Art For Sale Archive - Page 9 of 51 - Oceanic Arts Australia

A Superb Old New Guinea Basket Hook Figure Kwoma People Waskuk Area Upper Sepik River Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Basket Hook Figure from the Kwoma People in the Waskuk Area of the Upper Sepik River East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

This rare and beautiful double-sided Basket Hook Figure was made from the intense creativity of a Kwoma artist, depicting either a power Bush or Water Spirit called sikilawos whose legs & arms are transformed into totemic birds. It is beautifully painted with both ochre and trade paint. This is the only Kwoma Sculpture or similar Basket Hook Figure that I have ever seen.

Basket Hooks were used for protecting food or other objects from rodents, the hook would hang from the ceiling by a rope, and string bags were hung from the hook with food or other important objects that then could not be reached by rats or mice, a simple effective technology used by cultures around the world.

Sepik River artists made many beautiful unitarian art objects like Basket Hooks that were both functional and a way of honoring and making visible their ancestors and spirits in daily life.

Birds in New Guinea art can be important clan totems and also anthropomorphic spirit beings that are the primordial bird-men and bird-women, who created the sacred musical instruments, consisting of bamboo flutes and slit gongs that were kept within the ceremonial houses and played a central role in the ritual life of their communities.

This very beautiful old Kwoma sculpture has been one of my favourite Oceanic Artworks that I have ever owned, it has a soft gentle surreal feel where often Middle Sepik artworks can seem aggressive, Waskuk/ Kwoma Art in my opinion is one of the great art styles of Papua New Guinea.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

Exhibited Oceanic Arts Pacifica: Oceanic Art from the Todd Barlin Collection at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre 2014

The Kwoma people and their closely related neighbors the Nukuma and Manambu share a unique tradition revolving around the cultivation of yams. An annual series of rituals associated with the yam harvest ensures the tuber’s continuing abundance and renders it suitable for human consumption. Clans sponsor the events, which are staged in a sequence of three rituals each involving different types of figures.

For the annual ceremonies, both old and new sculptures are freshly painted, as their power lies in the bright polychrome ochre paint applied to their surfaces, for the Kwoma people the paint is a magical substance that endows the figures with supernatural power and beauty.

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

A Fine New Guinea Sago Spathe Painting Keram River Lower Sepik River Area East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Fine New Guinea Sago Spathe Painting from the Keram River Area in the Lower Sepik River Area of the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

Throughout New Guinea, men’s ceremonial houses or Haus Tambaran were the primary focus for painting and sculpture. This beautiful painting represents a specific clan’s ancestors’ spirits or supernatural beings & totemic animals like birds.

Typically, entry into the ceremonial house is restricted to initiated men, although in some cases, women and children can enter under certain circumstances for specific events. Ceremonial houses serve as the venue for nearly all important male religious rites – such as initiation rites for young boys – and at other times function as meeting houses or informal gathering places. Their structure and the way they are decorated can take on many different local forms and styles.

Paintings are made on sheets of bark or sago, the bark-like bases of the leaves of the sago palm tree, which are trimmed and flattened to create a flat roughly rectangular surface that tapers slightly according to the natural form. After a curing process, the artist covers the smooth side of the sheet with a wash of black clay. The main outlines of the design are laid out in clear water, retraced in paint, and then filled in with colour. Although one man lays out the design, an assistant may perform the work of infilling and painting the bordering dots.

When completed, the paintings are tied to the rafters on the underside of the ceiling with lengths of split cane. The panels are arranged lengthwise along the axis of the house, with a few rows placed laterally at its midpoint. The midpoint forms not only the center of the structure–the most ritually important area–but also roughly indicates the sectors allotted to each clan evoking the strength, unity, and identity of the village clans, whose members gather on the earthen floor beneath them to perform religious rites or initiation ceremonies.

Provenance: 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 Superb Old Australia Aboriginal Shield from Western Australia

A Superb Old Australia Aboriginal Shield Bardi People Dampier Peninsula in the Kimberley region of Western Australia

This finely carved shield with a rare geometric & herringbone design on the front and was coated with ceremonial red ochre, the back has incised linear striations in horizontal bands. The deep lug handle and entire shield has an old dry patina. 19th to early 20th Century.

Shields are one of the most beautiful objects made by the indigenous people in Australia. This finely carved shield has the same design elements on both the front and the back, the incised design consists of horizontal bands of vertical striations and then followed by a band of wavy lines this is repeated from the top to the bottom of the shield to beautiful effect.

The role of shields in tribal culture is to provide personal defense against blows and missiles; also, importantly shields serve to reflect an image of power, identity, and tribal group. Each tribal group has different design elements on their shields which instantly make them identifiable to other tribes.

Reference: Interlocking Key Design in Aboriginal Australian Decorative Art. Dr. D. S. Davidson First published: September 1949

Provenance: 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 Superb Aboriginal Painting (a numbered screen print of the original) from Western Arnhem Land Northern Territory Australia

This Superb Painting ( a numbered signed print of the original) by the famous Artist Bardyal (Lofty) Nadjamerrek, (1926-2009) from the Outstation Gamarrwagan, Western Arnhem Land Northern Australia Language: Kunwinjku

“ The Meeting “ circa 1980. The original Painting is likely in an Australian public collection
This Numbered screen print 108 or 500/ signed & artist thumbprint on edge. On Archival Thick Paper

This superb painting called ” The Meeting ” depicts a ceremonial gathering in the artist’s land.

He began painting works for sale on bark in 1969 at Oenpelli and has developed an outstanding reputation first as a painter on bark and more recently on paper, using traditional ochre pigments.
His X-ray style of painting is strongly linked back to the tradition of painting on rock and his own experience as a young man. He is particularly known for paintings of Ngalyod and Yingarna (the Rainbow Serpents).

In 1972 Bardyal left Oenpelli and returned to clan lands in western Arnhem Land and in 1988 he moved to Gamarrwagan where he has lived ever since.

Lofty possesses a rich store of mythological knowledge. As a ritually senior man, he is responsible for Ancestral sites and mythologies from his own
patrilineal clan lands (father’s country). For this reason, he is known as Djungay (manager).
Subjects and Themes: Rainbow serpents, other mythical beings; animals

Collections held: National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Australian Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney), numerous other museums and major collections.

Cross-hatching on bark paintings called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Indigenous Artists from the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, use crushed earth ochre pigments to paint on sheets of eucalyptus bark, they paint beautiful spiritual images of deep cultural significance that show their spiritual connection with specific tracts of country

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

The designs seen on Arnhem Land Bark Paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his “skin”, or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. In many cases, these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in ceremonies. Artists also would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters where stayed during seasonal food gathering.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

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

Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris France.

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

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

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 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.

A superb old Aboriginal Bark Painting from Western Arnhem Land Northern Territory Australia

This Superb Old Bark Painting of Bininj the First Ancestor and Naljord the Rainbow Serpent Oenpelli Area in Western Arnhem Land Northern Australia

This rare and beautiful painting depicts Bininj the First Ancestor and Naljord the Rainbow Serpent who appears to be gently licking Bininj the First Ancestor’s face.

The rainbow serpent is a powerful mythological figure for all Aboriginal people throughout Australia. Characteristics of the rainbow serpent vary greatly from group to group and also depending on the site. Often viewed as a female generative figure, the rainbow serpent can sometimes also be male. She has both powers of creation and destruction and is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons, and of course, the colour seen in rainbows which arc across the sky like a giant serpent. For Aboriginal people in Northern Australia, the rainbow serpent is said to be active during the wet season.

Known as Ngalyod in Western and Central Arnhem Land, the rainbow serpent is mostly associated with bodies of water such as billabongs, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls where she resides. Therefore, she is responsible for the production of most water plants such as water lilies, water vines, algae and palms, which grow near water. The roar of waterfalls in the escarpment country is said to be her voice. Large holes in stony banks of rivers and cliff faces are said to be her tracks. She is held in awe because of her apparent ability to renew her life by shedding her skin and emerging anew.

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

If you have any Bark Paintings I am always interested in buying & I pay top prices for Bark Paintings that I like.

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 Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Circa 1977

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts Possusms and the Marrawili Tree and there is a very fine Raark or cross-hatching

Cross-hatching called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

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 Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Circa 1975

Djalga the Goanna coming out of the sacred water hole made by the creator Wuyal . This story refers also to important Dhuwa moiety ancestors called the Wawilak Sisters.

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts Djalga the Goanna coming out of the sacred water hole made by the creator Being Wuyal and there is very fine Raark or cross-hatching

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

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 Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Dating from the 1960s

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts totemic animals including crocodiles, turtles, fish & snakes, and with fine Raark cross-hatching

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

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 Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From Groote Island in the Northern Territory

A Superb Old Bark Painting of Totemic Sea Creatures from Groote Eyland Northern Territory Collected in 1960s (Artist Unrecorded )

This beautiful Bark Painting depicts various Sea Creatures, at the very top it looks like a shark with strange appendages.

Europeans collected the art from Groote Island almost as soon as they arrived. Groote Islanders painted and decorated the inside walls of their bark huts. Anthropologist Norman Tindale in 1921-1922 made the first collections of bark paintings. This collection is now in the collection of the South Australian Museum. Frederick Rose made another large collection in 1938, with the help of Fred Gray. Fred Gray encouraged local Groote Islanders to paint barks as a means of financial independence.

Charles Mountford collected his work in 1948 during the American Australian Scientific Expedition. In the 1950s, the Rev. L.M. Howell commissioned eight sets of narrative paintings from Thomas Nanjiwarra.

Later, Helen Groger-Wurm collected Nandjiwarra’s barks and these became the National Gallery of Australia’s first major acquisition of Aboriginal art in 1972.

In the 1960s and 70s, this distinctive and celebrated style reached a peak. It ceased with the advent of manganese mining operations which brought a disruptive influence to the island.

Groote Eylandt, in Anindilyakwa Country off the coast of northeast Arnhem Land, has been a center of bark painting since the 1920s. The heavy black background and dashed lines of red, white and yellow ochres that comprise this painting are characteristic of Anindilyakwa bark paintings from the middle of the twentieth century. The black pigment comes from the manganese that has been mined on Groote Eylandt for decades.

Chasm Island, off the northern coast of Groote Eylandt is known as the site of the first European documentation of Aboriginal rock art, one of the oldest continuously practiced artistic traditions in the world. It is likely that this painting refers to the mapping of this Country, or to ancestral stories relating to this area that link the landscape to early narratives of creation and the formation of geographical features.

The Groote Eylandt Mission was established at Emerald River in 1921. Its history is closely tied to the growth of the contemporary bark painting movement on the island. The first missionaries encouraged artists to produce portable barks that could be sold to provide income for the Mission. Artists began transferring the painted designs that previously decorated human bodies, rock shelters, and the inner walls of bark huts onto bark panels. Designs associated with secret or sacred knowledge remained restricted to certain artists and ceremonies.

This painting is in near-perfect condition, the family who owned had it packed away in a clean dry box for years, and the colour is as bright as the day it was painted due to their conservation of the painting never being kept in sunlight

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal 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 Basket Hook Figure Kwoma People Waskuk Area Upper Sepik River Papua New Guinea

A Fine New Guinea Sago Spathe Painting Keram River Lower Sepik River Area East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old Australia Aboriginal Shield from Western Australia

A Superb Aboriginal Painting (a numbered screen print of the original) from Western Arnhem Land Northern Territory Australia

Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris France.

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

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

A superb old Aboriginal Bark Painting from Western Arnhem Land Northern Territory Australia

A Fine Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Fine Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From Groote Island in the Northern Territory

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