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• Auction House:
  Theodore Bruce
• Sale Name:
  Timed Online Auction | The Todd Barlin Collection of Oceanic African & Asian Art
• Sale Date:
  05 Dec 2022 ~ 6pm (AEDT)
• Lot #:
  9030
• Lot Description:
  A Finely Carved and Ochre Painted Ancestor Figure, Abelam People, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea
  the Abelam are a people that live in the Sepik river region of Papua New Guinea. There are about 40,000 Abelam language speakers that live on the plains and foothills on the north side of the middle Sepik River.
  H 142 cm
• Provenance:
  Ex Margaret Olley (1923- 2011) Collection. This famous Australian Artist made her first excursion to PNG in 1954, when she spent time with Cecil Abel at Kwato. Later, between 1967 and 1968, she made three further trips to PNG and many of her still life paintings are filled with objects which she collected at that time. (I am still looking for a still life painting by Olley that shows this figure in her composition); The Todd Barlin Collection.
• References:
  Exhibited & Published: Oceanic Arts Pacifica 2014 Page 84 (right side) (A Copy of this exhibition catalogue is included).
• Notes:
  The Abelam have a complex ceremonial life organized around yam cultivation and spirits. The most important of these spirits is Ngwallndu, an ancestor like being whose power determines the success of all human endeavours. This figure of Ngwallndu was used in the initiation of young men. The Korumbo or Spirit House is where most of the Abelam ceremonies are conducted including the initiation of young men into various aspects of the cult & the Abelam cosmology.
• Estimate:
  A$800 - 1,200
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Tribal

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.