NEW GUINEA PAPUAN GULF "BIOMA" MALE FIGURE

Origin: New Guinea, Papuan Gulf, Likely Era River (Provenance: Collected by George Craig in the early 1970's.  Ex. collection of Lawrence Bishop.  During the 1980's Lawrence was Vice President of Hemmeter Art Services, a division of the Hemmeter Group, and traveled the world with Chris Hemmeter Jr. purchasing Tribal and Asian Art for their corporate installations.  He also established for the firm "The Hemmeter Collection" galleries which he oversaw on Kauai, Maui, and the Island of Hawaii. He is perhaps best known for the Polynesian Art he acquired for Hemmeter which was later published in the book "Art of Polynesia", with a special introductory essay by Dr. Terrance Barrow and the text by John Charles Edler.)
 

Period/Date:  First quarter of the 20th century

Materials:  Hardwood cut from the side of a canoe, natural earth pigments

Description:  As with most "bioma" figures this one was cut from the side of a very old canoe after being retired.  The wood is really old on this one and could easily be 19th century.  It has good scale, almost being 4 feet tall, and has layers of red and white pigments intact.  The backside is uniformly concave until you reach up to the shoulders, at which point the head is twisted to the right.  This subtle feature gives the piece character and movement (I tried to capture this in the 4th photo down).  There are a few old glued mends; one to the left side of the head and others to appendages (right leg) but its integrity is very sound.    These are getting hard to find as they become more popular with collectors of contemporary and modern art.

Dimensions:   Height: 44.75"  (113.5 cm), Width 10.25"  (26 cm)

Price:  $4000   Currency Conversion   FREE SHIPPING in USA When Using "Buy Now" Feature

  (Add $150 for international shipments)