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House Post, C-14 dating: 1640–1810 (95.4% probability)
Wood, pigment
240 x 45 x 39 cm (94 1/2 x 17 11/16 x 15 3/8 in.)
Gift of Marcia and John Friede in honor of Diane B. Wilsey and Harry S. Parker III 2007.44.5

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Artist Biography: (none) PROVENANCE: Jolika Collection of New Guinea Art EXHIBITIONS: 2005 - New Guinea Art. Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede. De Young Museum, San Francisco, 2005. 1985-88 - Tribal Art Centre, Basel, 1985-88, "Authority and Ornament," New York venue only. IBM Gallery (NEED TO CONFIRM). 1979 - National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, "The Art of the Pacific Islands." PUBLICATIONS: 2009 FAM Bulletin entry (unabridged) - "This striking figurative post, along with another in the Jolika collection, was included in the first major exhibition of Oceanic art at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C, “Art of the Pacific Islands” in 1979. (1) They are among the most impressive and important large architectural carvings in the corpus of New Guinea art. Elaborately carved vertical posts provided the infrastructure for large men's spirit houses of the middle Sepik River region. Three carved figural posts survive from the spirit house of Nggeitebma hamlet that was destroyed by fire: two in the Jolika Collection and an older post in the collection of the National Gallery of Canberra, Australia. The Canberra post was tied to a vertical support rather than imbedded in the foundation and moved from house to house as each successive structure decayed in the tropical environment and fell into disuse. (2) The Jolika posts were originally over twice their current height and supported either the horizontal roof beam of the house or the beams supporting the raised floor of the sacred upper story inside the building. English anthropologist J. Anthony Forge photographed all three posts in situ in 1960. These figural posts represented primordial ancestors of specific clans and powerful spirits. They were the most monumental carvings within the house, marking their importance to the welfare of the clan to which they belonged. Men's houses were, and still are, sacred, ceremonial spaces inhabited by ancestral spirits. Initiated men make their residence in these houses. Sepik carver August Karlan offered this description in 1980, the spirit house “ is everything of ours that we have. The spirits are there in the shape of the carvings, masks, of ornaments…of skulls, of drums, of shields…of flutes. It is where we adore our ancestors. It is the spirit house.” (3) The head of the figure is characterized by a large, dominating nose and by protruding eyes, a classical way of rendering the waken aspect of ancestors in Sawos art linked to the origin of headhunting and to the ancestral killing power, manifest in ritual and in war. (4) This protruding effect is emphasized by the special way the carver cut away part of the surface below the eyes and around the large nostrils and small mouth. Scarification motifs are represented with incised lines around the figure's navel and nipples. Above the head we see a fish (probably a catfish or kami) and a concentric motif, probably representing a water lily on both sides." FOOTNOTES (1) See: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.,1979. The Art of the Pacific Islands. p. 333, no 22.73 along with its pair. The posts were also exhibited in the “Authority and Ornament “ exhibition organized by the Art Centre Basel in 1985-88, New York venue only. (2) Crispin Howarth. “Mogulapan: The Restoration of a Sawos masterpiece.” OAS Newsletter, Vol. 12, No. 4, 10. (3) Brake, McNeish, Simmons, Art of the Pacific. 1980. Interview with August Karlan: “Rules are for everything”, 76-77. (4) Kocher Schmid, Christin, “Facets of Death in the Middle Sepik Area of Papua New Guinea and Beyond”, in: Aufderheide, A.C. (ed.), Overmodelled skulls: their art, archaeology and anthropology, Adelaide (forthcoming), Schmid, Jürg and Kocher Schmid, Christin, Söhne des Krokodils. Männerhausrituale und Initiation in Yensan, Zentral-Iatmul, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Baser Beiträge zur Ethnologie 36, Basel, Wepf. 2005 - "See previous entry [pl. 227]." (Catalog #228, New Guinea Art: Masterpieces from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, Volume 2, p. 118.) 1979 - Newton in Gathercole, Kaeppler, and Newton, 1979: 333, no. 22.73.

Related Keywords
Post House III Parker S Harry Wilsey B Diane honor Friede John Marcia Gift Jolika people hamlet Nggeitebma village Torembi Oceania Province Sepik East Guinea New Sculpture sides both lily water representing motif concentric kami catfish fish see we nipples navel figure's lines incised represented motifs Scarification art Sawos ancestors aspect waken rendering way classical eyes protruding nose dominating head pigment red white traces headdress tall upwards waist figure form wood trunk piece one Carved building story upper sacred floor raised supporting beams beam roof horizontal either supported height current twice over Originally 0709200406050385 A360932 2007.44.5 AOA