Artists of the Kopar and Angoram people, who live near the mouth of the Sepik River in northern New Guinea, created distinctive openwork figures which probably portray powerful spirits with long beak-like noses and lithe attenuated bodies. Some sources say that the figures were dance accessories, carried or worn by performers at initiations and other ceremonies. Tied to short lengths of bamboo, which survive on some examples, they were held in the hand as dance wands or, according to one account, affixed to a framework worn on the dancer’s back. The figure on view here once belonged to the Surrealist painter and writer Wolfgang Paalen (1905–1959), who perhaps was drawn to it by its distinctive treatment of the human form. The originality and plasticity with which artists from New Guinea and other parts of the Pacific portrayed the human image was greatly admired by the Surrealists, whose works often incorporate imagery closely inspired by Oceanic art.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Figure
Date:late 19th–early 20th century
Geography:Papua New Guinea, Lower Sepik River
Culture:Kopar or Angoram people
Medium:Wood, paint
Dimensions:H. 30 1/2 × W. 3 1/4 × D. 3 1/8 in. (77.5 × 8.3 × 7.9 cm)
Classification:Wood-Sculpture
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1969
Accession Number:1978.412.722
Charles Stéphen-Chauvet, Brussels, Belgium; Wolfgang Paalen; [Everett Rassiga, New York, until 1957]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1957, on loan to The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1958–1969; Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1969–1978
Museum of Primitive Art. "Masterpieces from the South Seas in the Collection of the MOPA," May 19, 1965–October 3, 1965.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas from The Museum of Primitive Art," May 10–August 17, 1969.
Art Institute of Chicago. "The Art of the Sepik River," October 16-December 19, 1971.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sculpture of Oceania," April 4–September 5, 1972.
Seattle Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–February 16, 1975.
American Federation of Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–May 15, 1977.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 23, 1975–May 4, 1975.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 8, 1975–July 20, 1975.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," August 25, 1975–October 10, 1975.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," November 9, 1975–December 21, 1975.
Toledo Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," April 11, 1976–May 25, 1976.
Walker Art Center. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 27, 1976–August 8, 1976.
Denver Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," September 10, 1976–November 7, 1976.
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 12, 1977–May 15, 1977.
Midland Art Center. "5000 Years of Art from the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 11, 1981–November 14, 1982.
Brooks Memorial Art Gallery. "5000 Years of Art from the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 11, 1981–November 14, 1982.
San Diego Museum of Art. "5000 Years of Art from the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 11, 1981–December 8, 1981.
Fine Arts Museum of the South. "5000 Years of Art from the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 11, 1981–November 14, 1982.
Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "5000 Years of Art from the Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 3, 1982–February 7, 1982.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of 'The Best' in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," October 7, 2013–October 9, 2014.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 150.
American Federation of Arts. Primitive Art Masterworks: an exhibition jointly organized by the Museum of Primitive Art and the American Federation of Arts, New York. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1974, no. 126.
American Federation of Arts. 5000 Years of Art from the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981, no. 91.
Newton, Douglas, Julie Jones, and Kate Ezra. The Pacific Islands, Africa, and the Americas: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, p. 18, no. 6.
Friede, John A. New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede. Vol. vol. 2. San Francisco: de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 2005, p. 99, no. 108.
Kjellgren, Eric. Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, p. 98, no. 56.
Nuku, Maia. Oceania: The Shape of Time. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023, p. 99, pl. 45.
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The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.
