17 Island Southeast Asian Masterworks in Museum Fünf Kontinente

 

Wicker Dayak Shield
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 
 

17 Island Southeast Asian Masterworks in Museum Fünf Kontinente

 

Curated by Steven G. Alpert

 
 

This month Art of the Ancestors highlights the holdings of another venerable museum for our readership. Formerly known as the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich boasts Germany's first ethnological museum. Founded in 1862, today the renamed Museum Fünf Kontinente, or Museum of Five Continents, is a contemporary institution where humanity's cultural memory is being preserved, restored, and expanded through exemplary work based on up-to-date research practices, adaptation to an ever-changing social context, and expert, careful curation. 

As the name "Five Continents" implies, the museum houses important collections reflecting everyday cultural values and the signposts from past civilizations that span Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, and Oceania. It is Germany's second-largest museum stewarding 160,000 objects of global material culture from outside of Europe. The Oceanic and Indonesian collections are outstanding, containing many iconic early collected items of high historical importance and artistic mastery. With regard to the Indonesian collection, "some of the earliest objects, Buddhist and Hindu stone sculptures and bronze sculptures from Java (7th-9th centuries AD), come from the collections of the Bavarian royal house of Wittelsbach. Extensive collections of textiles, weapons, shadow play figures, ceremonial and everyday objects from Indonesia were given to the museum by Chevalier de Grez 1876, Max Buchner 1890, Kleiweg de Zwaan 1913, Albert Grubauer 1920, Paul Wirz 1925-27 or WOJ Nieuwenkamp 1928."

It is a great pleasure to begin to feature a small number of the Five Continent's more than 1,300 Indonesian items, just as the museum's collections are beginning to appear online and be digitally available to a worldwide audience. This introduction and presentation are anchored by a uniquely styled woman's wooden epaku or ceremonial headdress from Enggano that was collected in 1876. Its looming visage reminds us of just how little material culture really has survived the ravages of time from traditional peoples and just how important it is that museums continue to preserve our communal human legacies. 

An absolutely superb small Dayak shield from Western Sarawak (Sebuyah) of wood, wicker, and rattan, mobile and lightweight, is centered by the rare depiction of a human head. The quality of construction of older artworks within the Indonesia holdings, whether it's the fine wooden Atoni statue supporting a coconut cup, or a lovely Timorese ladle handle intricately carved from buffalo horn (1918), or a Dayak barkcloth jacket decorated with a delicate leaf or foliate pattern collected in 1936, to a Dayak war jacket from Western Borneo (before 1908) that exhibits a striking mix of materials; liana fiber, pigment, wood, cotton, glass buttons and down feathers are remarkable. All of the component parts tastefully work together and derive from a time, as we like to say 'when the world was young,' where every step or phase of construction of a fine personal or communal item was fraught with meaning, artistry, and concentration.

Casting our gaze from West to East, there are three Batak items and three items from the Moluccas to round out this initial presentation. The museum's bullet holder was collected before 1893. It is also accompanied by a well-carved Datu's medicine horn or naga morsarang, along with vigorously splayed-legged ancestor figure collected before 1905. The Museum Fünf Kontinente's Indonesian collection also contains a rich array of works from Nusa Tenggara Timur as well as the Moluccas or Spice Islands. Included here is a fine Tanimbar altar from Upolero collected by Wilhelm Müller-Wismar before 1913, along with an excellent and complete outdoor post altar and the close-up detail of a handsome house figure collected before 1922.

In allthere is much to explore and savor in these images. We look forward in anticipation to selectively featuring many items from the Five Continents' collections as they become available online. In the meantime, a visit to Munich's fine array of museums is always a pleasure and highly recommended. A day spent at the Museum Fünf Kontinente will be a rewarding one in addition to the city's endless charm.

Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors

 
 
 

1

 
 

Ornament from Woman's Ceremonial Hat (Epaku)

 
 

Ornament from Woman's Ceremonial Hat (Epaku)
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Enggano

Collected before 1876

Inv. # Gr-525

 
 
 

2

 
 

Wicker Dayak Shield

 
 

Wicker Dayak Shield
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Western Sarawak (Sebuyah), Borneo

19th century

Inv. # Gr-175

 
 

3

 
 

Ceremonial Statue with Receptacle Cup

 

Ceremonial Statue with Receptacle Cup
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Atoni peoples

Timor

Collected before 1918

Inv. # 28-30-38

 
 
 

4

 
 

Ceremonial Buffalo Horn Ladle Handle

 

Ceremonial Buffalo Horn Ladle Handle
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Atoni peoples

Timor

Collected before 1918

Inv. # 28-30-92

 
 

5

 
 

Ceremonial Barkcloth Vest

 
 

Ceremonial Barkcloth Vest
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Apo Kayan peoples

Kalimantan, Borneo

Collected before 1936

Inv. # W-12

 
 
 

6

 
 

Warrior's Jacket

 
 

Warrior’s Jacket
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Malawi, Barito, Western Kalimantan

Collected before 1908

Inv. # 08-171

 
 

7

 
 

Sword (Parang Pandat) with Tin Inlaid Scabbard

 

Sword (Parang Pandat) with Tin Inlaid Scabbard
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Dayak

West Kalimantan, Borneo

Collected before 1876

Inv. # Gr-114

 
 

8

 
 

Fine Ceremonial Mask

 
 

Fine Ceremonial Mask
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Apo Kayan peoples

Kalimantan, Borneo

Collected before 1936

Inv # W-24

 
 

9

 
 

Apo Kayan Mask

 
 

Apo Kayan Mask
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Central Kalimantan, Borneo

Collected at Long Peleban before 1936

Inv. # W-29

 
 

10

 
 

House Door

 
 

House Door
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Dayak

Central-North Kalimantan, Borneo

Collected before 1910

Inv. # 10-926

 
 
 

11

 
 

Cult Figure (Adu Tuhanadu)

 
 

Cult Figure (Adu Tuhanadu)
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

South Nias

Collected before 1929

Inv. # 30-25-6

 
 

12

 
 

Musket Ball Container

 

Musket Ball Container
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Toba Batak

North Sumatra

Collected before 1893

Inv. # 93-247

 
 

13

 
 

Medicine Horn (Naga Morsarang)

 

Medicine Horn (Naga Morsarang)
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Toba Batak

North Sumatra

Late 19th century

Inv. # 73-17-1

 
 

14

 
 

Ancestor Figure

 

Ancestor Figure
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 
 

Toba Batak

North Sumatra

Collected before 1905

Inv. # 05-225

 
 

15

 
 

Ancestral Altar (Tavu)

 

Ancestral Altar (Tavu)
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Upolero, Tanimbar, Maluku

Collected by Wilhelm Müller-Wismar before 1913

Inv. # 13-83-61

 
 

16

 
 

Complete Outdoor Post Shrine

 

Complete Outdoor Post Shrine
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Southern Maluku

Collected before 1922

Inv. # 13-83-65

 
 
 

17

 
 

Upper Torso of a Ceremonial Figure

 

Upper Torso of a Ceremonial Figure
© Museum Fünf Kontinente

 
 

Leti peoples

Maluku

19th century

Inv. # 22-23-14.

 
 
 

Art of the Ancestors extends a special thank you to Dr. Michaela Appel, Head of Departments for South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Australia at Museum Fünf Kontinente.

 
 
 

All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of Museum Fünf Kontinente.
© Museum Fünf Kontinente