Spirit Figurecirca 1925

Not on view

Carved wooden mask with painted face in off-white, brick red, and black, with tooth-like projections along the top edge and openwork scroll forms at the base

Title: Spirit Figure
Culture: Southern Abelam or Boiken People
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province
Date Made: circa 1925
Medium: Wood and pigment
Dimensions: 28 7/8 × 12 3/8 × 6 1/8 in. (73.34 × 31.43 × 15.56 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.2008.66.9
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This figure was made to portray a specific ancestor and, with its large head, was the top part of a life-size carving. The proportions of the face and the facial painting of the round head, long nose, close-set eyes, and small ears, as well as the unadorned body, are typical of the Boiken region. The area below the head has the carved parrot totems of the represented ancestor.
Figures of this type were made for initiation rites that structured the male ceremonial society. The young initiates learned the origin and function of different ceremonial rituals and objects, as well as received knowledge passed down by the older men in the community. During a ceremony, the figures were displayed along the wall of the ceremonial house.
The artistic skills of the Boiken People were preserved into the twentieth century due to the isolation of the area. These were closely related to the Abelam People, who also created initiation figures
Provenance: Bruce Laurie Seaman (1926-2022), Bora Bora, Tahiti and Honolulu, Hawaii. Carlo Monzino (1931–1996), Lugano, Switzerland. Anonymous (sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 10 November 1987, lot 121). Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Harding, Julian. "Pacific Treasures: the Masco Collection Goes to Los Angeles." Tribal Art no.50 (2008): 68-73.

Related Unframed

New Acquisition: Forest Spirit Figure

April 24, 2018
Polly Nooter Roberts

Acquisitions from the 32nd Collectors Committee Weekend

April 23, 2018
Chi-Young Kim

A Conversation with Dr. Polly Nooter Roberts on The Inner Eye

May 11, 2017
Arthur Nguyen

Spirit Figurecirca 1925

Not on view

Title: Spirit Figure
Culture: Southern Abelam or Boiken People
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Province
Date Made: circa 1925
Medium: Wood and pigment
Dimensions: 28 7/8 × 12 3/8 × 6 1/8 in. (73.34 × 31.43 × 15.56 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.2008.66.9
Classification: Sculpture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This figure was made to portray a specific ancestor and, with its large head, was the top part of a life-size carving. The proportions of the face and the facial painting of the round head, long nose, close-set eyes, and small ears, as well as the unadorned body, are typical of the Boiken region. The area below the head has the carved parrot totems of the represented ancestor.
Figures of this type were made for initiation rites that structured the male ceremonial society. The young initiates learned the origin and function of different ceremonial rituals and objects, as well as received knowledge passed down by the older men in the community. During a ceremony, the figures were displayed along the wall of the ceremonial house.
The artistic skills of the Boiken People were preserved into the twentieth century due to the isolation of the area. These were closely related to the Abelam People, who also created initiation figures
Provenance: Bruce Laurie Seaman (1926-2022), Bora Bora, Tahiti and Honolulu, Hawaii. Carlo Monzino (1931–1996), Lugano, Switzerland. Anonymous (sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 10 November 1987, lot 121). Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.
Harding, Julian. "Pacific Treasures: the Masco Collection Goes to Los Angeles." Tribal Art no.50 (2008): 68-73.

Related Unframed

New Acquisition: Forest Spirit Figure

April 24, 2018
Polly Nooter Roberts

Acquisitions from the 32nd Collectors Committee Weekend

April 23, 2018
Chi-Young Kim

A Conversation with Dr. Polly Nooter Roberts on The Inner Eye

May 11, 2017
Arthur Nguyen