Nathan Potts - Oceanic Art

Exhibitions at the musée du quai Branly 2012

2011-12-26T19:27:00.000+01:00

from Tuesday 4 October 2011 to Sunday 22 January 2012

The musée du quai Branly presents Māori: Their treasures have a soul, featuring Māori culture through 250 pieces from the collections of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. This exhibition, never shown before outside New Zealand, is a testimony to a strong and living culture. It affirms a people’s will to master their own future by emphasising tino rangatiratanga: Māori selfdetermination and control over things Māori.

The exhibition presents a great range of artwork, including sculpture, adornment, daily and sacred objects, architectural elements, photographs, audiovisual documents, and so on. It highlights the links between taonga (ancestral Māori treasures) and contemporary art, shedding light on important issues and debates for Māori today.
The exhibition presents Māori culture as seen by Māori, free from Western views and biases. The heart of the exhibition features art that addresses the political, spiritual, and aesthetic developments that have shaped Māori culture.

Over modelled ceremonial pig skulls

2011-11-01T14:22:00.000+01:00

A ceremonial pigs' skull from the highlands (Mt. Wahgi)

The Childrens Museum of Indianapolis - Ceremonial pig's skull

Worship of the Dead in the Middle Wahgi (New Guinea)

Louis J. Luzbetak

Anthropos
Bd. 51, H. 1./2. (1956), pp. 81-96
(article consists of 16 pages)

Published by: Anthropos Institute

Welcome

2011-10-23T16:46:00.002+02:00

This space has been created to share experience regarding the Art of the Pacific.
In the last few decades the cultural expression of the part of the world has gained international interest and we would like to contribute in our own humble way.

We hope to post photos, articles and discussion on a regular basis concerning the field of Oceanic Art, the developing market for the art, Museum collections and the exciting news from the contemporary artistic expression of the people of the Pacific and its regions.

In the near future we will also have the site in french as well as english.

If you have any feedback or questions please do not hesitate to contact us nathanpotts@gmail.com ,
regards,
Nathan

general items

2011-07-20T16:48:00.003+02:00

Parcours des Mondes du 7th au 11th septembre 2011

2011-06-25T09:46:00.004+02:00

http://www.parcours-paris.eu/

Like every year, some of the worlds best international dealers will settle next to their famous parisian colleagues in order to propose masterpieces of african, oceanic, asian and american art as well as beautiful ethnographical objects, of a more affordable price, to collectors and enthusiasts who gather annually from all over the world.

Mosquito mask, Sepik river, papua new guinea

2011-05-06T10:40:00.001+02:00

a mosquito mask from the Sepik river, specifically the village of bruganowi / brukanowi village (wombom style?).

new britain shields

2011-04-18T14:58:00.005+02:00

I don't own these shields.

massim dance clubs, kaidebu/

2011-04-18T14:06:00.001+02:00

Books and Articles

2011-01-08T14:48:00.000+01:00

_________________________________________________________________

Obsidian blade technology in the Admiralty Islands.
Clayton Frederickson

http://ejournal.anu.edu.au/index.php/bippa/article/viewFile/241/231

ABSTRACT:

Variation in retouched obsidian blade (point) form on Lou island is examined for the last 2100 years. A sequence of change is proposed in which heavily modified points are replaced between approximately 1600 and 7àà years ago by simplified forms resembling those recorded ethnographically. The uggestion is made that this technological change reflects a reorientation of the overarching system of production and distribution.................

2010-12-11T23:50:00.001+01:00

http://www.museeprehistoire.com

Australie : 60 000 ans de culture aborigène /
Australia : 60 000 years of Aboriginal Culture

Exposition temporaire du 15 mai au 15 décembre 2010

Qui sont les Aborigènes ? D’où viennent-ils ? Qui sont-ils aujourd’hui ? Des

questions qui fascinent depuis longtemps les chercheurs. Les scientifiques en effet,

se sont longtemps interrogés sur les origines du peuplement de l’Australie ainsi que

sur le mode de vie du peuple aborigène. Massacrés suite à l’arrivée des Européens à

partir du XVIIIe siècle, ce n’est qu’à la fin des années 60 que les Aborigènes ont été

reconnus comme des citoyens à part entière. Bien que mise à mal, leur culture a

perduré et constitue à ce jour la plus ancienne culture vivante durable du monde.

En partenariat avec l’Ambassade d’Australie en France, le musée du quai Branly et

le Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Toulon et du Var, le Musée de Préhistoire des

gorges du Verdon propose un regard complet sur l’Australie : son histoire, sa culture

son environnement et sa géologie. Une exposition ambitieuse qui fera découvrir aux

visiteurs les richesses de cette terre du bout du monde. L’exposition est entièrement

bilingue Français/Anglais.

Thème de l’exposition

L’exposition « Australie : 60 000 ans de culture aborigène » propose aux visiteurs

trois portes d’entrée différentes mais complémentaires :

• Une exposition scientifique

• Une exposition d’art contemporain aborigène

• Une exposition ethnologique

La visite permettra d’acquérir une connaissance exhaustive de l’Australie, de la

Préhistoire à nos jours : une exposition qui mettra en lumière la beauté et l’immensité

de ce pays et l’art fascinant et unique de culture aborigène. Elle sensibilisera aussi

les visiteurs aux grandes problématiques contemporaines du XXIe siècle que sont :

le réchauffement climatique, la biodiversité, le racisme ou le statut des peuples

autochtones.

L’Australie et l’histoire aborigène en quelques

dates :

• 60 000 ans avant JC : arrivée des premiers hommes en Australie

• vers 38 000 ans avant JC : époque supposée de l'existence de l’homme de

Mungo

• 1788 : arrivée des premiers colons européens

• 1792 : mouvement de résistance de Pemulwuy

• 1901 : formation du Commonwealth de l'Australie

• 1910-1970 : politique des « générations volées » (désigne les enfants métis

enlevés de force à leurs parents par le gouvernement)

• 1937 : politique officielle d'assimilation des métis aborigènes

• 1967 : les Aborigènes sont reconnus comme des citoyens à part entière

• 2008 : le premier ministre Kevin Rudd demande pardon aux Aborigènes pour

les « générations volées ».

A la découverte de la culture aborigène

Le mot aborigène signifie « depuis l’origine » en latin. Premier peuple de l’Australie

avant la colonisation des Européens, les Aborigènes ont gardé un mode de vie

traditionnel proche de celui du Paléolithique supérieur (entre 35 000 et 10 000 ans

avant JC) en Europe.

Auctions and Festivals - 2012

2010-11-04T14:12:00.001+01:00

Native Auctions, African and Oceanic Art - 21 January 2012.
Belgium, Brussels

catalogue - http://www.native-auctions.com/en/auctions/upcoming/preview/a-lobi-couple.html

__________________________________________________________________________

Winter B sablon :

18-22 January 2012 / Opening: 18 January from 11 am till 20 pm

__________________________________________________________________________

Jeschke | Van Vliet - 28 January, Berlin

Catalogue - http://www.jvv-berlin.de/auktionen/kunst-auktion/

____________________________________________________________________________

Zemanek auctions _

68th tribal art auction: 2012, March 3

69th tribal art auction: 2012, June 2

70th tribal art auction: 2012, September 15

71st tribal art auction: 2012, November 2

___________________________________________________________________________

June 5th, Paris Art Océanien, Africain et d'Amérique du Nord

____________________________________________________________________________

To be announced

_______________________________________________________________________

22 Jan 2012	20091	California, Los Angeles	African and Ethnographic Works of Art
11 Feb 2012	20157	California, San Francisco	Oceanic Art

_________________________________________________________________________

(New Zealand) - Oceanic and African Arts - 28 March 2012

____________________________________________________________________________

Next Summer edition of BRUNEAF, BOAfair & BAAF :
6-10 June 2012

Parcours des Mondes September 2012

Wahgi Sing Sing -- June 2011

Rabaul "Kimawai" -- July 2011

Mount Hagen Cultural Show -- 13th and 14th of August 2011

Goroka Show -- September 2011

Morobe Show -- October 2011

Canoe and Kundu Festival -- November 2011

Full Pacific Games - New Caledonia 2011

National Elections - Scheduled for June 2012

________________________________________________

Items from the collection of one of the most venerated and knowledgeable African art dealers Merton D. Simpson, will be included in Webb’s Oceanic and African art auction to be held on 11 November 2010.

http://www.webbs.co.nz/auction/oceanic-african-art

Merton D. Simpson, a New York collector and former artist, now aged 82, possesses one of the world’s most sought-after collections of Oceanic and African art. Simpson’s decision to work with Webb’s on the sale of a selection of items from his collection is a major coup for the New Zealand auction house and was influenced by recent successes of the auction house in previous sales of Maori, Pacific and African material. A sale in this category held in June this year achieved over NZ$830,000.

As Webb’s Managing Director Neil Campbell states, "what we’re experiencing is major international collectors have begun venturing beyond the markets on their doorstep and are actively roving the Oceanic region in search of world heritage art. And in doing so they are supporting our endeavours to present world class collections at auction"

Webb’s Tribal Art specialist Jeff Hobbs, who visited New York personally selecting the works for inclusion in the auction says: "without doubt, this collection of African and broader tribal arts will be a groundbreaking event in New Zealand and a real treat for us here Down Under, and for the collector, the collections impeccable provenance will certainly draw attention."

Webb’s is inviting interested collectors and investors to experience the collection that represents not only the world’s most sought-after collections of Oceanic and African Art, but also the artistic journey that is the life of Merton D. Simpson.

The auction will also feature Maori and Pacific artefacts including pre-contact and contact pieces, providing an overview of material culture from Aotearoa and the Pacific nations including adornment, weaponry, architecture, wood-carving and tools. This specialist field of collecting provides both a tangible connection to history and the potential for serious investment.

Highlights in the auction include: a fine African Dogon statue, with an estimate sale price of $25,000 to $35,000, as well as an important and early Cameroon grasslands buffalo mask of great balance and strong decorative elements, a testament to a master carver says Hobbs.

An item which became one of Simpson’s personal favourites and a highlight of his collecting career is also included in the sale; a footstool in the form of a crouching lion, with an estimate of around $15,000 - $25, 000. As Hobbs explains ‘Simpson saw this piece near a Baule village on the Ivory Coast during his trip to Africa in 1955 and two years later when he returned he received the piece as a gift form the mother of an African King". The footstool is an exceptionally well crafted piece, with the lion spots, which appear more like those of a leopard actually signify royalty.

Highlights of the Maori and Oceanic items included in the sale, are a superb 18th century Maori canoe bailer, with a tapering hollowed scoop leading to two tubular supports holding a large tiki face. A Tongan inlaid headrest of elegant abstract arching form, with a small wedge shaped feet, inlaid with mother of pearl. Together with an extremely rare and important 18th century Tongan necklace offering eight figurative goddess forms fashioned from marine ivory that are bound together with finely woven senit with an estimate of $40,000 – $60,000.

A selection of the works to be auctioned were presented at Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney during an Evening Preview in October. This partnership between Gallery Director Michael Reid and Webb’s represents the first time a New Zealand auction house has collaborated with an Australian dealer for a sale. It is a testament to the increasing interest of the Australian collecting market and the growth in expatriate New Zealand collectors based in Sydney, that Webb’s have chosen to extend their viewing to this country through Michael Reid at Elizabeth Bay. Merton D. Simpson biography attached on page 2.

AUCTION DATE
The auction will be held at Webb’s on 11th November 2010.
A full catalogue is available to order or view online at http://www.webbs.co.nz./

MEDIA CONTACT:
For further information, interview enquiries or to obtain images for reproduction, please contact Renee Tanner at Webb’s. Visit www.webbs.co.nz to view the catalogue and viewing times online.
Email: rtanner@webbs.co.nz Phone: 09 524 6804 or 0211 496707

_______________________________________________________________________

ABOUT MERTON D. SIMPSON
A burgeoning passion for African Art led Merton D. Simpson to open the doors of his first New York gallery. Today, with more than half a century in the business, Merton Simpson has earned a reputation as one of the most venerated and knowledgeable African and Tribal Art dealers in this specialist field of collecting.

World over, institutional curators and committed private collectors alike have come to value Simpson’s eye for fine and unique Tribal Art. Numerous pieces from his collection have been published in reference texts on Tribal Art and are in museum collections across the globe. A history-maker with a boundary-breaking life in art, Merton Simpson’s influence reaches beyond his reputation as a leading, seminal, New York Tribal Art dealer. Institutional curators and committed private collectors alike have come to value Simpson’s eye for fine and unique Tribal Art. Numerous pieces from his collection have been published in reference texts on Tribal Art and are in museum collections across the globe. A history-maker with a boundary-breaking life in art, Merton Simpson’s influence reaches beyond his reputation as a leading, seminal, New York Tribal Art dealer.

Merton Simpson grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States. From a young age, he was both an artist and a talented jazz musician. As an African-American in the racially segregated South during the 1940s, there were few, if any, defined prospects for persons of colour to pursue artistic passions.

Fortunately, Simpson had an unprecedented opportunity to study art at the Gibbes Museum, where he held a job after school. His work attracted the attention of noted painted William Halsey, who mentored him throughout his career. As a youth in South Carolina, Simpson played in bands, taught art classes and received numerous awards. Halsey sponsored Merton’s first solo exhibition, open to both blacks and whites. The first African American to receive a prestigious five-year fellowship from the Charleston Scientific and Cultural Education fund, Simpson left South Carolina in 1949 to study at New York University and Cooper Union. He studied under notable artists including Hale Woodruff and William Baziotes. Supporting himself by working at Benevy’s Frame Shop, which he considers his "real education", he received feedback on his work and learned new techniques from important artists including Max Weber, Jackson Pollock and Robert Motherwell. This education clearly paid off. In 1952, Simpson’s painting entitled Nocturnal City was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was also during this inspired early New York period that Simpson first discovered African sculpture via the collections of Hale Woodruff and Paul Robeson, and he began to cultivate his own collection. The evolution of Simpson into the role from collector to dealer accelerated after his first trip to Europe in 1959 where he saw the best in African Art in leading Paris and Belgium galleries.

In 1951, with the United States involved in the Korean War, Simpson enlisted in the Air Force where he was chosen to play in the band. His artistic talents were soon discovered, and he was appointed official Air Force Artist. Simpson painted portraits of many notable generals, including a future United States President, General Dwight D. Eisenhower.

With an end to his military services in 1954, Simpson returned to New York, immediately regaining the notoriety that he obtained during his show at the Metropolitan Museum when his painting Poem 2 was exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum of Art. Many more successful exhibitions would follow. His artistic career and growing collection of African art naturally led Simpson to open his Madison Avenue gallery, which concurrently featured African and Modern Art. Today, the Merton D. Simpson Gallery, located in Chelsea, NY, follows the same formula.

The continuation of the civil rights movement would lead, by 1963, to the formation of the Harlem-based artists’ collective, the Spiral Group, of which Simpson was one of the original founders along with Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston, Hale Woodruff, Richard Mayhew, Emma Amos, Alvin Hollingsworth and Reginald Gammon. These socially conscious painters decided to address and chronicle the social, political and economic concerns of the day, through the medium of art. For Simpson, this experience culminated in an important body of work entitled the Confrontation Series, a provocative and racially charged series of paintings in mostly black and white, depicting the brutality Simpson saw first hand on the streets.

In late November this year several paintings from the series will be exhibited at the Greenville Museum Of Art and Hampton III Gallery, both in his home state of South Carolina USA. Refer page 45. Further to this, Simpson’s works will be exhibited at galleries in New York; Works will be included in an ancestral-themed abstract group show at Wilmer Jennings Gallery in Manhattan as well as their inclusion in the exhibition African American Abstract Masters to be held at Opalka Gallery, Albany, New York. Further information can be obtained from the Merton D. Simpson Gallery, New York.

Seeking to empower Americans, particularly the black middle class, to learn about and wisely invest what they could afford in African Art, Simpson funded several educational programs, including one at the Brooklyn Museum. To build one of the world’s greatest African Art collections, he divided his time between New York and Paris, securing relationships with the best Parisian Tribal dealers of the day. It was this drive that saw Merton evolve into a trans-Atlantic force and ensured that, when the African Art market matured in the late 1970s and 1980s, he and his clients were rewarded for their commitment and vision.

While the 1980s and 1990s would continue to be filled with solo exhibitions around the themes of Simpson’s love for jazz music, it was his professionalism as a Tribal Arts expert that attracted the most attention. His expertise (and notorious gallery parties, where he could always be seen playing the sax) was regularly featured in newspapers and magazines. By this time, Simpson owned one of the world’s most extensive quality collections of Oceanic and African Art, which attracted the most committed and sophisticated collectors, both private and public. A piece released from the Simpson collection in 1999, a fine reliquary figure, sold at a major auction house for $332,500. Since then, the Tribal Art market has continued to expand and attract a new generation of dealer and collector.

At the age of 82, Simpson has gained a rich patina that reflects the love and energy he has attracted and given throughout his life. He is the consummate Tribal Jazz guy playing to a future beat; perhaps this why he has honoured us with the task of offering these remarkable works back to the world

RENEE TANNER
MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
WEBB’S – NEW ZEALAND’S PREMIER AUCTION HOUSE

T: 09 529 5604 I E: rtanner@webbs.co.nz I M: 021 1496707
WEB: http://www.webbs.co.nz/
18 Manukau Rd, Newmarket, Auckland 1149, New Zealand

Shield - New Britain

2010-06-21T15:58:00.001+02:00

This image on the right is from the 1966 Spring edition of 'Expedition' magazine. The article is called 'Imlohe and the mysteries of the Passismanua, Southwest New Guinea' by Jane C. Goodale. The caption in the top right reads 'A group of visitors at a dance. Although recently pacified, no man would attend a ceremonial dance at a neighbouring village unarmed - without his spear and carved wooden shield'.

Below is a link to a paper written by a student of Anthropology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane.

http://anthropology.uwaterloo.ca/WNB/shields.htm

Austral island paddle, Ra'ivavae

2009-03-20T18:55:00.004+01:00

Austral Islands, Ra'ivavae
Early nineteenth century
Wood
L. 69cm

"Paddles of this highly decorated kind were perhaps the most collected objects in the Pacific in the first half of the nineteenth century. Well over one thousand exist in collections, and research by Rhys Richards has shown that they were made during a dynamic period of activity by Ra'ivavae carvers around 1820-1840. None can be reliably dated to earlier than this."

"it is possible, after conversion to christianity and the cessation of manufacture of drums and other religious objects, that carvers turned their hands to paddles to supply a local demand for exchange valuables and a European demand for curios."

Hooper
2006 Pacifuc Encounters: Art and divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860
London, British Museum

‘The carved paddles which are so much admired are carved principally with sharks teeth, shells and stones, they still preferring these rude instruments to any of European manufacture.’ Samuel Stutchbury, visitor to Ravavai in 1825.
This paddle is diminutive in size and tightly carved with designs over all surfaces.
The pommel has six female figures performing the Upa Upa dance, they wear large rosettes in their hair.
Little is known as to the function of these paddles although hundreds of examples were collected between the period of 1820 & 1835 during which time the population of the Austral islands dwindled to a handful of people.
Too delicate for actual use they may have been dance objects, it is commonly suggested they were made for a fledgling industry trading them to western travellers. However this is problematic, as the amount of paddles in museums today would have taken a large amount of skilled carvers working constantly on these objects to produce in many sizeable numbers.

The paddle has a deep brown / black glossy patina.
Austral Islands, Central Polynesia.
Acquired from a private French collection.
Early 19th Century.
Height. 80 cm.

Crouching figure, Sepik River

2008-12-22T13:48:00.005+01:00

A figure from the Sepik river. Mid 19th cent.
height:

Bruganowi mask

2008-12-22T13:46:00.002+01:00

The spelling of the village 'Bruganowi' seems to change with the number of people spelling it. A mosquito mask from the upper Sepik, most likely the village of Bruganowi.

Height:

Width:

Length: