Tribal Art Auction at Webb's

Webb's will hold a sale of important Oceanic and African art in Auckland on September 14. Highlights will include a large collection of Melanesian adornments and statuary, a rare nguru flute with superb provenance and a fine kahu kiwi cloak and an array of weaponry and adornments.

View the online catalogue.

Nguru flute  -  New Zealand

Kiwi feather kahu cloak  -  New Zealand

 Images courtesy of Webb's

Parcours des Mondes 2013

The 2013 edition of the world's premiere tribal art fair - Parcours des Mondes - will take place on September 10–15 at the event's traditional home in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris.  Nearly sixty international dealers will be in attendance, offering the finest in traditional arts from Africa, Oceania, Asia, and the Americas. Jacaranda Tribal will be among the visiting galleries, featuring a range of rare and beautiful works from across Africa, including a group of fantastic Congolese power figures from the Songye, Zombo, Kusu, and other peoples.

Visit the official Parcours des Mondes website.

www.jacarandatribal.com

Terrestrial Paradises: Imagery from The Voyages of Captain James Cook

An exhibition showcasing engravings of imagery from Cook's voyages to the Pacific Islands and South America is on view now at the University of Miami's Lowe Art Museum. A number of artists accompanied Cook on his three voyages for the Royal Society from 1768-1779, producing images of the peoples they encountered that were reproduced in numerous publications for a European audience fascinated with travel accounts. Terrestrial Paradises: Imagery from The Voyages of Captain James Cook will run through February 9, 2014.

View the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Lowe Art Museum

Tribal Art Auction at Zemanek-Münster

Auctioneers Zemanek-Münster will host their latest tribal auction in Würzburg on September 7.  Through an assemblage of over 450 lots, the sale will offer an array of traditional art and artifacts from Africa, Indonesia, Oceania, and elsewhere.

View the online catalogue for more details.

Trophy skull  -  Dayak, Borneo

Malanggan figure with outstretched arms  -   New Ireland

Mask  -  Lula, D.R. Congo

Flywhisk  -  Yaka, D.R. Congo

Images courtesy of Zemanek-Münster

Identity and Inspiration

Identity & Inspiration, currently on view at the Philbrook Museum of Art, features nearly 200 objects that reflect the motivations influencing the artists’ creative processes, from the desire to preserve tribal traditions to incorporating new materials and producing work for new audiences. Other influences include the challenge to push boundaries by generating innovative forms and designs, and incorporating movements like Pop Art and even social commentary in their pieces. Throughout the exhibition of exceptional works of art, the focus is on the individual artists who are inspired by a various sources, and who in turn inspire us through their creativity and virtuosity.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Images and information courtesy of the Philbrook Museum of Art

Red, White and Bold: Masterworks of Navajo Design, 1840-1870

On view now at the Denver Art Museum,  Red, White and Bold: Masterworks of Navajo Design, 1840-1870 presents about fifty of the greatest examples of Navajo textile design. Drawing from the DAM collections, other museums, and private collections, this exhibition will surprise and delight museum visitors with the bold use of color and sophisticated design sensibilities. Showing works created as prestige shoulder blankets, this exhibition will explore the designer’s eye in pattern development and layout—and especially highlight the effect the textile would have as it was worn draped around a human form to enhance the stature and visibility of the wearer.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Poncho, ca. 1850

Installation view

Images courtesy of the Denver Art Museum

Chasses Magiques

Fifty-five tribal masterpieces on loan from the collections of 
the Musée du Quai Branly will be on show for four months at the Château de Vogüé in the French county of the Ardèche. Chasses Magiques (Magical Hunts) immerses visitors in the materials and icons of ancestral and universal practices: hunting over time, across the continents and through a range of traditional cultures in Africa, Oceania, and America, revealing their symbolic value - the mystical relationship between the hunter and his prey.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Zoomorphic mask  -  Dogon, Mali

Hunting trophy  -  Mentawai Archipelago, Sundas Islands

Drum  -  Asmat, Papua New Guinea

Headdress  -  Bobo, Burkina Faso

Information and images courtesy of the Château de Vogüé and Musée du Quai Branly

Bird Mothers and Feathered Serpents

Currently showing at the Saumel P. Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida, Bird Mothers and Feathered Serpents focuses on mythological beings in art from Oceania and Ancient America using objects from the Harn Museum’s collection. Each object represents a fascinating character – a culture hero, a divinity, or a spirit being. Their attributes and deeds reflect human understanding of the cosmos and played a role in shaping social and cultural ideas for a particular group of people. Oceanic works are from Melanesia, including the Sepik River region, Papuan Gulf, New Britain and New Ireland of Papua New Guinea. Ancient American works are from Mesoamerica, Central America and the Andean region.

Visit the Harn Museum's website.

Seated figural urn  -  Zapotec, Mexico  -  Circa 300-500 AD

Information and image courtesy of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art

Origins of the Afro Comb at the Fitzwilliam Museum

The 6,000-year history of the afro comb, its extraordinary impact on cultures worldwide, and community stories relating to hair today are being explored in this new exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge, England. Material culture on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum includes hundreds of remarkable combs - from pre-dynastic Egypt to modern-day combs referencing the Black Power Movement - as well as associated images and sculpture showing the wide variety of hair styles found in Africa and around the world. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Image courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum

Visiting with the Ancestors

What happens when museum objects go home for a visit? The Blackfoot shirts at Pitt Rivers Museum, collected in 1841, express Blackfoot culture and beliefs. In 2010, Pitt Rivers staff took them home to Canada for a visit so that contemporary Blackfoot people could learn from them and strengthen cultural knowledge and identity. This small exhibition includes three of the shirts and quotes and photographs from the reunions with Blackfoot people.

View the exhibition's official website.

Shirt with war honors  -  First half of 19th century

Image courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford