The National Museum’s collection of 19th century Pacific art
Apart from the ‘Cook Collection’, the National Museum’s collection of Pacific art is especially rich in works from New Guinea, including Papua, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, Easter Island and the Maori culture of New Zealand. These exhibits reflect well some of the great diversity of styles among the traditions of the numerous islands. Throughout the Pacific the work is mainly of wood, basket work or various types of cloth. The masks and head-dresses, especially from the Sepic Valley, frequently have hair, teeth, leaves and shells attached. Carvings, particularly those of the Solomon Islands, are often inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The themes derive from the human form, from pigs, fish and birds with solely abstract patterns being limited to such very functional objects as bowls, clubs, spears and cloths. Nowhere do we find the human body being presented as a form of beauty in itself, and portraits of individual people are never carved, even in ancestral and funeral figures.
Flamboyance and imagination in Pacific art is nowhere better represented than in works from New Guinea. A wide range of masks, head-dresses and carvings are individually expressive and colourful. They are often associated with rituals and with initiation into various levels of an elaborate hierarchy of grades. The men sometimes live separate from the women in communal men’s houses which are elaborately decorated with colourful carvings. The exchange of imaginative works between the different communities on the island encourages flexibility and diversity. There are considerable regional differences and the southern area, Papua, is especially distinctive.
This exhibition includes fine votive plaques from the Papua area on which the decorative theme is, typically, the human form or face. Masks, shields and drums were decorated with similar patterns. The Papuans themselves suppressed their art, associating it with their tribal past, in a craving for the European interpretation of modernity and progress.
The elegance of the work of the Solomon Islands is well represented by a canoe prow and cooking bowl in the exhibition as well as by paddles and clubs, which were more ceremonial objects than weapons. The work is remarkable for its fine shell inlay and for the incised patterns into which lime is rubbed. The finest objects from the Solomon Islands are the great canoes, used for head-hunting raids, with a carved prow and rich inlay; a model, made in the Solomon islands, is included in this exhibitions.
The art of New Ireland consists almost entirely of statues, masks and bas reliefs. Many of the carvings are a striking combination of human forms and accessory motifs of snakes, fishes and birds. Statues frequently have a strongly carved central figure at the front and sides. The works are typically polychrome, in red, black and white. The sculpture are designated malanggan, this being the name of the ritual cycles with which they are associated. The splendid imagination which conceived this art seems to have become crystallised into a highly distinctive style. Within this stylized form there remains great freedom in the imaginative design of the individual motifs. The works combine imagination of the highest order and remarkable craftsmanship; they must rank as among the highest achievements of Pacific art.
Of the other and more outlying islands, Easter Island is well known for its mysterious monumental carvings. The island life was hard, wood was scarce and famine frequent. Carved figures are rare and the collection is fortunate to include three male statues and one partly reptile and partly man. The human figures show highly emaciated trunks, a characteristic of Easter Island carvings. The two fine carvings from Hawaii represent what is probably the most realistic tradition of carving the human figure to be found anywhere in the Pacific.
Maori art, which is continued in the Maori communities in New Zealand, is remarkable for its considerable technical standards and the almost stereo-typed themes. It has a stylized quality somewhat reminiscent of Burmese and other Asian art. Like the statue, the bas reliefs are deeply carved and heavily decorated with incised patterns. Colour is seldom conspicuous. Similar decoration can be found on bailers, boxes and paddles. Perhaps the best known form of Maori art is the tiki. These charming god-symbols in jade, were worn as pendants by woman of high rank.
