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.

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