Art of the Ancestors Papua Barat Gallery Renovation
This month, Art of the Ancestors turns its attention to a significant expansion of our West Papua gallery. Amongst the newly included highlights are additional finely painted bark cloths or maro from Lake Sentani that are housed in the Dutch museum system and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the realm of carved wood, their counterparts include several iconic Lake Sentani items from Museum der Kulturen Basel's collection.
We are also pleased to add several shields, principally from the Asmat, the Digul, and Cenderwasih Bay areas. To pair with the latter rare figurative beaded dancing aprons from diverse museums are also included alongside a fine ceremonial Cenderwasih Bay wandalai mask from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The Kamoro or Mimika statues and intricately carved ceremonial boards are all outstanding items of artistic virtue. Several Marind pieces, including an extremely rare and comely statue and so much more, are available for our reader's perusal and aesthetic pleasure.
Our enhanced Papua Barat gallery is lively, filled with a riot of design and painted surfaces covered with applied natural ochres. Many of these items have long been held in high esteem by Western museums and collectors as 'gateway' art that fuses both Indonesian and Melanesian sensibilities.
— Steven G. Alpert