Bidspirit auction | Openwork Figure, Kopar / Angoram

Openwork Figure, Kopar / Angoram - Openwork carved figure, Kopar / Angoram style, with white stripes, red and yellow pigment, shell and rope ornamentation. Anthropomorphic. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes a similar openwork figure attributed to the collection of Wolfgang Paalen, a Surrealist painter (1905-1959). as being used perhaps as dance wands. The long beak-like nose and lean body likely represent powerful spirits. Similar figure held by the Uebersee-Museum in Bremen, Germany is described by Suzanne Greub (see Similar items below) in 1985 ”In the area of Angoram … , figures of this kind seem to have been carried at dances tied to short bamboo wands.” Locale: Lower Sepik River Country: Papua New Guinea Date: 1936 or earlier Material: Wood, pigment, shell, rope Dimensions: H 26” / 66 cm Technique: Carved Provenance: Louis Pierre Ledoux Collection Similar items: 2012 Bretagenes Encheres, attributed to the La Korrigane Expedition to the Sepik in 1934-36 https://www.artkhade.com/object/JIP3g6pY The Metropolitan Museum of Art https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/311168 1985 Greub, Suzanne (ed.) Authority and Ornament: Art of the Sepik River, Papua New Guinea. Tribal Art Center, Basel, plate 154, page 205.