Paul Wirz and Spirit boards Paul Wirz (1892-1955) Virginia-Lee Webb The name Paul Wirz is familiar to those who appreciate and study the traditional art of Oceania. An ethnologist, photographer, collector and world traveler, he was especially interested in New Guinea. In conjunction with his research about art, religion and cultural practices on the island, he collected sculptures, published books, articles, made motion picture films, sound recordings, and took several thousand photographs. Through his publications and the works of art he collected, which have found their way into international museums and private collections, he made important contributions to our knowledge of New Guinea, where he visited several different regions, some multiple times. His photographic oeuvre is recognized for its historical and pictorial importance. Paul Wirz and Spirit boards Wirz’s family came from a region in Basel, Switzerland known for silk ribbon production. Business opportunities brought his family to Moscow, where in 1892 Paul was born and attended primary school. His passion for travel began after visiting North Africa twice between 1912 and 1913. In 1914-15 he began to study physical anthropology, ethnology, geography and zoology at the University of Zurich. It was in Zurich and his classes with Otto Schlaginhaufen, where Wirz was inspired to find a place on the island of New Guinea where he could live and study the culture of people who were then relatively uninfluenced by outsiders. In 1916 with his first wife Elisabeth, Wirz made his initial research trip to the western part of the island and Indonesia (both then under Dutch control). He lived with the Marind people studying their art and ceremonies and taking hundreds of photographs. In 1919 he returned again to Switzerland and briefly attended the University of Basel studying with Felix Speiser. Wirz received his doctorate from that university in 1920 based on his Marind research and subsequently published a two-volume book on the subject illustrated with his remarkable photographs. Today, it remains our most important early ethnography of the Marind whose culture was significantly changed by outside contact. A dema performer during a ceremony on the beach 1916-19 Although Wirz was focused on learning about and living with the communities he visited, he was also focused on collecting sculptures and making a visual record of his work. Dr. Andrea Schmidt has completed extensive research on his activities and published a book about his life, collections and photographs. She estimates that he made nearly 10,000 images, approximately 3,300 in New Guinea. His collections of sculptures are extensive and found in numerous museums in Switzerland, such as Basel, Bern, Burgdorf, Geneva, Lugano, Luzern, Neuchâtel St. Gallen, and Zurich. In Germany his collections are found in Dresden, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. The Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam and the Musée Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire Brussels also have his collections. Photography was an integral part of Wirz’s research. He did not have any formal photographic training, except to learn the technical aspects of the medium necessary to develop and print his work. His choice of equipment and modes of representation were certainly influenced by the practical limitations of working in tropical venues. The standard pictorial traditions of the time, ethnographic methodology, the desire to explicate complex cultural relationships for illustrations in his own publications, influenced his style of photography. Wirz used several types of cameras, first with glass plate negatives then film including; a Favorit/Compur, Rolliflex, Leica, and a Kodak Brownie Automatic. In the 1950s he used color film, thus adding another dimension to his visual legacy. Starting in the 1920s, he also made silent, black and white movie films. Paul Wirz Era River area October 1930 1992.417.123 Throughout his life, both alone and with his family, Wirz made a total of seven trips to New Guinea visiting communities in the south west, Lake Sentani, Papuan Gulf, Highlands, Asmat, Sepik River, and Maprik areas. He was especially fond of the people of Lake Sentani. His visit to the island of New Guinea in 1955 was unfortunately his last, as on January 31 he died suddenly in Malemba, near Maprik village. The largest collection of Wirz’s photographs is in the Museum der Kulturen (Museum of Cultures) Basel, Switzerland. Paul’s son, Dadi Wirz an artist and photographer also accompanied his father on research trips and preserves the family’s legacy. The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns approximately 700 photographs by Wirz, including vintage prints arranged in albums and individual prints made at later dates to share with colleagues and use in conjunction with his numerous publications. References Hays, Terence E. “Paul Wirz’s New Guinea Photographs. Unpublished Report to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Rhode Island, 1999. Kaufmann, Christian. “Paul Wirz and the Appreciation of New Guinea Art.” Art of Northwest New Guinea, edited by Suzanne Greub. New York. Rizzoli, 1992: 141-153. Schmidt, Andrea E. “In Search of “Men of Nature”: Paul Wirz’s Photography in New Guinea, 1916-1955.” Pacific Studies 20,4, (December) 1997: 35-50. Schmidt, Andrea E. Ein Wanderer auf der Suche nach der “wahren Natur.” Basler Beitrage zur Ethnologie, Band 39, 1998. Webb, Virginia-Lee. Photographs of New Guinea by Paul Wirz (1892-1995). New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2003.
