Art of the Ancestors Borneo Gallery Renovation
Friends, Colleagues, and Readers,
Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
We appreciate all of your illuminating contributions and continuing support. During this period of life-altering changes, and confinement for many of us, Art of the Ancestors responds to the pandemic by adding new material to our galleries in conjunction with our monthly articles and news items. We are firm in our dedication to perpetuating the memory of traditional peoples' art forms by illustrating many of their finest and aesthetically enduring creations. These items are also documented and preserved for posterity in the public domain. It is my hope that this brand of curation will continue to make our site a desirable destination for learning and for conveying the visual pleasure of historically vetted material. This month of August 2020, we also celebrate and commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Republic of Indonesia. Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan!
In this feature, we invite our readers to explore our first revamped gallery, the Borneo Gallery. In this instance, we have added over a hundred stellar artworks from the kaleidoscope of Borneo's peoples and traditions. As the world's third-largest island, Borneo is bigger than the state of Texas and seventeen times larger than the Netherlands. The island is home to more than 300 ethnic groups. Seventy-three percent of Borneo's landmass belongs to Indonesia, with the remaining territory being part of Malaysia and the Sultanate of Brunei.
The romance of the island's name and the history of headhunting there conjures up many facts and fictions as Borneo has long been embedded in global popular culture and the collective imagination. The same is true in the realm of arts, where the most outstanding statues, weavings, and diverse items of material culture from this vast island, stand tall alongside the artwork from any traditional or modern culture.
We look forward to unveiling the rest of our gallery upgrades in the near future.
Stay tuned, stay safe and stay strong!
Sincerely,
Steven G. Alpert