Dream Piece #29 - North Coast New Guinea Mask Sotheby’s Paris
Dream Piece #29
North Coast New Guinea Mask
Sotheby’s Paris
16 June 2010, lot 4
$57,034
have often wondered why on the earliest New Guinea sculptures, especially Abelam and Boiken, the backsides were hollowed out. At first, I thought maybe they were removing excess wood to make these often large figures lighter and easily carried. But I also saw scooped out backsides on quite smaller pieces, especially behind the head. Several of these were not masks in any sense made to be worn but nevertheless had cut out eyes and mouth holes. Why would that be? Viewed from the front these early archaic sculptures with open eyes and gaping mouths seemed alive, as if seeing and breathing on their own. It became clear these hollowed areas behind the heads were not aesthetic choices but functional- -about creating space; about making room for the animating spirit to occupy the object. The real power of the sculpture was not what one saw in front but what was contained behind it.
Realizing this helps explain what I found to be a correlation between age and volume in New Guinea art. The present north coast mask is a perfect example. Its antiquity is undeniable, and its volumes extraordinary. The forehead bulges out, ripe and heavy. The nose is broad, curving down to a sharp point harmonizing with the slope of the forehead. The eyes and mouth are cut, almost hacked, into this surface. The medial ridge splits the head into lobes, curves under the eyes and merges into the crest of the nose. The swollen volumes are less about the outward form but more about containment, about what is behind the mask. In this sense the medial ridge that bisects the forehead is not about defining or creating symmetry but instead acts like a cinched belt trying its best to hold back a spiritual presence wanting to burst through.
I find this the most compelling aspect of precontact New Guinea art—that spiritual intensity so present and powerful it is literally busting at the seams to get out. So, in my opinion overinflated volumes that create space are a good indicator of age. As many of you know, I always tell my clients to judge age by style not patina or even provenance.
The problem is that our knowledge of New Guinea art styles is limited and starts with, primarily, German and British collected objects from the roughly the 1870-1890 era. These pieces do give us something, a starting point that is not a clear line but a broad band of possibilities. If something was collected in 1885 it could have carved a month prior or, I guess theoretically possible, another 500 years before--if the object somehow miraculously escaped fire, earthquake, flooding, war, rats, insects, exposure and all other real dangers to wooden artifacts.
That this mask is precontact and ancient is certain—but the question is how far prior to contact? We know it’s possible to definitively track the subtle changes in style that occur over decades in Oceanic art—at least moving forward. Moving backwards in time is more problematic. What is certain about this present mask is that its archaic style with bulging volumes is several generations earlier than any mask similar to it.
That this mask comes from the Jolika Collection of Marcia and John Friede should be no surprise. It is a typical Friede piece—in that John Friede was always searching for what I called “category breakers,” meaning those objects that blew up what we previously considered the oldest and best of its type. It is illustrated in his “Masterpieces of New Guinea Art” book and was sold at Sotheby’s Paris June 2010 auction where significant objects from the Jolika Collection were sold to settle an inheritance dispute.
The mask fetched 46,350 euros or $57,034. Yes, that is real money and well beyond what other, even great, New Guinea masks sold for at the time. Yet, this is not just a great New Guinea mask. We all have to recognize this fact. This is a solid step above great. It is a mask that harkens back to the unknown and brings it tangibly into the present—both its carved form but also whatever lurked in the dark space behind it.