Dance of the Ancestors: Art from the Sepik of Papua New Guinea

In its last days at the Museum Rietberg in Zürich is Dance of the Ancestors: Art from the Sepik of Papua New Guinea, an exhibition focusing on the many tribes of the Sepik River in northern Papua New Guinea. Philippe Peltier of the Musée du Quai Branly and Markus Schindlbeck of the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum, the exhibition’s curators, have assembled 220 objects, all from European museums and for the most part collected prior to World War I, with the intention of making the show more than just an art exhibition, but a tribute to the wealth and diversity of these cultures, as well as a key for understanding their lifestyles and their complex social organization.

Visit the Museum Rietberg website.

Missionaries and Idols in Polynesia

An exhibition currently on view at the Brunei Gallery of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London documents the early years of the London Missionary Society (LMS), from its formation in 1795 until around 1825, the time of its initial “success” in central Polynesia, a triangle in the Pacific encompassing the Society Islands, the Cooks, and the Australs. The first half of the exhibition shows forty archival items—paintings, engravings, prints, books, imprints, and more —that together illustrate the formation of the LMS, the missionaries themselves, the voyage of the missionary ship Duff, and the society’s Missionary Museum in London. The second half of the exhibition, in the words of missionary Rev. John Williams, puts on view an “ocular demonstration” of forty idols and non-idol artifacts that the LMS missionaries collected and sent back to their headquarters.

Visit the official exhibition website.

Fly whisk handle  -  Rurutu, Austral Islands

Case of Polynesian idols depicted in Juvenile Missionary Magazine, 1860

Spear point-cum-feather god  -  Cook Islands

War god, Oro  -  Tahiti

Devils and Gods

Les diables et les dieux (Devils and Gods), currently on view at Château de Tanlay until September 20, creates a dialogue between contemporary art and traditional works from non-Western cultures. Without the imposition of any cultural hierarchy, the works of Bengt Lindström, Barthélémy Toguo, Coco Fronsac, and Cyprien Tokoudagba are installed side by side with some fifty pieces from traditional cultures of Africa, Oceania, and the Himalayas to form a compelling aesthetic conversation.

Visit the official Château de Tanlay website.

Sotheby's Preview Exhibition

Planned to coincide with the 2015 edition of Parcours des Mondes, Sotheby’s will present highlights of their upcoming December 2 tribal art auction in a preview exhibition at Galerie Charpentier on September 8–12. Some remarkable pieces from Cameroon and Oceania from the well-known René and Odette Delenne Collection will be among these treasures, as will a group of African works from the Frum Collection (Oceanic objects from which were sold by Sotheby’s with resounding success in September 2014). An Ndassa (Gabon) reliquary guardian figure collected before 1930 and which is from the same collection as the beautiful Kota Shamaye sold at the winter 2012 sale will also be on view.

Images courtesy of Sotheby's

Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing

Shifting Patterns: Pacific Barkcloth Clothing, on view at the British Museum until August 16, 2015, features seventy-seven examples of clothing, headgear, masks, and ornaments from New Guinea to Easter Island, by way of Hawaii and New Zealand. The show’s curators place emphasis on the objects’ traditional social and cultural contexts but also examine how more recent developments associated with colonization have altered their forms and uses.

Visit the official exhibition website.

Hula dancers from the Hālau Nā Kipuʻupuʻu group, Kaʻauea, Hawaiʻi, Hawaiian Islands, 2011, Dino Morrow

Cloth  -  Hawaiian Islands

Shifting Values of Plaited Power

Weaving traditions used to make mats throughout the Pacific—makaloa from Hawai’i, i’e toga from Samoa, sese from Vanuatu, kabae (male dance mat) from Kiribati, jaki-ed from the Marshall Islands, as well as examples from the rainforests of Borneo, Philippines, and the Solomon Islands—are being highlighted in Shifting Values of Plaited Power, on view at the Honolulu Museum of Art through August 9, 2015. Drawn from the museum’s collection, the mats in the show highlight the region’s skilled weaving traditions. They are often ornamented with patterned, abstract designs or adorned with added fringe, feathers, or bits of yarn, each distinctive ethnic and regional identifiers. Respected and coveted as heirloom items, the common denominator between these weavings from far-flung islands is hand plaiting, done without a loom and originally made only of natural fibers such as pandanus (pandanus tectorius), rattan (calameae), and other sedge grasses.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Mat  -  Borneo  -  Mid-20th century

Jaki-ed or nieded (woman's skirt)  -  Marshall Islands  -  19th-20th century

Images courtesy of the Honolulu Museum of Art

AOA New York Art Fair 2015

Now in its fifth year, the AOA NY art fair will be held at Tambaran Gallery from May 14–17, 2015. Somewhat reduced in size from previous years, this event remains a worthy destination, the more so since besides its dealer roster—which this year includes Galerie Flak from Paris and Mark Eglinton and James Trotta-Bono from New York, among others—it is cross-pollinating with contemporary art in the hope of attracting more than the usual tribal art audience. These contemporary works have been selected because of their harmonious affinity with the traditional arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas.

PAD Paris 2015

There will be three representatives of tribal art at the nineteenth annual Paris Art + Design (PAD) show, which will be held March 26–29 at the Tuileries. Yann Ferrandin will be showing at the event for the first time, offering a selection of works representative of the level of quality and aesthetic merit he strives for all year round in his new gallery at 33 Rue de Seine. Two other participants who have long been present there, Galerie Afrique from St. Maur and Galerie Flak from Paris, will also be showing. 

For more information, visit the official PAD website.

TEFAF 2015

This year's edition of TEFAF will host seven galleries specializing in tribal art. The newest addition is Galerie Bacquart from Paris, which has been selected for the TEFAF Showcase. Jean-Baptiste Bacquart will offer a number of important African sculptures with prestigious provenances. Lucas Ratton will return this year as a full exhibitor with a strong selection of works, the cornerstone of which will be a Byeri Fang figure. Didier Claes will exhibit a group of African masks from the collection of Dr. Alex Rafaeli. Anthony J. P. Meyer will show works primarily from Melanesia and Polynesia, including a fine Tongan apa’apai club. Other long-time participants that visitors will have the pleasure of seeing again will include the Bernard de Grunne Gallery from Brussels with African art, the Entwistle Gallery from London and Paris with African and Oceanic material, and Galerie 1492 from Paris, which will present Pre-Columbian art.

For more information on the event, visit the official TEFAF website.

San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show 2015

More than eighty of the world’s top tribal art specialists will once again showcase art, jewelry, antiques, and accessories from the most remote areas on the planet at the twenty-ninth annual San Francisco Tribal & Textile Arts Show, held February 6– 8, 2015, at Fort Mason Center’s Festival Pavilion. Ranging from galleries that have been doing business for generations to dealers who launched their careers collecting in the field, the artwork offered here is always stimulating and represents some of the best to be found in North America. The gala opening reception on the evening of February 5 benefits the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and is a not-to-be-missed event that allows first access to the wide-ranging treasures that the show presents.

For more information about the event, visit the official website.

BRAFA 2015

BRAFA (Brussels Antiques & Fine Art Fair), Belgium’s foremost art, antiques, and antiquities show, will celebrate its sixtieth anniversary from January 24 until February 1 in its longstanding Tour and Taxis location. Eight dealers will represent tribal art at the event: Didier Claes, Pierre Dartevelle, Bernard Dulon, Yann Ferrandin, Jacques Germain, Sarah de Monbrison, Judith Schoffel and Christophe de Fabry, and Serge Schoffel. 

For more information on the event, visit the official website.

Joyce Mansour, poétesse et collectionneuse

Through February 1, 2015, the Musée du Quai Branly’s Atelier Aublet is hosting an installation devoted to Joyce Mansour (1928–1986). A poetess without boundaries and of Egyptian origin, she was close to the surrealist scene and erupted on the Parisian avantgarde in 1953. The exhibition, conceived of by Philippe Dagen, consists of photographs by Mansour as well as the artworks she surrounded herself with. These include artifacts with symbolic value that she created herself in the manner of André Breton, with whom she had close ties, as well as tribal artworks, especially from the South Seas, of the kind that were so cherished by the surrealists.

View the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Thema Sablon 4

Thema Sablon began its fourth installment in the Sablon arts district of Brussels yesterday and will continue through November 29. This exciting tribal art event comprises some twenty-five thematic exhibitions by a host of distinguished dealers, such as Didier Claes, Kevin Conru, Jo de Buck, Patrick Mestdagh, Serge Schoffel, and many more.

For more information, visit Thema's official Facebook page.

L'éclat des ombres

The Radiance of Shadows: Black and White Art of the Solomon Islands will open at the Musée du quai Branly on November 18. Luminosity and iridescence are omnipresent in the maritime environment of the Solomon Islands, a Pacific archipelago of more than 900 islands that harbors vast cultural diversity. The natural contrast of light and dark there is often associated with the “Shadows,” the powerful spirits of the dead. By reproducing the visual effects of their environment in art objects, the living seek to give material expression to the relations they enjoy with these supernatural beings, and through these remarkable objects, the presence of ancestors manifests itself to help men achieve success in their enterprises, whether building a house for the chief or a canoe to sail the seas. Objects relating to headhunting, fishing, harvest, initiation, marriage, funerary rites, and so on are all rooted in this aesthetic.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Frieze Masters

From October 15–19, vast numbers of art lovers will attend the third annual Frieze Masters show. Much heralded by the press since its opening in 2012, this more general show is held concurrently with Frieze London, which focuses specifically on contemporary art and hosts 120 of the most prestigious galleries in the world. Tribal art will be represented at Frieze Masters by distinguished dealers Donald Ellis, Pace Primitive Gallery, Gallery Entwistle of London and Galerie Meyer of Paris.

For more information, visit the event's official website.

East of the Wallace Line: Monumental Art from Indonesia and New Guinea

Newly opened at the Yale University Art Gallery is East of the Wallace Line: Monumental Art from Indonesia and New Guinea, an important new exhibition exploring the cultural characteristics of eastern Indonesia and coastal western New Guinea. Taking as its jumping-off point the “Wallace Line,” an ecological demarcation first recognized by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace that runs through Indonesia between Bali and Lombok and west of Sulawesi, the exhibition presents intricately decorated, large-scale sculptures and textiles, as well as more intimate personal and domestic objects. With more than 120 works from the 17th to 19th century, the exhibition features highlights from the Gallery’s permanent collection and select loans, many either too large or too fragile to be regularly displayed.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Korwar figure  -  Irian Jaya

Woman's tunic  -  Sulawesi

Mask  -  Timor

Betel container  -  Timor

Neckrest  -  Irian Jaya

Images and information courtesy of the Yale University Art Gallery

Encounters with Hawai'i: Art in an Age of Exploration, 1778–1820

On view now at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Encounters with Hawai'i: Art in an Age of Exploration, 1778–1820 brings together artwork associated with the European navigational voyages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These lengthy expeditions explored and charted the lands that dotted the Pacific, and they carried with them painters, draftsmen, scientists, and cartographers, who documented the flora, fauna, terrain, and inhabitants of the distant lands they encountered. The drawings, paintings, and prints they generated comprise the earliest visual record of Hawai‘i.

The installation begins with the British painter and draftsman John Webber, who traveled with Captain James Cook’s third and final voyage, from 1776 to 1780. This expedition brought Cook and his crew to Hawai‘i, and Webber, as its official artist, pictured their experiences and discoveries in an elaborate series of drawings and watercolors, which were published to illustrate the official narrative of Cook’s travels.

Subsequent trips brought additional artists—most notably the Russian Louis Choris and the Frenchman Jacques Arago—who depicted Hawaiian religion and customs before and shortly after the fall of the kapu system. Taken together, these works reflect an era of great curiosity about the world and its inhabitants, and in their time popularized Hawai‘i for audiences well beyond its shores.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Louis Choris, A Temple in the Sandwich Islands, ca 1819

John Webber, Kealakekua Bay and the Village "Kowrooa", 1779

Images and information courtesy of the Honolulu Museum of Art

From Samoa with Love

On view until October 5 at Munich's Museum für Völkerkunde is From Samoa with Love, an exhibition examining the origins and content of colonial-era imagery of Samoa in a way that has never been produced before, shedding light on the little-known history of the cultural exchanges that took place between Germany and its former Polynesian colony during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.  Using period photographs as well as objects from the museum's own collection, the installation's curators also enlisted the aid of Samoan nationals to help shed light on this unique period in history.

View the exhibition's official website.

Imagery courtesy of the Museum für Völkerkunde

Tiki Pop

In the 1930s, Polynesian-themed bars and restaurants began to appear in America while the stereotypes of the beachcomber and the sexy vahine were popularised in literature and on the big screen. With the appearance of the Tiki aesthetic in the 1950s, this style became a genuine way of life. A very liberal adaptation of the original Polynesian idols, Tiki imagery was produced in traditional and modernist forms and pervaded everyday life. Through nearly 450 works, photographs, films, musical recordings and archive documents, a new exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly entitled Tiki Pop. L'Amérique rêve son paradis polynésien (Tiki Pop: America Imagines its Polynesian Paradise) bears witness to this infatuation-cum-lifestyle. A huge array of period items and ephemera are presented in the installation alongside authentic tribal works, including Maori tekoteko sculptures, Tongan kava bowls, and more.

View the exhibition's official website.

Images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Masterpieces of New Guinea Art in Brussels

Masterpieces of New Guinea Art from the Royal Museum of Central Africa will be on view from June 4–15 at the Ancienne Nonciature, the nineteenth-century Papal residence in Brussels, which was recently restored to its former glory. This assemblage of exquisite Melanesian art has been launched to coincide seamlessly with the 2014 edition of BRUNEAF (Brussels Non-European Art Fair), which will take place from June 4–8 in the city's Sablon district.  A fully illustrated color catalogue accompanies the exhibition, with text by Crispin Howarth of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Bart Suys of the Musée Royal d’Art et d’Histoire, Brussels; and Kevin Conru, author and researcher on Pacific Island culture.