Lot 175 D α

MALEKULA GABLE ORNAMENT, PONARAT

Auction 1167 - overview Brussels
02.09.2021, 14:00 - Art of Africa, The Pacific and The Americas
Estimate: 12.000 € - 18.000 €

MALEKULA GABLE ORNAMENT, PONARAT
Vanuatu

118 cm. high

Cf. Howarth, C. and Huffman, K., Kastom Art of Vanuatu, Canberra, 2013, pp.52/53

This gable ornament would have adorned the extension of the horizontal ridge pole of a men’s house, nakamal, on Malekula and represented its founder. The head is highly abstracted; what appear to be eyes are in fact cheeks or cheekbones, the eyes of the head hidden within the furrows of the brow.

Provenance

Collected mid 1960s by Nicolai Michoutouchkine who accompanied Jean Guiart on field collection trips