Canoe Prow (haluan perahu)circa 1890

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Navigating Pacific Asia

Decorative boat-shaped object with dark wood hull and tall openwork filigree sail panels, mounted on a modern metal stand, with small dark tufts at the tips

Title: Canoe Prow (haluan perahu)
Place Made: Western New Guinea, West Papua, Cenderawasih Bay
Date Made: circa 1890
Medium: Wood and cassowary feathers
Dimensions: 35 x 82 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. (88.9 x 209.23 x 8.89 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.2008.66.40
Classification: Tools and Equipment
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This canoe prow, with its intricately carved interlaced scrollwork, is from the Cenderawasih, formerly Geelvinck, Bay area of the western half of the island of New Guinea. The area now known as West Papua had diverse cultural ties to other regions, including Indonesia, through trade contact, and the interlaced carved artwork of the region reflects this. The Indonesian influence is visible in the scroll motifs, which also appear in Indonesian textiles and wood reliefs.
Figures attached to the tops of the prow are ancestor effigies known as korwar, literally translated as “soul of the dead,” which are topped with cassowary feathers. These korwar protected those riding in the canoe.
Male carvers designed this exquisite prow with inherited knowledge from their fathers. The prow was attached to an outrigger canoe with bamboo strips, and painted red, white, and black. These canoes were used in war expeditions or as transportation to special ceremonies.
Provenance: Collected by Pierre Langlois (1927–2015), Western New Guinea, West Papua, Cenderawasih Bay, in 1962. John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. Carlo Monzino (1931–1996), Lugano, Switzerland. Anonymous (sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 10 November 1987, lot 132). 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.

Canoe Prow (haluan perahu)circa 1890

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Navigating Pacific Asia

Title: Canoe Prow (haluan perahu)
Place Made: Western New Guinea, West Papua, Cenderawasih Bay
Date Made: circa 1890
Medium: Wood and cassowary feathers
Dimensions: 35 x 82 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. (88.9 x 209.23 x 8.89 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.2008.66.40
Classification: Tools and Equipment
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This canoe prow, with its intricately carved interlaced scrollwork, is from the Cenderawasih, formerly Geelvinck, Bay area of the western half of the island of New Guinea. The area now known as West Papua had diverse cultural ties to other regions, including Indonesia, through trade contact, and the interlaced carved artwork of the region reflects this. The Indonesian influence is visible in the scroll motifs, which also appear in Indonesian textiles and wood reliefs.
Figures attached to the tops of the prow are ancestor effigies known as korwar, literally translated as “soul of the dead,” which are topped with cassowary feathers. These korwar protected those riding in the canoe.
Male carvers designed this exquisite prow with inherited knowledge from their fathers. The prow was attached to an outrigger canoe with bamboo strips, and painted red, white, and black. These canoes were used in war expeditions or as transportation to special ceremonies.
Provenance: Collected by Pierre Langlois (1927–2015), Western New Guinea, West Papua, Cenderawasih Bay, in 1962. John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. Carlo Monzino (1931–1996), Lugano, Switzerland. Anonymous (sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 10 November 1987, lot 132). 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.