A Superb Old New Guinea Bougainville Island Chief’s Staff Papua New Guinea

A Superb Old New Guinea Bougainville Island Chief’s Staff Papua New Guinea

This beautifully carved Chief’s Staff is from Bougainville or Buka Islands and dates from the early 20th Century. Though Bougainville and Buka Islands are now semi-autonomous areas of Papua New Guinea, culturally they are more related to the people of the Western Solomon Islands which is just a short boat ride away. In previous times people moved back & forth freely between the Western Solomon’s Shortland Islands & Bougainville and Buka Islands.

The Staff is carved from a single piece of wood, the finial is finely carved in the form of an important ancestor figure with an expressive face, the large round eyes and the mouth open as if in a trance state, and below the head is a pair of arms with the hands held close to the top of the figure’s chest. There are no legs and the rest of the staff is covered with finely woven yellow orchid stem bindings.  The top of the staff ends in a phallic-shaped finial.

The Art of Bougainville & Buka Islands are considered to be surrealist masterpieces, the sculptures are the art of dreams combining ancestral images with totemic animals and birds, some of the finest early Bougainville Island Sculptures are in the Australian Museum Collection here in Sydney Australia & were published in “Varilaku: Pacific arts from the Solomon Islands 2011 at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.

Over the 40 years, I have been collecting Oceanic Art this is the finest Bougainville Chief’s Staff that I have seen outside of Museum Collections. There is a very similar Chief’s Staff in the Barbier Muller Museum in Geneva probably by the same artist as this fine example

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art 

I first went to Papua New Guinea in 1985 for an adventure & what I found was that I really enjoyed being with the people of New Guinea, over the next 38 years I spent extensive time spent collecting and documenting traditional art & ceremonies in remote areas of Papua New Guinea & West Papua, The Solomon Islands & Vanuatu & the other Pacific Islands countries. During these travels, I made major collections of New Guinea & Oceanic Art for major Museums and Public Art Galleries

I was honoured by being in the prestigious Louvre Museum Magazine for the collections I made for The Museum of African & Oceanic Art Paris in1996 (now the Musee Quai Branly) for the exhibition “Asmat et Mimika d’ Irian Jaya April 1996 At THE MUSEE NATIONAL des ARTS D’AFRIQUE et d’ OCEANIE, Paris

See all of the links & photos in my new EXHIBITIONS GALLERY https://www.oceanicartsaustralia.com/about/exhibition-and-publications/

and there is also a link to the article in the prestigious Louvre Magazine 1996 https://www.oceanicartsaustralia.com/art-for-sale/louvre-magazine-june-1996-review-of-exhibition-asmat-et-mimika-d-irian-jaya-april-1996-at-the-musee-national-des-arts-dafrique-et-d-oceanie-paris/

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 specialises in New Guinea & Oceanic Art. Sydney is just a couple hours’ flight to New Guinea & the Pacific Islands where all of these amazing artworks came from, Australia’s closest neighbours.

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.