Archives: Art For Sale

Art For Sale

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

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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 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 

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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 Japanese Bamboo Woven Ikebana Basket from the Meiji period (1868-1912)

A Superb Old Japanese Bamboo Woven Ikebana Basket from the Meiji period (1868-1912)

A very beautiful antique Japanese ikebana basket for flower arranging. Made by a very talented basketry artist from split bamboo woven with contrasting dark and twisting wisteria vines.

The creation of Japanese Basketry includes many steps including root selection, conception, processing, and lacquering all based on the important principle of making useful the natural materials and elements of the bamboo roots are different in their forms, either in size or in structure. The Japanese claim that “three-tenths of the work is done by humans, seven-tenths are determined by nature.

Finally comes the principle of seeking singularity and pursuing beauty. No art form is detached from the material used and the basketry artists have to refer to nature for materials and their pursuit of singularity and beauty lies in the process of selecting the materials as well as in the conception process. They have to find out and collect roots of various odd shapes, which gives them creative inspiration. Only after obtaining unique materials can the artist apply his or her wisdom, imagination, and originality to creative bamboo basketry

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Japanese Fine Asian Art 

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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 New Guinea Pottery Vessel Aibom Village Chambri Lakes Area East Sepik Province Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Pottery Vessel Called Damarau from Aibom Village in the Chambri Lakes Area in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

This beautiful Old Aibom  Sago Storage Pottery with the fine clan Totemic Eagle Face.  Aibom Village was central to a long flourishing traditional trading ring, they made magnificent 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 largest Sago Storage Pottery vessels are called Damarau and are used for the long-term storage of smoked sago.

The pottery is decorated with faces that represent either humans, animals, or bush spirits. In this case example, the face is finely rendered in the form of a totemic clan eagle It is the women who make the jars, while the men decorate them by carving faces in fresh clay and painting the jars once they are fired.

The Pottery of Papua New Guinea was well documented in the great publication  ” The Traditional Pottery of Papua New Guinea by Patricia May & Margaret Tuckson & Helen Dennet 1982

To get a large Pottery Vessel like this back to Australia in perfect condition is a huge accomplishmemt !

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 that 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.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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

Exhibition of Asmat Artworks at the superb South Australian Museum in Adelaide Australia

At the Superb South Australian Museum in Adelaide, the then curator Dr Barry Craig wanted to build up their collection of Artworks from West Papua they had little material from that side of the Island of New Guinea so I let him select about 100 artworks from my collection for the Museum as a gift in 2008 & again in 2000. Below are a few photos of the display of large Asmat Artworks from West Papuan. The South Australian Museum has a superb early collection of New Guinea & Pacific Islands Art on permanent display.    I hope that you enjoy the photos 

For over 38 years I wanted to help Australian Museums & public Art Galleries to increase their collections & interest in New Guinea Oceanic Art. 

A Superb Old Solomon Islands Bowl Santa Catalina Islands Southeast Solomon’s

A Superb Old Solomon Islands Offering Bowl Santa Catalina Islands Southeast Solomon Islands 

Finely hand-carved wood bowl, deeply hallowed in an ovoid form and standing on an oval-shaped base,  decorated around the top edge with a band of X-shaped hand-carved inlaid pearl shells with notched edges and decorated on both of the sides of the bowl with shell mosaics depicting a frigate bird.

Elaborate bowls such as this were important ritual objects used during the initiation ceremonies of the Bonito Fish Society, a high-ranking group of men and boys in the community. The bowls were filled with food and offered up to the spirits as part of the initiation.  Offering bowls like this example were kept in the sacred Canoe House which was the center for ceremonies & for the storage of ceremonial objects including fish-shaped carved wood coffins that held the ancestral remains of important clan members

The frigate bird not only embodied many valued characteristics such as agility and speed, it was also admired for its fierce and aggressive hunting skills as well as its ability to find schools of sacred bonito fish. This beautiful piece exemplifies the important bonds that existed between the visual traditions and the spiritual beliefs of the Solomon Islanders.

Birds and fish are prominent in life rituals and art in the Solomon Islands. The small shape of the bowl indicates that it was probably used by individuals in ritual communion feasts with their tutelary spirits. (Davenport, William, “Sculpture of the Eastern Solomons”, Expedition, Journal of the University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, vol. 10, 2, pp. 6-7).

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Solomon Islands Oceanic Art. 

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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 New Guinea Bowl Papuan Gulf Area South Coast Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Bowl Papuan Gulf Area South Coast Papua New Guinea Dating from the 19th Century 

This old bowl of elegant form has a fine Ancestor or Spirits Head as the focus of the bowl, the head is carved in high relief and is similar in design to the abstract Gope Spirit Boards that the Papuan Gulf is renowned for. There is an incised clan design around the edge of the bowl but it is the Ancestors Head & the very old patina that makes the bowl so beautiful.

In the past, the primary focus of religious and artistic life in this region was based on these powerful spirits called Imunu.  Each clan had specific imunu Spirits that were associated with a specific location in the landscape, rivers, or sea, and was linked to the specific clan.

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 Gope Boards that were kept in shrines in the longhouses, the center 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 several 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 like this Food Bowl that were beautifully decorated with ancestral designs that are always a reminder of the Ancestor’s presence.

The Bowl comes with a custom stand and it looks amazing on a table or shelf.

Provenance: Collected by Thomas Schultze-Westrum in the 1960s. 

The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic Art

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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 New Guinea Water Drum Sawos People Middle Sepik River area East Sepik Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Water Drum Sawos People Middle Sepik River area East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea 

This rare old Sepik River musical instrument is a Water Drum and is called abuk in the local Sawos & Iatmul languages. Water Drums are important ceremonial musical instruments that were used in pairs along with pairs of Sacred Flutes that were used in an enclosure where women & the non-initiated couldn’t see them, a hole was dug in the ground and filled with water, the Drum is handled by two men each holding one side of the handle the drum is pushed into the water and then quickly pulled out creating an eerie whooshing sound caused by suction. This is said to be the voice of powerful ancestral spirits.

The Water Drum is carved from a single piece of heavy hardwood & beautifully carved with two sets of totemic bird’s heads on both handles, the lower part with finely incised clan designs that include stylized faces and traces of ochre painting. The three ridges at the top of the drum where there are no designs, that is where the Drum gets submerged in the pool of water & hence the discoloration from the water & mud and it makes sense to leave that undecorated except as those ridges might be necessary to make the unique acoustical sound.

The Sawos people, who live along the middle reaches of the Sepik River, are among the most prolific and accomplished sculptors in New Guinea. Sawos’ religion was complex and included a diversity of rites and ceremonies devoted to ancestors, spirits, and other supernatural beings. Almost every important occasion had ceremonial aspects, and some, such as male initiations, lasted for months. Sawos ceremonies often included both secret rites known only to men and public performances in which women and children participated. In the past, warfare and headhunting were integral elements of religious life.

There seems there were three types of Water Drums: A shallow oval Dish Form with lugs which was the more common, An hourglass-shaped Water Drum with handles only at the top

and this type is the tallest and the rarest & most interesting in my opinion with the handles in the middle of the drum

Of my type of Water Drum, there are only three known examples I could find: the one in the PNG National Museum collected by Dadi Wirtz, the two in a photograph by Laumann which no one knows where or if they still survive.

Provenance: Old Collection Australia and The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art

See my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY  showing the Museums and Art Galleries Exhibitions that I provided artworks for over the past 40 years. There is the link to the article about my artworks published in the prestigious Louvre Magazine in 1996

I have artwork for Museums and art Galleries but also for collectors at every stage of their collecting. I want to encourage people to explore the fine art of New Guinea & West Papua and the Pacific Islands and to be able to see and touch the artworks in a relaxed and friendly manner in my Sydney Gallery. I would like to invite you to visit my gallery and see the artworks in person and also look at my website www.oceanicartsaustralia.com where there are many Galleries & Sub Galleries to explore.

My Gallery of nearly 40 years is the last physical gallery in Sydney that specializes in New Guinea and Oceanic Art.  Sydney is very close to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbors.

 

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