Oceanic Art Auction at Theodore Bruce

Australian auctioneers Theodore Bruce will present a sale of Oceanic art and artifacts on Monday, August 17 in Sydney. Showcasing the collection of Todd Barlin, the sale will feature a multitude of weapons, ornaments, shields and ritual items from Melanesia, Polynesia, Australia, the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere.

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Hair comb with head finial  -  Fly River, Papua New Guinea

Image courtesy of Theodore Bruce Auctioneers

Tribal Art Sale - Origine

Origine Expert will present a sale of fine tribal art and artifacts today, December 8, at the Hotel Drouot in Paris. The lots will comprise a wide range of works from Africa, Australia, and the pre-Columbian Americas.

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Images courtesy of Origine Expert

Art of the South Seas at Bonhams

Bonhams will hold its annual Art of the South Seas auction on February 9 in San Francisco. The sale will present over 180 works from all parts of Oceania: Australia, Indonesia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia. Highlights will include carvings from the Cook Islands and Austral Islands, Papua New Guinea masks, Maori nephrite objects, royal items from Hawaii, and more.

View the online catalogue.

Images courtesy of Bonhams

Tribal Perspectives

Tribal Perspectives, the UK’s only dedicated group art show for tribal art, will be held for its seventh consecutive year in London’s Mayfair district from October 2–5, with a collectors’ preview on the afternoon of the October 2. Exhibitors for this year’s event include Chris Boylan, Wayne Heathcote, Louis Nierijnck, Adam Prout, Bryan Reeves, book dealer Charles Vernon-Hunt, and, of course, Tribal Art Magazine. In addition to the tribal artifacts offered, Tribal Perspectives will also feature presentations and lectures. As in previous years, the event will be held at Gallery 28 at 28 Cork Street, London.

Visit the official website.

Images courtesy of Tribal Perspectives

BRUNEAF 2013

The 23rd Brussels Non-European Art Fair will open on June 5 and run through June 9. As always, the illustrious event will feature the participation of well-known tribal art galleries from France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the USA, making the salon a thoroughly international experience.

For more details on the event and this year's participating dealers, visit the official BRUNEAF website.

Aboriginal and Oceanic Art at Sotheby's

On 28 May in Melbourne, Sotheby's Australia will present a double auction of fine Australian Aboriginal and Oceanic tribal art.  The first half of the presentation will showcase The Anthony and Beverly Knight Collection of Early Papunya Art - a stunning assemblage of twentieth-century Aboriginal painting - while the latter half will feature a more general array of beautiful traditional works from Australia and the Pacific.  

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Kaapa (Mbitjana) Tjampitjinpa, Corroboree and Body Decoration (1972)

Uta Uta Tjangala, Special Pintupi Travelling Ceremony (1972)

Barron River Native  -  Studios of Charles Henry Kerry and Henry King  -  Ca. 1886

Untitled  -  Artist unknown, ca. 1965

Information and images courtesy of Sotheby's

Aux sources de la peinture aborigène

The newest major exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly is devoted to Australian Aboriginal art. Curated by Judith Ryan of The National Gallery of Victoria and Philippe Batty of the Victoria Museum in Melbourne, Aux sources de la peinture aborigène will be the first European retrospective of the painting movement born in Australia's central desert community of Papunya in the early 1970s. While proclaiming the absolutely contemporary character of this indigenous painting style, the exhibition also explores the movement's iconographic and spiritual sources through the presentation of traditional objects and photographs of ephemeral ritual paintings, most notably those taken by Baldwin Spencer.                                          

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Sans titre, Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi, 1972

Emu Dreaming, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, 1972

Men's ceremony (Wati Kujarra), Freddy West Tjakamarra, 1972 

Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa, Walter Tjampitjinpa, 1971

Big Pintupi Dreaming ceremony, Anatjari Tjakamarra, 1972

Decorated knives  -  Australian Aboriginal  -  ca. 1900

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art

Through September 12, the Seattle Art Museum presents Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection. Featuring more than 100 works created from 1970 through 2009, the exhibition showcases what has been called the artistic renaissance of the world’s oldest living culture.

View the exhibition's official website.

Mitjili Napanangka Gibson  -  Warlpiri people  -  Wilkinkarra (2007)

Regina Pilawuk Wilson  -  Marathiel people - Sun Mat (2002)

Tjumpo Tjapanangka  -  Kukatja people  -  Wati Kutjarra (Two Brothers Dreaming) (2004) 

Kathleen Petyarr  -  Anmatyerr people  -  Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming (1996)

Information and images courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum