Promoting the understanding and appreciation of Oceanic art.
By Pierre Laffont The XIII Pacific Art Association (“PAA”) international Symposium took place over four days on 24-28 March in Brisbane. It was organised by the Queensland Museum in partnership with all the major cultural institutions on the South Bank of Brisbane (Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Queensland Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art (“GOMA”), State Library […]
In this talk, Ian McNiven will outline what he calls the “Coral Sea Cultural Interaction Sphere” as a framework to help shed light on why some ethnographic artefact types are shared between northern Queensland and southern New Guinea but other artefact types fail to extend across Torres Strait. Different distributions of artefact types provide new […]
By Maia Nuku The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of Oceanic art includes over two thousand works of art from the Pacific: ancestral treasures handed down across the generations that were created in islands and archipelagoes that extend across a vast expanse of ocean. Highlights of the collection include the landmark architectural installation or ‘Kwoma […]
by Marina Garlick Oceania is the title of the catalogue of the eponymous exhibition held at the Royal Academy of Arts in London to mark 250 years since James Cook set out on his first voyage. It also celebrates 250 years since the founding of the Royal Academy. The exhibition was organised by the Royal […]
The 2019 Oceanic Art Society Forum was an intellectual and emotional odyssey. Oceanic art represents and encompasses many things: sublime beauty and irresistible mystery; cultural treasure; markers of colonial dispossession and loss, but also continuity and hope. That indeed is what Oceanic art is: objects that bind people through time; binding those who made them […]
By Natalie Wilson, Curator Australian & Pacific Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales In November, the Art Gallery of New South Wales will celebrate the life and art of its former deputy director, Tony Tuckson, with the exhibition Tony Tuckson: the abstract sublime. In his role as curator, Tuckson’s respect and admiration for the […]
Jim Elmslie interviews Crispin Howarth, Curator of Pacific Arts at the National Gallery of Australia on the stunning new exhibition of Maori facial markings that will open in Canberra on March 23 JE Crispin, you have been working on the forthcoming exhibition on Māori tattooing (I don’t think you use this term) for the […]
The Oceanic Art Society’s Annual General Meeting was held on 10th November at the Middle Harbour 16ft Skiff Club, Mosman NSW – a lovely venue on a sunny day. Twenty-one members were present, with apologies from three more. After the formalities, the President, Bill Rathmell, provided a brief report on the state of the Society, […]
by Barry Craig My first experience of New Guinea was at Telefomin 1962-1965. I had graduated with a degree in Social Anthropology at University of Sydney 1960, gained a Diploma of Education 1961 and signed up as an Education Officer with the Department of Territories administration in Papua New Guinea. While at Telefomin, I hosted […]
by Antony JP Meyer It all began with the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 at the very end of the 15th century when he met with the Täino culture of Haiti and Santo Domingo, although by the middle of the 15th century the Portuguese were already trading with Africa and the […]
