A Superb Old Bowl Papuan Gulf Area South Coast Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old Bowl with ancestral designs from the Papuan Gulf Area South Coast of Papua New Guinea

This fine old bowl with a deeply incised ancestor or spirit figure is similar in design to the finest abstract Gope Spirit Boards,

The Papuan Gulf region comprises approximately five major groups of related peoples, each with its own stylistically distinct forms of masks, figures, and spirit boards.

Nearly every object was created to communicate with or control the spirit world for the benefit of the family or community. Local sculptors were able to attract the spirits to live in the boards that were kept in shrines in the longhouses, the centre of men’s community life, or to inhabit the masks and enable dancers to be activated by them during performances involving the entire community.

Old bowls like these are family heirlooms sometimes a couple of generations old, they were used on ceremonial occasions for the most favored of foods like wild boar or cassowary.

The artists of the Papuan Gulf made superb ceremonial artworks but also daily objects were highly decorated with ancestral designs always reminding the user

Provenance:  George Craig Collection; he was a crocodile hunter and artifact collector in the Papuan Gulf in the 1960s.  The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

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