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Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

Louvre Museum Magazine Review of Todd’s Exhibition Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris France. 
Published in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine June 1996.  Read the PDF in English & French
The Artworks are now in the permanent collection of the Musée du quai Branly & are some of the first artworks you see when walking into the Oceanic Art Pavilion at The Musée du quai Branly

This superb exhibition of the traditional Arts of The Asmat & Mimika (Kormoro) people of West Papua, held in the grand buildings of the Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.

In 1985-86 Todd Barlin spent six months living with the Asmat & Kamoro (Mimika) people which culminated in a collection of artworks & field photos from both of these amazing cultures. During this time I stayed in remote villages for weeks at a time and it was a chance to get to know people and let them get to know you. I lived as they did, ate what they had each day, and also suffered problems such as malaria and dengue fever. Despite the fortuitous and unpredictable circumstances, this was a magical pre-digital era – before the internet, mobile phones, or television exposed remote villages to the outside world. I often stayed for six to eight months a year traveling in remote areas and for that time it was as if the rest of the world did not exist.”

 

 

The History of The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie

The Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie (National Museum of Arts of Africa and Oceania) was a museum formerly located in the Palais de la Porte Dorée on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes at 293, avenue Daumesnil in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, France.

The museum began as the colonial exhibition of 1931, was renamed in 1935 the Musée de la France d’Outre-mer, then in 1960 the Musée des Arts africains et océaniens, and finally in 1990 the Musée national des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie.

In 2003 the museum’s collection was merged into the Musée du Quai Branly, and in its place the Palais de la Porte Dorée now houses the Cité nationale de l’histoire de l’immigration. Its tropical aquarium remains in the cellar of the Palais de la Porte Dorée and is open to the public.

A superb old Aboriginal Bark Painting from Western Arnhem Land Northern Territory Australia

This Superb Old Bark Painting of  Bininj the First Ancestor and Naljord the Rainbow Serpent Oenpelli Area in Western Arnhem Land Northern Australia

This rare and beautiful painting depicts Bininj the First Ancestor and Naljord the Rainbow Serpent who appears to be gently licking Bininj the First Ancestor’s face.

The rainbow serpent is a powerful mythological figure for all Aboriginal people throughout Australia. Characteristics of the rainbow serpent vary greatly from group to group and also depending on the site. Often viewed as a female generative figure, the rainbow serpent can sometimes also be male. She has both powers of creation and destruction and is most strongly associated with rain, monsoon seasons, and of course, the colour seen in rainbows which arc across the sky like a giant serpent. For Aboriginal people in Northern Australia, the rainbow serpent is said to be active during the wet season.

Known as Ngalyod in Western and Central Arnhem Land, the rainbow serpent is mostly associated with bodies of water such as billabongs, creeks, rivers, and waterfalls where she resides. Therefore, she is responsible for the production of most water plants such as water lilies, water vines, algae and palms, which grow near water. The roar of waterfalls in the escarpment country is said to be her voice. Large holes in stony banks of rivers and cliff faces are said to be her tracks. She is held in awe because of her apparent ability to renew her life by shedding her skin and emerging anew.

Cross-hatching on bark paintings called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Indigenous Artists from the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, use crushed earth ochre pigments to paint on sheets of eucalyptus bark, they paint beautiful spiritual images of deep cultural significance that show their spiritual connection with specific tracts of country

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

The designs seen on Arnhem Land Bark Paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his “skin”, or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. In many cases, these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in ceremonies. Artists also would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters where stayed during seasonal food gathering.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

If you have any Bark Paintings I am always interested in buying & I pay top prices for Bark Paintings that I like.

A Fine Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Circa 1977 

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts Possusms and the Marrawili Tree and there is a very fine Raark or cross-hatching

Cross-hatching called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Indigenous Artists from the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, use crushed earth ochre pigments to paint on sheets of eucalyptus bark, they paint beautiful spiritual images of deep cultural significance that show their spiritual connection with specific tracts of country

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

The designs seen on Arnhem Land Bark Paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his “skin”, or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. In many cases, these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in ceremonies. Artists also would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters where stayed during seasonal food gathering.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

 

A Fine Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Circa 1975   

Djalga the Goanna coming out of the sacred water hole made by the creator Wuyal . This story refers also to important Dhuwa moiety ancestors called the Wawilak Sisters.

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts Djalga the Goanna coming out of the sacred water hole made by the creator Being Wuyal and there is very fine Raark or cross-hatching

Cross-hatching called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Indigenous Artists from the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, use crushed earth ochre pigments to paint on sheets of eucalyptus bark, they paint beautiful spiritual images of deep cultural significance that show their spiritual connection with specific tracts of country

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

The designs seen on Arnhem Land Bark Paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his “skin”, or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. In many cases, these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in ceremonies. Artists also would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters where stayed during seasonal food gathering.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

 

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From NE Arnhem Land Northern Territory. Dating from the 1960s 

This beautiful older Bark Painting is from the Northeast Arnhem Land area of the Northern Territory of Australia. The Painting depicts totemic animals including crocodiles, turtles, fish & snakes, and with fine Raark cross-hatching

Indigenous Artists from the Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, use crushed earth ochre pigments to paint on sheets of eucalyptus bark, they paint beautiful spiritual images of deep cultural significance that show their spiritual connection with specific tracts of country

Arnhem Land Rock Art sites are some thousands of years old where ancient rock shelters were painted and maintained over generations, Arnhem Land is world-renowned for its Rock Art.

The designs seen on Arnhem Land Bark Paintings are traditional designs that are owned by the artist, or his “skin”, or his clan, and cannot be painted by other artists. In many cases, these designs would traditionally be used to paint the body for ceremonies or rituals, and also to decorate logs used in ceremonies. Artists also would paint designs on the bark walls and roofs of their shelters where stayed during seasonal food gathering.

Cross-hatching called Raark is one of the most distinctive and beautiful features of Arnhem Land Bark Paintings Closely-spaced fine lines are drawn in particular colours, intersecting each other. The chosen colours may be specific to a particular clan, and the effect is difficult to describe but produces a deep impression on the viewer. Traditionally, the most sacred designs drawn on bodies during ceremonies were drawn with a quality called “bir’yun”, which is loosely translated as scintillation (as in the twinkling of stars) but carries a connotation of sunlight reflected off the sparkling water.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal

 

A Superb Old Australian Aboriginal Bark Painting From Groote Island in the Northern Territory

A Superb Old Bark Painting of Totemic Sea Creatures from Groote Eyland Northern Territory Collected in 1960s (Artist Unrecorded )

This beautiful Bark Painting depicts various Sea Creatures, at the very top it looks like a shark with strange appendages.

Europeans collected the art from Groote Island almost as soon as they arrived. Groote Islanders painted and decorated the inside walls of their bark huts. Anthropologist Norman Tindale in 1921-1922 made the first collections of bark paintings. This collection is now in the collection of the South Australian Museum. Frederick Rose made another large collection in 1938, with the help of Fred Gray. Fred Gray encouraged local Groote Islanders to paint barks as a means of financial independence.

Charles Mountford collected his work in 1948 during the American Australian Scientific Expedition. In the 1950s, the Rev. L.M. Howell commissioned eight sets of narrative paintings from Thomas Nanjiwarra.

Later, Helen Groger-Wurm collected Nandjiwarra’s barks and these became the National Gallery of Australia’s first major acquisition of Aboriginal art in 1972.

In the 1960s and 70s, this distinctive and celebrated style reached a peak. It ceased with the advent of manganese mining operations which brought a disruptive influence to the island.

Groote Eylandt, in Anindilyakwa Country off the coast of northeast Arnhem Land, has been a center of bark painting since the 1920s. The heavy black background and dashed lines of red, white and yellow ochres that comprise this painting are characteristic of Anindilyakwa bark paintings from the middle of the twentieth century. The black pigment comes from the manganese that has been mined on Groote Eylandt for decades.

Chasm Island, off the northern coast of Groote Eylandt is known as the site of the first European documentation of Aboriginal rock art, one of the oldest continuously practiced artistic traditions in the world. It is likely that this painting refers to the mapping of this Country, or to ancestral stories relating to this area that link the landscape to early narratives of creation and the formation of geographical features.

The Groote Eylandt Mission was established at Emerald River in 1921. Its history is closely tied to the growth of the contemporary bark painting movement on the island. The first missionaries encouraged artists to produce portable barks that could be sold to provide income for the Mission. Artists began transferring the painted designs that previously decorated human bodies, rock shelters, and the inner walls of bark huts onto bark panels. Designs associated with secret or sacred knowledge remained restricted to certain artists and ceremonies.

This painting is in near-perfect condition, the family who owned had it packed away in a clean dry box for years, and the colour is as bright as the day it was painted due to their conservation of the painting never being kept in sunlight

 Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic and Australian Aboriginal Art 

 

A Fine Japanese Bamboo Woven Ikebana Basket, Meiji period (1868-1912)

Fine Japanese Bamboo Woven Basket, Meiji period (1868-1912)

A very beautiful antique Japanese ikebana basket for flower arranging. Made of light colour split bamboo woven with contrasting dark and twisting wisteria vines

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer 

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

A Superb Old Aibom Village Sago Pot Called Dnmrau Chambri Lakes Area, East Sepik Province

Superb Large Old Aibom Village Sago Pots were collected in 1965 by Keith Adams, Chambri Lakes With Totemic Eagle Face

Collected in 1965  by Keith Adams (1922 -1996) he was a documentary Film Maker & Crocodile Hunter and Adventurer

Aibom is the name of a pottery-making village in the Chambri Lakes area in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea.

Aibom Village was central to a long flourishing traditional trading ring, they made magnifificent Pottery Vessels like this superb example that are used for storing Sago flour, these were traded to villages up and down the Sepik River.

There is a constant need to store Sago as it’s the major food source for many people in New Guinea and these magnificent jars are made just for that purpose. The large Sago Storage Pottery are called Dnmrau is used for the long-term storage of smoked sago.

The pottery are decorated with faces that represent either humans, animals, or bush spirits. In this case example the face finely rendered in the form of a  totemic eagle

It is interesting to note that women make the jars, while the men decorate them by carving faces in the fresh clay and painting the jars once they are fired.

Provenance: Keith Adams (b. 1922 -1996) Documentary Film Maker & Crocodile Hunter and Adventurer

Keith Adams’s son told this story:
“ My father was so keen to get these pots back to Australia he chartered a small plane to fly them back to Port Moresby from Angoram, each pot had its own seat on the airplane, they were crated & shipped from Port Moresby and eventually arrived in Australia in near perfect condition.

 

INQUIRE HERE

If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer 

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

For all inquiries, please contact us.

Exhibition Pacific Spirit at The Australian Museum Sydney West Papuan Artworks from the Todd Barlin Collection

Exhibition Pacific Spirit at The Australian Museum Sydney West Papuan Artworks from the Todd Barlin Collection

The Superb Australian Museum in Sydney has an important early collection of New Guinea & Pacific Islands Art that is world-renowned.

The past Curators of their Pacific Islands collections including Dr Jim Specht wanted to build up their collection of Artworks from West Papua which had little material from that side of the Island of New Guinea, I let them select artworks from my collection for the Museum in 1997, 2000, and again in 2015.

Below are a few photos of the display of large Asmat & Mimika Artworks from West Papuan & of the opening of their new display area called “Pacific Spirit” opened on April 30 2015 by the honorable Julie Bishop Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 until 2018.

 

Artworks from the Todd Barlin Collection at The Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea New Caledonia in 1998

New Guinea Artworks from the Todd Barlin Collection in The Tjibaou Cultural Centre 1998

The superb Tjibaou Cultural Centre in Noumea New Caledonia opened in 1998. Named after the Kanak political leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1936-1989), the Tjibaou Cultural Centre was constructed to celebrate the history and culture of the local Kanak people, and to recognise the cultural diversity that exists within the wider Pacific region.

Designed by world-renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, who was also responsible for the design of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the centre’s design is a modern and monumental interpretation of the island’s traditional architecture.

I provided ten large artworks from the Mimika & Marind Anim People of West Papua showcasing indigenous art from the Pacific Island in this superb Cultural Centre

When I came for the opening of the National Museum of New Caledonia exhibition “Asmat Art: The Spirit of the Tree in 1998 “I was invited to give a talk on the Asmat Artworks that I field collected I was honoured by being taken out for dinner Madam Marie-Claude Tjibaou widow of the independence movement leader in New Caledonia, Jean-Marie Tjibaou as she was the head of the friends of the National Museum of New Caledonia. She was kind and gracious to me & I will never forget this experience.  More photos to come as I sort my archive

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