Dance Staff Finialcirca 1900

Not on view

Title: Dance Staff Finial
Culture: Tolai People
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Gazelle Peninsula
Date Made: circa 1900
Medium: Wood, wool yarn, and pigment
Dimensions: 18 1/2 x 7 x 7 in. (46.99 x 17.78 x 17.78 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.2008.66.29
Classification: Architecture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This cylindrical human figure was made for placement on a dance staff. The dances were associated with initiation ceremonies in Tolai culture, and these figures often represented ancestor spirits. This figure has upraised arms, inset eyes, a grimaced mouth, and elongated body. The Tolai iniet society is based on secret initiation rituals and public dances, both events at which a staff like this was used.
Provenance: Collected by Heinrich Fellmann (1871–1946), Raluana, New Britain, gift to; Linden Museum, Stuttgart (I.C. 57435). John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. 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.

Not on view

Title: Dance Staff Finial
Culture: Tolai People
Place Made: Papua New Guinea, New Britain, Gazelle Peninsula
Date Made: circa 1900
Medium: Wood, wool yarn, and pigment
Dimensions: 18 1/2 x 7 x 7 in. (46.99 x 17.78 x 17.78 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.2008.66.29
Classification: Architecture
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This cylindrical human figure was made for placement on a dance staff. The dances were associated with initiation ceremonies in Tolai culture, and these figures often represented ancestor spirits. This figure has upraised arms, inset eyes, a grimaced mouth, and elongated body. The Tolai iniet society is based on secret initiation rituals and public dances, both events at which a staff like this was used.
Provenance: Collected by Heinrich Fellmann (1871–1946), Raluana, New Britain, gift to; Linden Museum, Stuttgart (I.C. 57435). John Alan Friede (b. 1938), New York, NY. 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.