Easter Island Moai Papa Figure, Sotheby’s Paris Dream Piece #24 Easter Island Moai Papa FigureSotheby’s Paris, 30 September 2002, Lot 38$526,730 There is an aesthetic pleasure in having one’s expectations twisted. Yes, it is easy to admire the elegance and refinement of the rare moai papa figures from Easter Island as they are carved by obvious masters whose version of naturalism is playfully subversive. The torso is broad and filled out, but the arms are thin and tubular with hands and fingers stretched to fabulous lengths. Yet, when the figure is turned to the side the real genius presents itself. The fullness of the front is but an illusion. The profile reveals a body shockingly reduced to the thinnest slab, a visual contradiction that makes you smile and shake your head, giving the viewer that dopamine hit of the “aha” moment--that sudden flash of inspiration and comprehension. It is this otherworldly slim profile that define moai papa with “papa” meaning a flat stone and the flat bottom of the sea. The Easter Island sculpture experts Michel and Catherine Orliac make the point that other figure types like moai tangata belong to the world of humans while moai papa are outside it. While presented vertically, a moai papa’s posture is composed as if the figure is sleeping with supports under the neck and ankles (Orliac, 2008, p. 137). The present moai papa has a beautiful double-headed bird engraved on either side of its distinct crested coiffure. The eyes are classic; inset with thin white rings of fish vertebrae and minute discs of black obsidian that focus an inescapable gaze, mesmerizing in its hypnotic intensity. The tiny corpus of old, legitimate moai papa are all masterpieces, dream pieces in their own right, but one aspect that draws me to this example is the dynamism created by the oval shape from the shoulders down to the abdomen, reinforced by the outside edges of the arms and the delicate fingers of the figure’s right hand. If you are in the market for a moai papa you better have very deep pockets. They are generational type objects that come up once every 20-25 years. While the present one sold for $526,730 at Sotheby’s Paris in 2002, there was another superb one that came up at Christie’s Paris in June of 2022—selling for just under $3,000,000. If your collection consisted of just one piece, a moai papa of this quality, well your job is done. The collection is complete.
