Oceanic Art Society

Promoting the understanding and appreciation of Oceanic art.

All published stories from the OAS Journal

Oceanic art market in the time of COVID

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This edition of the Journal features Barry Craig’s account of the Pacific collection at the new Wantok Place Museum in North Adelaide as well as Jim Elmslie’s story behind the recent sales with remarkable provenance of works from the Hermannsburg school in Central Australia. We’ve introduced a new feature, the President’s Corner, where Bill Rathmell interviewed Nick Mitzevich, Director of the National Gallery of Australia, following news reports of the deaccession of Pacific pieces from the collection.

Albert Namatjira, Rex Battarbee and the Birth of the Hermannsburg School

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By Jim Elmslie | Water colour paintings of the Hermannsburg School are instantly recognizable by their subject matter, form and the delicate hues employed. These landscape paintings of the ranges of central Australia, many near the eponymous Hermannsburg Mission, are distinctively unique.

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Navigating for a Place in the Museum: Stories of Encounter and Engagement between the Old and the New from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

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A paper by Dr Michael Mel, Australian Museum. Reviewed by Bill Rathmell Dr Michael Mel. Image courtesy of the Australian Museum, Sydney. Michael Mel, the Manager of Pacific and International Collections at the Australian Museum in Sydney, is well known in Oceanic art circles. In an interview in the OAS Journal Vol 23 (2018, #2) […]

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Obituary – Barbara Perry

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13 August 1938 – 10 November 2019. By Ron May Barbara Perry was a larger than life character, well known in Oceanic art circles in Sydney, and later in Brisbane. Barbara Perry (née Hockey) was born in Dubbo and grew up on her father’s sheep station, Courallie, before boarding at the Presbyterian Ladies College, Sydney. Following her […]

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War Art & Ritual: Shields from the Pacific

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Edited by Bill Evans, Two Volumes, 518 pages, 140 Shields illustrated with additional images, eight essays and introduction. Published by William Nathaniel Evans, Woollahra, NSW, Australia, 2019. Reviewed by James Elmslie This lavish and beautifully produced book by Bill Evans is a rich resource for anyone with an interest in the shields of the Pacific […]

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San Francisco Art Fair 2020

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By Krisztina Turza When I boarded the plane from Brisbane to San Francisco in February as a last minute decision, I could not have imagined that rather than the first, it could potentially be the last tribal art show of the year. To a first timer at the San Francisco Tribal & Textile Art Show […]

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