguwa, or soulava in different local languages). Both types of valuables are exchanged by Kula partners from island to island following pre-established paths, with bagi necklaces traveling in clockwise motion while mwali arm shells are exchanged in anti-clockwise direction. Kula participants achieve fame and high status by exchanging these valuables, making the shells singularly coveted objects. Shells are indeed ranked in importance, with the highest ones having names and biographies, the unwritten stories of their journeys around the islands and those of the people who exchanged them in the past.

Splashboards serve the purpose of beautifying the canoe and captivating onlookers when they arrive in the islands where the Kula ceremonial exchange takes place. The aesthetic qualities of well-executed canoe woodcarvings are believed to enchant Kula partners, “softening” their minds and making them surrender their Kula valuable shells. Splashboards also encompass a series of symbols or emblems with apotropaic qualities. They are said to ward off so-called flying witches (yoyowa in Kilivila) that prey on shipwrecked crews, impregnating the canoes with lightness and swiftness so as to make them faster and more seaworthy. The stylized birds carved onto the board are identified with the sea eagle: just as the sea eagle dives down to take its prey, so do tokula (Kula exchange partners) plunge upon Kula valuables. Another significant symbol found in the splashboard is the weku. A hole at the center of the larger volute on the left of the splashboard, the weku stands for the voice of a bird that can be heard but cannot be seen, signifying the longing of the tokula for all the unattainable Kula shells that are known to circulate around the islands.

The human-like figure on top of the splashboard is known in Kilivila as tokwalu to the uninitiated, although it is properly called bwalai by master carvers and their initiated apprentices. The bwalai must be spelled with the right magic by the canoe owner prior to a journey, in which case it will assist the crew if the canoe capsizes by summoning a giant fish that will take the sailors safely ashore. But if the magic used is not correct or if the canoe owner forgets to cast the spell, the bwalai will turn into a shark or a sea monster in the event of a shipwreck and devour the crew. Bwalai are often represented either as gender-neutral individuals or as a male and female couple to signify the un-gendered qualities of spirit beings in the Massim.

Canoe splashboards are carved throughout the Massim in distinctive regional styles. They are material repositories of esoteric cognition that incorporate key elements of an otherwise-oral, immaterial system of knowledge. Canoe and splashboard master carvers are initiated into a highly specialized and ritualized apprenticeship at a very early age. The apprenticeship lasts many years and includes learning magic spells and incantations, imbibing substances, as well as adhering to a very rigorous system of taboos that need to be observed in order to carve beautiful and efficacious splashboards (the two qualities being synonymous in Massim culture). Traditional master carvers are not allowed to do preparatory drawing on the wooden board they are to carve but need to incise the piece directly, using small pocket knives and repurposed pieces of iron. Canoe carvers are highly regarded within their communities, bringing together the embedded cognition of their manual skills, a sense of artistry and a deep knowledge of their own culture.

Splashboards are customarily painted white, red and black. In the past, natural pigments would have been used: charred coconut husks mixed with water for black, a seed known as malaka in the Trobriand Islands for red, and chalk sourced in coastal areas, or the lime obtained from burning coral, for white. These are the same colors used in facial decorations in many islands in the Massim, establishing a parallel between people and the canoe, the splashboard being sometimes considered the “face of the canoe.” This splashboard is fully discolored and appears damaged as a result of water erosion.

Master carvers need to keep the right proportions between all the canoe parts, including the size of the decorated boards relative to the rest of the vessel. During their apprenticeship, carvers practice by making miniature splashboards. Part of their training consists in increasing the size of these carved splashboards once they master the technique and skills necessary to do so, until they scale up to reach the size required for a seagoing Kula canoe.

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If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

Three Fine New Guinea Tabar Island Malangan Ceremonial Figures New Ireland Papua New Guinea

Three Fine Tabar Island Malangan Ceremonial Figures, New Ireland Papua New Guinea

These three amazing Malangan Sculptures are from the New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea, These ancestor figures are very finely carved and ochre painted by master artists. The one on the far left is wearing a type of ceremonial mask, the other two figures are playing bamboo pan pipes that are a traditional instrument played during traditional ceremonies.

In New Ireland, Malangan is the collective name for a series of ceremonies, as well as the masks and carvings associated with them, these rituals are held primarily in memory of the dead and combined with initiation ceremonies in which young men symbolically replace those who have died.

The sculptures, some of the most technically complex in all of Oceanic art, are commissioned from recognized experts and depict figures from clan mythology. They are displayed in special enclosures, sometimes in considerable numbers, during feasts honoring both the dead and the donors of the carvings.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

These figures were in the landmark exhibition ” Oceanic Arts Pacifica ” in 2014 at The Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre in Casula / Sydney Australia and they were published in the accompanying exhibition catalog ” Oceanic Arts Pacifica ” 2014 the whole page 92.

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Pair of Old New Guinea Lime Spatulas Admiralty Islands Manus Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Pair of Old Lime Spatulas from the Admiralty Islands in Manus Province of Papua New Guinea

This pair of fine 19th Century Islands Lime Spatulas are beautifully carved with ancestor figure finials, the figure on the right is of a classical Admiralty style, and the male figure is standing on a crocodile head which is an important clan totem, the Spatula on the left in this photo shows a standing male ancestor and wearing a distinctly German army hat. The Admiralty Islands were part of Germany New Guinea from 1884 until 1912 when the Australian and British authorities kicked the Germans out of New Guinea during WWI.

The utensils made for chewing betel nut are some of the most beautiful small-scale carvings made in New Guinea and these lime spatulas are great examples of powerful small sculptures.

Provenance: Francis Edgar Williams (1893-1943) was born in South Australia in 1893. Williams gained a diploma in Anthropology from Oxford University. In 1922 he became an assistant government anthropologist in Papua and two years later he took the full position of Government Anthropologist, he carried out extensive anthropological work in a number of areas in Papua & published several books such as “ The Papuans of the Trans Fly 1936 “. Williams died in New Guinea in a plane crash during WWII.

The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY and there is the link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Fine Old Tiwi Islands Club Melville Island Northern Territory

A Fine Old Tiwi Islands Club Melville Island Northern Territory

This old Tiwi club is from Melville Island an island in the eastern Timor Sea off the north coast of the Northern Territory of Australia. Carved from a single piece of hardwood, the handle with a fishtail carving, and the finial is rounded, the entire club is finely ochre painted in traditional Tiwi designs being cross-hatching, solid bands, and some circles. Clubs were used for dancing in traditional Pukamani Ceremonies. Tiwi artists’ unique style of painting is highly regarded by other artists and collectors around the world.

Provenance: This old club is from the early 20th Century and came from the collection of a person who lived in Darwin in the 1940’s .

The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

Archives: Art For Sale

A Superb Old New Guinea Bowl Tami or Siassi Island Huon Gulf Morobe Province Papua New Guinea

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A Superb Old New Guinea Food Pounder Coastal Sepik River Area Papua New Guinea

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A Superb Old New Guinea Abelam Spirit Figure East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

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A Superb Old New Guinea Asmat Canoe Prow Ornament West Papua Irian Jaya Indonesia

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A Fine Old New Guinea Asmat Ancestor Figure West Papua Irian Jaya

SOLD PLEASE SEE OTHER ARTWORKS

A Superb Pair of New Guinea Carved Portrait Heads Middle Sepik River East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

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A Superb Old New Guinea Massim Canoe Splash Board Milne Bay Province Papua New Guinea

See more Canoe Ornaments from Canoe Ornaments Gallery

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Three Fine New Guinea Tabar Island Malangan Ceremonial Figures New Ireland Papua New Guinea

A Superb Pair of Old New Guinea Lime Spatulas Admiralty Islands Manus Province Papua New Guinea

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A Fine Old Tiwi Islands Club Melville Island Northern Territory

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