A Collection of Fine Old Tiwi Clubs Melville or Bathurst Islands Northern Territory Australia

A Collection of Five Fine Old Tiwi Clubs Melville or Bathurst Islands Northern Territory Australia Dating from the early 20th Century 

These very beautiful old Clubs, each carved from hardwood, and then finely ochre painted with clan designs.

According to the Tiwi & Indigenous Art Curator Judith Ryan ;

” The original inhabitants of Melville and Bathurst Islands, the Tiwi, have been separated from mainland Aboriginal peoples and from murrintawi (white people) for much of their history.

Evidence of Tiwi ingenuity, brought about in part by their geographical position, is found in their language, customary ceremonies, material culture, kinship system. The two principal cultural events for the Tiwi are the pukumani (mourning) and kulama (coming of age) ceremonies, both of which are unrestricted in relation to age and gender.

Tiwi art is intimately connected with song and dance and with jilamara, the idiosyncratic body painting designs with which performers celebrate kulama and conceal their identity from mapurtiti (spirits of the deceased) for pukumani ceremonies. The spirit of each work resides in the Tiwi notion of individual creativity, expressed through colour & patterns of lines, and the randomness of the decoration. For Tiwi people, to sing is to dance is to paint. A painted design on any surface has deep associations with singing and dancing and elements of Tiwi language and culture that are non-verbal “.

Each of these Clubs are beautiful and unique but together as group they truly look their finest.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea & Australian Aboriginal Art 

 

A Fine Old New Guinea Maternity Sculpture Kambot Village Yuat River East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Fine Old New Guinea Maternity Sculpture by the famous Kambot Artist Ignas Keram from Kambot Village in the Yuat River area of the East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

This beautifully carved Maternity Ancestor Figure is by the famous Kambot Artist Ignas Keram, his sculptures have been well known since at least the 1970s when this sculpture was likely made.

Keram’s unique style shows a mother sitting and breastfeeding her baby, an everyday event where both mother & baby have a cheerful look with prominent round eyes. The mother has tattoo designs on her face & chest.

I find this sculpture has a softness & warmth and something optimistic about his style.  I have had several carvings by Ignas Keram but I think this is the best one I saw and when it came up for sale I immediately bought it.  I hear regularly about “the Age of Oceanic Artworks” Age is one aspect of artwork but I think what is the most important is choosing an artwork that you find beautiful & engaging to look at. This figure is a good example, the figure is only 50 years old but to me, it’s beautiful artwork & I enjoy it as much as any older sculpture.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art 

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and 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 specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

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 

 

Exhibitions of New Guinea Art at NGV National Gallery of Victoria

Exhibitions: Oceanic Artwork & New Guinea Art at The National Gallery of Victoria

Over two & a half decades Todd Barlin worked with Judith Ryan to build up the Oceanic Art collection at the NGV National Gallery of Victoria.

This superb State Art Gallery had fantastic exhibitions of Oceanic Art in many different spaces at different times, they always made the artworks & exhibition spaces look their very best.

Judith Ryan selected from Todd Barlin the finest Oceanic Art for the NGV Collection, they got both older Artworks & new Artworks but were the most interested in artworks that had information about the artists & their communities and field photos that Todd took in New Guinea

Sana Balai was assistant Curator at NGV National Gallery of Victoria and she was a great pleasure to work in conjunction with Judith Ryan.

It was such a great experience to see Oceanic & New Guinea Art set in clean large spaces with modern & Australian Art.

Above are some photos of NGV Exhibitions from those decades of collaboration.

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 in1996 (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.

Exhibition: TAPA BARK CLOTH FROM THE PACIFIC at Campbelltown City Art Gallery Sydney 1999

TAPA: BARK CLOTH FROM THE PACIFIC at the Campbelltown City Art Gallery, Sydney Australia 1999

This superb exhibition showcased Tapa Cloth from the Pacific Islands curated by Greta North & Tom Gilbert at The Campbelltown City Art Gallery and it had a big display of Tapa Paintings from Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay area from the Todd Barlin Collection & a contribution of the essay for the exhibition booklet (below)

Tapa Cloth Paintings from Lake Sentani & Humboldt Bay area of West Papua by Todd Barlin 1999

The appreciation of indigenous art has come a long way in the past ten years, indigenous artists from around the world have benefited from the interest in their cultural heritage and visual arts. This is certainly the case with the Tapa Cloth Paintings from Northwest Irian Jaya or West Papua

Tapa Cloth Paintings from Lake Sentani & Humboldt Bay in NW Irian Jaya are locally known are Maro Smo. Early accounts of local people making and wearing decorated Tapa cloth are sketchy, but it seems that married women did wear Tapa Cloth Skirts with were sometimes decorated with designs.

An early 20th-century photograph by the ethnographer Paul Wirtz in 1926 shows a large painted Tapa Cloth displayed next to a grave of young women (published in the book The Art of Northwest New Guinea by Suzanne Greub 1992 page 130 shows this early Paul Wirtz photo)

The Tapa Cloth paintings that the outside world associates with Lake Sentani & Humboldt Bay were mainly collected in the late 1920s by Jacques Viot, the French surrealist author & art dealer who made a trip to the area in 1929 and collected a number of Tapa Cloth Paintings along with the more famous wood sculptures from Lake Sentani (one of the most famous sculptures from Viot’s trip to New Guinea is the double Lake Sentani Figure now in the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra)

These works of art had a great impact on the Parisian Art scene when exhibited in Paris on his return, especially on the surrealist artists like Joan Miro.

By the mid-1920s, artists active in Paris held a fascination with objects created in tribal communities in the Pacific. In their search for art beyond the real, surrealists turned to sculptures that came from the dreams and imaginations of Pacific Islanders, who were themselves considered exotic

From World War 1 through to the 1950s, it seems that the practice of making decorated Tapa Cloth largely died out. In the 1970s however European interest brought about a revival of Tapa Painting, this stimulus was essential to the continuity of the art and its progression.

Many of the design elements in these more contemporary Tapa Cloths are ancient traditional designs that belonged to specific clans & chiefly families.

One of the main Lake Sentani motifs is called Fouw, an interlocking spiral design that is said to represent eternity and is associated with to power of the chief.  The Fouw designs are commonly used on many types of traditional carved wood objects including women’s canoe paddles, food bowls & plates, and house posts that are all related to chiefly families & clans.

Other common designs are stylized totemic animals, birds & fish that are all plentiful in their natural environment. There are also depictions of powerful mythological spirits that inhabit the lake, bush & ocean.

The artists in Lake Sentani & Humboldt Bay have recently received some positive results from their artistic endeavors, they have had several exhibitions and articles have been written about their art of Tapa Cloth Painting and its revival. Consequently, this interest in their art has meant sales of their Tapa Cloth Paintings to international buyers which has brought prestige and economic benefits to the artists and their communities. The best Tapa Cloth Painters some are represented in this exhibition are very pleased with the recognition and the financial rewards they have received.

One of the most beneficial aspects of the revival of this ancient art form is that is has given strong cultural symbolism for all of the Melanesian people in West Papua, this is a time of great changes in West Papua as there is a great influx of non-Melanesian people perhaps leading to them being a minority in their own traditional land.  Whenever West Papuans see one of their traditional designs it reinforces a feeling of their unique cultural identity.

The people of Lake Sentani & Humboldt Bay would feel a great sense of pride in their inclusion of this exhibition of Pacific Tapa Cloth.

May 2023 post note: 24 years after this exhibition, though I have not been back to the Lake Sentani area for 2 decades I have seen some recent Tapa Cloth Paintings from the area, they seem to be less spontaneous and a bit more rigid. There was a flowering of artistic inspiration for Tapa Cloth Paintings in the 1970s & 1980s but some of the older artists would have passed away and like all over the world often younger people are not as interested in their traditional art.

Exhibition: The Shields of Melanesia at The Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival Sydney College of the Arts

Exhibition: The Shields of Melanesia at The Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival Sydney College of the Arts

This superb exhibition of Melanesian Shields was sponsored by The Oceanic Art Society Sydney & curated by Geoff Carey.

The exhibition showed New Guinea Shields in a way never seen before in Australia at the Sydney College of the Arts who gave use of its large exhibition spaces to allow this exhibition to be part of The Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival showcasing Pacific Islands Art & Culture.

The exhibition was supposed to be in conjunction with a publication of a book by the same name The Shields of Melanesia that was printed five years later in 2005.

The Shields of Melanesia Edited by Harry Beran and Dr Barry Craig

This is the first comprehensive compilation of the war shields of Melanesia. The volume illustrates more than one hundred types of shields from all cultural areas of Melanesia that used such objects. Approximately eighty percent of the shields illustrated in the book have never appeared in print.

The editors describe why the use of fighting shields in the South Pacific was confined to Melanesia. The typology of war shields used in the book is based on an exhaustive survey of the literature, on the field experience of the authors, and on a survey of the collections of the major Australian museums.

Twenty-Four of the shields shown in photos in this book belong to the Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Art 

Todd Barlin Wrote three sections of this book

3.1 Shields from the North Coast of Western New Guinea: Pages 28- 32

5.1 The Shields of the Highlands of Western New Guinea : Pages 112- 1117

6.1 Shields from the Southern Lowlands of Western New Guinea: Pages 155-165

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 in1996 (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.

Exhibition: The Monumental Sculpture of West Papua Sydney College of the Arts Sydney 2000

Exhibition: The Monumental Sculpture of West Papua Sydney College of the Arts Sydney 2000: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Art 

This groundbreaking exhibition of  The Monumental Sculpture of West Papua was part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Arts Festival featuring Arts of the Pacific Islands & the Island of New Guinea

The Sydney College of the Arts part the University of Sydney welcomed me to do this superb exhibition as part of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Arts Festival, they offered a large and unique space & technical support to display these monumental sculptures, and they also offered the chance for large coloured walls that made the artworks shine as seen in the photos below.  Todd gave several talks about the collection of artworks and his time spent living with the Asmat & Kamoro ( Mimika) people.  The photos explain the beauty of this exhibition.

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.  For the Asmat the connection between trees and people and the forest is profound.

The exhibition had a large wall of Asmat Mbis Ancestor Poles & Komoro (Mimika) Mbitoro Ancestor Poles, a group of Ancestral House Posts from the inside of an Asmat Men’s Ceremonial House or Jeu, there was also a large group of Asmat & Mimika Dance Costumes that were used in funerary ceremonies. There were Todd’s field photos & information throughout the exhibition. The exhibition was possible through the assistance of Tom Arthur & Colin Winter & Chris Boylan.

At the close of the exhibition, I invited several Australian Museums & Art Galleries to choose the large-scale sculptures as gifts for their public collections some of which are now on display in The South Australian Museum & The Australian Museum in Sydney.

For this exhibition, there was an essay Asmat Art of Irian Jaya West New Guinea by Todd Barlin in Arts Asia Pacific Magazine Issue 28 October 2000

Asmat art of southern lrian Jaya has been widely exhibited around the world, including in the United States and Europe.

In Sydney in Sep­tember 2000, as part of the Olympic Arts Festival, many will have a chance to see the beauty and richness of Asmat art when ‘The Monumental Sculpture of the Asmat opens at the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney.

Also, on view at the same venue are The Shields of Oceania’, an exhibition of shields from Melanesia; and ‘Hokianga’, an exhibition by New Zealand photographer Ross T Smith.

Monumental Sculpture of the Asmat, presented by Oceanic Arts Australia, will bring the foyer of the Sydney College of the Arts alive.  Todd Barlin owner of Oceanic Arts Australia, had had a long association with Asmat artists having spent extensive periods in the Asmat region collecting art and documenting ceremonial life, and has sponsored several international exhibitions of Asmat art, including a major exhibition at the National Museum of African & Oceanic Art in Paris in 1996 and another at the National Museum of New Caledonia in 1998.

The Shields of Oceania showcases excellent examples of my Asmat shield collection which are one of the most beautiful forms of Asmat art. Their shape and design motifs are widely varied and examples of the four Asmat regional styles will be exhibited.

The most exciting aspect of planning exhibitions is documenting, through field photographs, the artists and artworks in situ. This process creates a context for the works, illustrating how they have been made and are used. A lack of connection with acknowledgment of the artists in many exhibitions of Oceanic art sadly makes the artists seem anonymous.

Much has been written about the influence of ritual headhunting on Asmat art. It is true that many of the symbols used in Asmat art arc asso­ciated with headhunting, but it is perhaps the Western world’s fascination with ‘gruesome practices’ that has created a focus on this aspect of Asmat’s past ritual life. The complex spiritual beliefs of the Asmat are integral to their expression of art and ceremony. They believe that by honouring their ancestors through correct and continuing rituals, harmony and balance are maintained. Their religious practice includes ritual carving for ceremonies, dance, song, and storytelling. The myth of Asmat’s creation by the creator Fumeripitsj is integral to their ritual woodcarving:

Fumeripitsj went into the jungle and built a feast house, but was lonely. He cut down trees and carved figures, each with a head and a body and with arms and legs. Some were male and some female. He placed them inside the feast house, but he was still lonely. So, he cut down a tree, hollowed out a section of log, and carved a drum. He covered one end with lizard skin, glu­ing it there with lime and some of his own blood and tied it with rattan. When Fumeripitsj beat on the drum, the figures began to move, awkwardly at first, but then their joints loosened, and they began to dance and sing in a normal way. Thus, the first Asmat came into being “

The Asmat have been quick to see similarities between Christian teachings and their own spiritual concepts, and Christian beliefs have been intertwined with their traditional beliefs to produce a new era of spiritual expression through their art.

Several churches in the Asmat area are adorned with beautiful ritual carvings that symbolize Asmat’s belief in Christianity. The Asmat have retained much of their traditional culture thanks to the encouragement of Bishop Alphonse Sowada (1933- 2014) and the Catholic Fathers of the Crosier Mission in Agats, the main administrative town.  This dedicated group of priests has encouraged the Asmat to retain pride in their traditional culture. In the 1970s the Crosier Mission set up a small museum that houses a fine collection of Asmat art, as well as records of the Asmat’s oral history and ceremonial life.

Monumental Sculpture of the Asmat will include numerous monumental sculptures by Asmat artists, including Mbis Ancestor Poles, architectural house posts from a jeu, or men’s house; wuramon, or Soul Canoes and Jipae Dance Costumes, all of these artworks are representations of deceased ancestors.

The Mbis feast is a ceremony associated with the ritual of headhunting and the initiation of young men. The feast is still performed today and, although headhunting has long ceased, it remains an important aspect of honoring ancestors and teaching the young their responsibilities to their ancestors. House Posts which are made for the men’s house are carvings of human figures representing each family’s ancestors.

Each family has its own place, with a fire pit and a House Post erected in the Men’s Ceremonial House.

Wuramon or Soul Canoes are part of an initiation ceremony for young men and are made in only a few villages in northwest Asmat. The soul canoe, which can be up to twelve meters in length, is carved in the shape of a canoe and is filled with Ancestor Figures & totemic animals, a special house with a central beam in the shape of a crocodile head is built for the initiates, who are secluded there for several weeks before the ceremony, which includes dancing and singing and culminates in the scarification of the young men.

Jipae Dance Costumes are made in both central and northwest Asmat, they are used to drive the spirits of the recently deceased from the village to Safan, the land of the dead. The costumes are made in secrecy and are worn by relatives of the deceased. During the Jipae ceremony, which continues for weeks, the costumed dancers appear outside the ceremonial house and dance to the beat of drums for short intervals. At the end of the ceremony, the dancers are chased out of the village at dusk, never to be seen again, as the spirits go to Safan.

Atsj village in central Asmat has a large population, by Asmat village standards, of around 2000 people, for this reason, Atsj has always had an impressive men’s house with an extensive row of house posts. When the men’s house fell into disrepair the community mobilized to erect another, in 1989 the men’s house was replaced.

Today, there are two markets for Asmat art: the Western art market which looks for older, used pieces and carvings that are made along traditional lines; and the domestic Indonesian market which seeks objects that are aesthetically very different from those originally produced by the Asmat. The Indonesian market requires a symmetrical and polished look, and the carvings are made from hardwood, tables, and chairs with traditional Asmat designs, ashtrays, and other decorative items are made in abundance.

The 1990s saw an explosion in the creation and exportation of Asmat an around the world. While much of this art was of a low standard, there were still good artists producing art of great skill and beauty. Ritual carvings are the responsibility of the wow ipitsj, or expert carvers, and because these sacred items hold the spirit of their ancestors, they are made with much more reverence and care than those that are made for sale.

The Asmat’s desire for financial independence is the main reason for their making artifacts for sale. Artists often face the dilemma of whether to make one quality piece or several lesser pieces in the same length of time, with many artifact traders paying for quantity rather than quality. However, the Asmat will continue to make ritual carvings for themselves; in a transformed way their art and ceremony will continue. How can they not carve when their ancestors have been fashioned from wood and sung to life?

The Asmat people have faced many changes over the past forty years. Timber cutting and more recently the gathering of Agarwood or Kayu Gharu used in incense have affected their way of life. Whole villages are empty while the community spends more and more time in the forest looking for Agarwood or Kayu Gharu

While these industries have provided economic success, with them have come many of the problems experienced by indigenous communities around the world: degradation of the environment, poor health from smoking and the introduction of packaged food, and the effects of western consumerism.

While the financial benefits of carving are small in comparison with those gained by collecting Agarwood or Kayu Gharu the supplies will not last forever. When these resources are depleted perhaps there will be a new generation of Asmat artists who will take up carving, amazing the world with their insight into form and beauty.

 

 

Exhibition: Art Asmat: L’Esprit De L’ Arbre 1998 (Art Asmat: The Spirit of the Tree ) at The Musee Territorial De Nouvelle- Caledonie

Art Asmat: L’Esprit De L’ Arbre 1998 (Art Asmat: The Spirit of the Tree ) at The Musee Territorial De Nouvelle- Caledonie

Publication: L’Art Asmat a Musee Territorial De Nouvelle Caledonie

The Museums and Heritage Service presents an exhibition entitled “Art Asmat: The Spirit of the Tree” November 4, 1998 to February 2, 1999 in the temporary exhibition halls of the Territorial Museum of New Caledonia

The objective of this exhibition is to promote the art and culture of the Asmat of Irian Jaya in New Guinea, through the enhancement of the Asmat collections acquired from the Todd Barlin Collection by the Service Musee since 1990.

In 1985 -1986 Todd Barlin spent months living in Asmat Villages collecting & documenting Artworks that ended up in Museums & Art Galleries & Private Collections around the world including the National Museum in New Caledonia.

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.  For the Asmat the connection between trees and people and the forest is profound.

Oceanic Art Society Todd Barlin Interview by Margaret Cassidy 2020

Oceanic Art Society Todd Barlin Interview by Margaret Cassidy 2020

Down a quiet tree-lined street in inner-city Paddington sits the last remaining physical gallery in New South Wales devoted solely to the art of Australia’s Pacific Island neighbours. Long time resident and foundation member of the Oceanic Art Society Todd Barlin runs the Oceanic Arts Australia gallery with the help of his much loved life partner Vincent Ro.

As a serious collector of rocks, shells, stamps, insects, old glass bottles and later ceramics from Mexico and South America from an early age growing up on farms in California, Todd was fascinated by the imported Mexican pottery sold at the business where his mother worked and had an interest in indigenous people since he was a boy travelling with her to Mexico, watching the workers fire their wood kilns and then buying the pottery the following day, and seeing “how the people lived and were so happy though they had so little materially.”

In 1985 Todd travelled via New Zealand to Australia, first seeing Oceanic Art at the Auckland Museum where he was “overwhelmed by the beauty and magic of the artworks from the Pacific Islands”. After arriving in Australia, a friend suggested that he should see the people and artists in person; so within the calendar year Todd had travelled to New Guinea for two months and then in West Papua for two months. As Todd has said, “This was advice that changed my life forever. That two month trip to the New Guinea Highlands and the Sepik River was transformative. I was overwhelmed by the kindness and warmth of the people and how happy and confident they were in their day to day lives.”

Todd’s first trip to Papua New Guinea ignited his lifelong interest and interaction with Pacific People; their Art and their Culture, leading to him making over 40 trips over the next 25 years to Papua New Guinea, Indonesian West Papua, Vanuatu and The Solomon Islands. Todd has described these early experiences, “I would stay in remote villages for days, weeks and even months at a time. It was a chance to get to know people and let them get to know you. I lived as they did, ate what they had each day and also suffered problems such as malaria and dengue fever. Despite the fortuitous and unpredictable circumstances, this was a magical pre-digital era – before the internet, mobile phones or television exposed remote villages to the outside world. I often stayed for six to eight months a year travelling in remote areas and for that time it was as if the rest of the world did not exist.”

Inspired by his year in Oceania and his voluntary position at the Macleay Museum in 1986-87, Todd returned to the United States and started his art business. However, the magic of the people and their artworks of the South Pacific didn’t pall and in 1987 Todd applied to migrate to Australia. He returned, spending time as a volunteer at The Australia Museum, which gave him experience of museums but also the chance to see thousands of Oceanic artworks. From 1988 – 1994 he ran his first gallery from his suburban home in Sydney’s Inner West and a warehouse nearby. He was away most of the time in New Guinea and West Papua and in 1991 Robert Bleakley at Sotheby’s recognised the expertise and passion in Todd for oceanic art and culture and hired him as their Tribal Art Expert where he stayed for 5 years.

Talking to Todd about his career, it is clear that he has been a ‘giver’ all of his life, that the things he is most proud of are the artworks that he has been able to source for public museums and galleries and the money that he has been able to donate to support indigenous education in Australia through the Australian Indigenous Education Fund (AIEF) and other charities that have supported indigenous people in developing countries, these are two things I am very proud of.”

Todd played a pivotal role in bringing particularly New Guinean and West Papuan cultures to international audiences around the millennium. He provided the field documentation and artworks for several important exhibitions, The Asmat & Mimika in 1996 and The Marind Anim in 1999,  both at the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie in Paris, now all moved to the new Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. As Todd recounts, “now when you walk into the Oceanic Art Pavilion at the Quai Branly, the first things you see are the monumental ancestor poles from the Asmat and Mimika along with a four metre long Asmat soul canoe, dance costumes and shields all which I field collected in the 1980s”. Another highlight of Todd’s career was the support he provided to the Oceanic Art Society’s ambitious contribution to the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival in 2000 with the exhibition of the Monumental Sculptures of West Papua at the Sydney College of the Arts. More recently he worked closely with the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre for four years from 2010 loaning many items from his collection to support the annual Pacific Collections and Community Engagement programs, complementing contemporary Pacific artists and reiterating an understanding of Pacific cultural heritage to local communities.

As Todd reminisces about his long time love affair with promoting Oceanic Art, “I have had the chance to work with many very dynamic people in the Pacific Arts and Culture Community. I was often lucky to be in the right place at the right time to witness and record preparation for ceremonies, making of artworks and other spiritual practices. I spent many months living with several cultural groups including: the Asmat, the Mimika, The Marind Anim on the South Coast of West Papua and around Lake Sentani, and Geelvink Bay along the North Coast of West Papua. I was also fortunate to spend time in the Sepik River, Southern Highlands and Enga Provinces of Papua New Guinea and also remote villages in Vanuatu and The Solomon Islands.

“Many of the elderly and senior men in the villages were particularly generous to include me in their thoughts about their ancient traditions that seemed to be on the cusp of being lost. They appreciate that I was interested in their culture. They encouraged me to photograph and film in order to help preserve their culture for future generations.” Todd has now donated his photographic archive of over 9000 field photos to The South Australian Museum where he hopes they will be accessed and used by the descendants of the people photographed for years to come.

Todd wasn’t trained in either art history or the practice of art but first came to love and understand Oceanic Art and culture through developing a close relationship with many people in the Pacific, as Todd puts it, “the people in New Guinea were my first love before really understanding the art. The people were so warm, kind, generous with their hospitality.”

He further explains, “our family was poor and the arts were not really available to me when I was growing up; I did get to see some museums on school field trips which were terribly exciting along with National Geographic Magazine which I have been reading for 50 years. However, I have been very fortunate to have had some great Oceanic Art teachers in Sydney including Chris Boylan, Helen Dennett, Geoff Carey & Leo Fleischmann, Harry Beran, Robert Bleakley, Gabriella Roy and others.”

Todd quickly developed a passion for the preservation of culture and history through collecting and documentation. He spent time with communities in the Pacific, collected many objects in the field and then sold some on each return to Australia in order to fund his next collecting trip back into the field, saying, “I became an art dealer so I could collect, travel and spend months staying in remote areas of West Papua and New Guinea.”

When Todd shows pieces in his collection, he is still looking for physical and visual connections between works. As he said, “I collected what I liked visually and what excited and expanded my imagination. I experience artworks in a physical way. The artworks that I like most are inspired by images often made of dreams and are highly abstracted. I also find these qualities in nature; natural formed wood and stone, shells and seed pods, and vines – these are recurring motifs often found in New Guinea Art.”

Having spent extensive time in Pacific communities, he also understands the true place of their creations, he reminds us that “for the people of the Pacific Islands, their artworks are not an ornament to hang on a wall, but are a visual reminder of important ancestors or powerful spirits that guide and protect the people. These ancestors and spirits are always present. They are found in specific locations in the forest or kept in specially made houses where men perform ceremonies to honour or appease them. An ancestor can be invited and embodied into a carved ritual figure, or even a war shield. These carvings would then include a personal name of an ancestor and would be highly respected. “

When pushed to identify his favourite Oceanic Art style or place of origin, Todd struggles to favour any particular artwork, saying “I can’t  say I have  favourite artworks; every artwork I ever bought was my favourite at the moment and many of the pieces I got in villages from old people who were friends, these have deep meaning because of the friendships. Every area of Oceanic Art has beautiful artworks but I guess my favourites are the abstracted styles of the Kwoma and Nukama People in the Waskuk area along with the Papuan Gulf and the Asmat, I lived with the Asmat for more than two years cumulatively, they are great abstract artists.”

Exhibition – MARIND ANIM DEMA SPIRIT COSTUMES: Coiffures / Sculpture d’ Oceanie 1999 Nouvelle Bretagne et Irian Jaya

MARIND ANIM DEMA SPIRIT COSTUMES: Coiffures / Sculpture d’ Oceanie 1999 Nouvelle Bretagne et Irian Jaya

At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE Paris

This superb exhibition was held in the grand spaces of  The Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France and is now part of  The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris

Todd Barlin had spent several years working with the elders in The Marind Anima Area to be able to watch & photograph the making of the important Dema Spirits Costumes & the actual Dema Ceremonies from start to finish, this had not been seen since the very early 20th Century.  This collection of the Dema Costumes is now in the permanent collection of The Musee du Quai Branly in Paris

The headdresses of the Marind Anim People, one of the best-known groups of Irian Jaya (a region south of western New Guinea), are arrangements of wooden figures, cut-out elements covered with red seeds and large feather headdresses that top costumes featuring the attributes of “Dema” spirits.

The exhibition presents two series of spectacular Masks & Sculptures from Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea-Indonesia) & New Britain Island Papua New Guinea

Marind Anim at Musee National Des Arts Paris 1999. pdf

 

 

 

The History of The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie

The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.

The museum began as the colonial exhibition of 1931, was renamed in 1935 the Musée de la France d’Outre-mer, then in 1960 the Musée des Arts africains et océaniens, and finally in 1990 the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie.

In 2003 the museum’s collection was merged into the Musée du Quai Branly, and in its place the Palais de la Porte Dorée now houses the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration. Its tropical aquarium remains in the cellar of the Palais de la Porte Dorée and is open to the public.

Exhibition: Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

The Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996

At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris (Now part of  Musée du quai Branly)

This superb exhibition of the traditional Arts of The Asmat & Mimika (Kormoro) people of West Papua, held in the grand buildings of the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.

In 1985-86 Todd Barlin spent six months living with the Asmat & Kamoro (Mimika) people which culminated in a collection of artworks & field photos from both of these amazing cultures. During this time I stayed in remote villages for weeks at a time and it was a chance to get to know people and let them get to know you. I lived as they did, ate what they had each day, and also suffered problems such as malaria and dengue fever. Despite the fortuitous and unpredictable circumstances, this was a magical pre-digital era – before the internet, mobile phones, or television exposed remote villages to the outside world. I often stayed for six to eight months a year traveling in remote areas and for that time it was as if the rest of the world did not exist.”

The Artworks are now in the permanent collection of the Musée du quai Branly & are some of the first artworks you see when walking into the Oceanic Art Pavilion at The Musée du quai Branly

Published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996.  PDF in English & French

 

 

The History of The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie

The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.

The museum began as the colonial exhibition of 1931, was renamed in 1935 the Musée de la France d’Outre-mer, then in 1960 the Musée des Arts africains et océaniens, and finally in 1990 the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie.

In 2003 the museum’s collection was merged into the Musée du Quai Branly, and in its place the Palais de la Porte Dorée now houses the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration. Its tropical aquarium remains in the cellar of the Palais de la Porte Dorée and is open to the public.