The latest exhibition to move into the Hood Museum's Gutman Gallery affords a comprehensive and entertaining insight into the complex artistic achievements of the cultures which inhabit Papua New Guinea's Sepik River basin.
The new exhibit, titled "Sepik Compositions: Line and Form in the Art of Papua New Guinea," opened on Feb. 22, and will remain on display until June of 1998.
"Sepik Compositions" is an assemblage of 19th and 20th century military shields and ceremonial paintings which reflect the unique visual language used by the people of the Sepik River region.
Large, oblong wooden shields and similarly shaped sago palm bark paintings are arranged along the walls and floors of the gallery, evoking a feeling of symmetry which duplicates this quality found in the individual works.
Using paint and relief carving, these symmetrical patterns are created on the surfaces of the pieces, rolling the viewer's eye through the works with fluidity.
A set of 15 basic shapes comprise the patterns on the shields -- circles, scrolls, wavy lines, chevrons, triangles and zigzags.
The two dozen shields in the exhibit are divided into two groups: the heavier, more elaborate ones used for defense in spear combat, and the thinner, more lightly decorated ones used in bow and arrow assault.
These shields once played an important role in the pre-colonial tradition of the Sepik River basin cultures, but have not been used since the 1950s. Today, only less intricately decorated pieces are made -- and these pieces find their way into the living rooms of American tourists, rather than into the hands of the Sepik River basin warriors.
An example of this sub-standard craftsmanship is on display, which, while remaining artistically sound, lacks the attention to symmetry and decoration afforded to the earlier works.
Other works in the exhibit include paintings made of natural pigments and palm tree bark. The function of these works is primarily as decoration or for use in religious and ceremonial services.
The aim of the exhibit is to explore the context and roots of these specific shapes in the individual cultures of the Sepik River valley. This is the thesis of a scholarly catalog about the exhibit which will be published some time next year.
The curator of this exhibit, and the author of the catalog, is Dr. Briggitta Hauser-Schaublin, professor of Ethnology at the University of Gottingen in Germany.
Through a Harris-German Dartmouth Distinguished Visiting Professorship, Dr. Hauser-Schaublin was able to assemble the permanent exhibition and teach an anthropology course last fall.
All but one of the pieces in the exhibit are part of a 1,300 piece collection donated to the museum in 1990 by the Harry A. Franklin Family Collection of Oceanic Art.
In the center of the gallery sits "Korewori Figure," which is the centerpiece of the exhibit and the only exception to the donation of the Franklin Family Collection.
Tamara Northern, a senior curator at the museum, and liaison to Dr. Hause-Schaublin (who is in Paris), said of the piece, "In the universe of Sepic River basin, Papua New Guinean and Melanesian art, this work is an absolute masterpiece."
"Kowari Figure" is a relic of a simpler time -- only stone tools were used to carve this erect wooden statue. Illustrating the presence of the visual language in the Sepik River region, "Kowari figure" utilizes the same shapes and patterns as the shields, though it is separated by many years and actual medium.
The exhibit emphasizes the importance of pattern and symmetry in the art of the Sepik River basin, and sheds light on the relationship of different cultures through shared art histories.
