New book for Collectors! "Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art"

A new book about the important collection of Polynesian dealers Mark and Carolyn Blackburn is now available for purchase. Titled, "Polynesia: The Mark and Carolyn Blackburn Collection of Polynesian Art," the book is an account of the Hawaiian couple's impressive Oceanic art holdings, compiled by Smithsonian curator Adrienne Kaeppler. 

Polynesian War Club Artifacts

The 448-page book profiles more than 1,000 objects from the Blackburn collection. Mark Blackburn, owner of Mauna Kea Galleries of Honolulu, began collecting nearly 40 years ago. Always fascinated with the stories of the many voyages of Captain Cook, he purchased his first artifact, a Maori hei-tiki, at a flea market in Hamburg, Germany. He has been avidly collecting ever since. 

On display in the book are sculptural pieces, paintings, photographs, bark cloth, paddles and clubs, drums, tools, bowls, weapons and more. The geographic spread of the collection is vast, covering the Pacific Ocean region from Hawaii to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to Aotearoa (New Zealand), and the many islands in between. 

The selections in this book are drawn from the geographic and cultural areas of Polynesia. The work profiles objects from all over and features some of Blackburn's favorite items: the Maori pieces of Hawaiian sculpture. 

The book was compiled by Adrienne Kaeppler, Chief Curator of Oceanic ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and designed by award-winning Hawaiian designer Barbara Pope. Featuring 804 color illustrations, descriptions and annotations, the book makes public for the first time what is (according to Kaeppler) - "probably the best private collection of Polynesia in the world."  

Items from the Blackburn collection have been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, as well as a number of prominent museums and galleries around the world. 

The book is available for purchase at amazon.com. 

Decorated kapa cloth; Hawaii.
Barkcloth, pigments, approx 1 m x 1.5 m.
Late 18th-early 19th century.

Art of the Pacific at the Bowers Museum

Spirits and Headhunters: Art of the Pacific, a new exhibition showcasing the traditional arts of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia opened at the Bowers Museum on February 20. The show will run through December 2010.

Featuring more than 150 tribal objects, Spirits and Headhunters vividly presents the complex and exquisite blend of artistic sensitivity and spiritual essence found in the art of the Pacific, strikingly suffused in each artifact the installation has to offer. Associated with the esoteric men's house of the Sepik River region, the works on display include shamanic items, beautifully crafted ornaments, weaponry, shell and feather currency, splendid feast bowls, and the most precious of human trophies––the human skull––taken in a spirit of retribution and reverence.

Photographer Chris Rainier guest curates this exhibition of art from the South Pacific. Spanning the geographic region collectively referred to as Oceania, this comprehensive exhibition highlights masterworks from the three cultural regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. Particular focus is placed on New Guinea, land of the headhunter, and the rich artistic traditions infused into daily and ritual life. Submerge into a visually stunning world and come face to face with larger-than-life masks, finely crafted feast bowls, objects associated with the secretive Sepik River men’s house, beautiful shell and feather currency, magic figures and tools of the shaman, objects related to seagoing trade routes, gorgeous personal adornments, weapons of warfare and the most precious of human trophies taken in retribution.

The New York Arts of Pacific Asia Show This Week

The anchor of New York City’s Spring Asia Week, this show, presented since 1995, brings together an ever more prestigious assemblage of the world’s leading galleries and dealers specializing in the fine arts, textiles and objects de arte of Asia, the Subcontinent, Japan, the Pacific Islands, and the Near and Middle East.

The Arts of Pacific Asia Show takes place during the major Asian auctions at Sotheby’s, Christies, Phillips, and Doyles, and major gallery shows now adding to the luster of the most vibrant Asian art market in the world.

Collectors, major museum curators and connoisseurs are the core of Asia Week buyers, and the show’s more than 70 exhibitors gather from Asia, Europe, the UK and across America to make this rigorously vetted event the most respected Asian art fair in the world.

Show Dates: March 25th - March 28th, 2010. Check out http://www.caskeylees.com/NY_Asia/NY_Asia.html for more information.