22 Pacific Rim Masterworks in the Linden-Museum Stuttgart
22 Pacific Rim Masterworks in the Linden-Museum Stuttgart
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
For the month of July, Art of the Ancestors highlights a selection of Pacific Rim artworks from the collection of Stuttgart's Linden-Museum (Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde.) We are shining a light on twenty-two stellar items originating from Indonesia, Oceania, Micronesia, Polynesia, Peru, and North America, exemplifying what this venerable institution offers the public.
The museum's genesis dates to the 19th century and the creation of the Verein für Handels-Geographie (Association for Trade-Geography). It is named in honor of one of the presidents of this association, Karl Graf von Linden. Due to unification and a historical desire for local expansion, the German nation's colonial experience, which began in 1883, was of relatively short duration. It mostly ended with the conclusion of World War I (1914-1918) and the Treaty of Versailles (1919), which stripped the country of its most important colonies. The Linden-Museum's collection, in part, represents an attempt to trade further, boost domestic production for export markets, and expand the new nation's worldly horizons. Explorers and expatriates living overseas were encouraged to participate. As a result, numerous items in the collection have intriguing and detailed descriptive entries in addition to well-documented provenances.
The Linden-Museum is housed in a notable neoclassical building that was restored after its destruction during World War II. Originally built in 1911, the structure was created to exhibit and conserve some 63,000 objects. The pieces illustrated here were part of the Linden-Museum's historical mission of assembling and curating diverse non-Western material culture. Linden-Museum's finer pieces are sublime examples of our collective and seemingly inexorable human need to artistically express ourselves and produce objects of admiration, veneration, and beauty.
From Indonesia, there is a powerful yet ethereal Toba Batak guri-guri, a container for healing unguents and magical substances. This example features a wooden figurative stopper atop a ceramic jar let that dates back to the Yuan or early Ming dynasty. The stopper's hunkered figure depicts a datu (a learned one from a priestly lineage) and symbolizes its owner's attainment and proficiency with precious, sometimes dangerous potions.
The Linden-Museum is also replete with Oceanic masterpieces. The Tolai figures, a complex headdress, and the Sulka shield illustrated here derive from the Gazelle Peninsula on the Eastern side of New Britain Island. Graphically and figuratively, art from New Britain is rare and celebrated for its ability to project movement and emotion mixed with a keen sense of wonderment. An immense taba-taba figure, some of which are four meters tall, and a smaller figure, also with raised open palms and known as a toka-tokoi, were used in the initiation rites of young men into the Iniet society. Open palms were said to signify engagement with the spirit world. The Iniet community taught what we call 'the two hands of survival,' where wisdom from the elders and the ancestors, coupled with training, was used to engender positive outcomes and foster good luck. Conversely, the darker realms of magic and the ability to manipulate adverse outcomes, even to the point of causing sickness or death, were also taught through this society.
The Linden-Museum's taba-taba was collected initially by Richard Parkinson and deposited in the Dresden Museum before being rehoused in Stuttgart. In 1875, Parkinson became a representative of the Hamburg trading firm J. C. Godeffroy and Sohn, where he was partly employed to collect ethnographic material for the now long-defunct Godeffroy Museum. Some of our readers no doubt know his masterwork Dreißig Jahre in der Südsee (Thirty Years in the South Seas), which remains an informative read. Other Oceanic items of note selected from this impressive collection include pieces from New Guinea, such as a powerful North Coast Astrolabe Bay mask, an orator's stool, a fine large hook, and a brilliant gable mask from a cult house in the Middle Sepik. The two uli from nearby central New Ireland were displayed in relation to cycles of celebration centering around the exhumation and reburial of the skulls of prominent men. While uli are ubiquitous to this culture, the two illustrated here are of superior mettle.
From Polynesia, there is an exquisite Maori feather and flax cloak that utilizes striking orange and emerald green parrot feathers associated with chiefly status or the highly born and a stone deity from a Hawaiian temple or marae. From Micronesia, there is a famous carving of Dilukai. This mythological spread-legged female figure was used as the central decorative gable device above the entryway to men's houses on Palau in the Caroline Islands. Stuttgart's iconic example is similar to other rare examples of Dilukai in Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The West Coast of the Americas is represented here by items that span over 1,000 years of history. From Peru, there are marvelous pre-contact items of personal adornment and significance, including a Moche period pair of large mosaic spooled earrings, a golden ornament in the form of a shapeshifting fox, and an unusual Huari period feathered turban. According to the museum's notes, there are thirty dice-like decorative squares on this turban that were arranged in a purposeful pattern. While ancient Andean cultures did play dice games, their depiction of them here was most likely intended to project multiple meanings beyond being simply an elite person's stylish chapeau. The number 'four' was significant in Central Andean numerology. The Inca term "Twantinsuyu" meant "the empire of the four corners of the world."
From North America, there are also two items of refinement, story-telling and stunning artistic virtue. The first is a 19th-century Northwest Coast complex transformational mask from the Nuxalk (Bella Coola people) of British Columbia. This type of mask was displayed and worn during dances and Potlatch ceremonies. By pulling a string, one mask revealed another mask in the form of an animal, or in this case, a mythic being or ancestor who emerges from the eagle's beak to animate and punctuate the dancer's story for maximum dramatic effect. The second is a finely quilled and vigorously painted buffalo skin robe from the Mandan tribe, who traditionally lived along both banks of the Missouri River and two of its tributaries (the Heart and Knife Rivers) in present-day North and South Dakota. This stunning robe was presented as a gift to Prince Maximilian Zu Wied by the warrior-chief, Mato-Tope (Four Bears), in 1833. He created several magnificent robes that have survived and depicted his martial exploits. Mato-Tope was not only befriended by Maximilian, who spent a year learning his language but by both the artists Karl Bodmer and George Catlin. Four Bears was held in high esteem by these early visitors. Catlin recorded that "He was a man of liberty, generosity, and elegance."
We encourage our readers to put Stuttgart and the Linden-Museum on their visitation list of German museums that steward, conserve, and display art, tout le monde, for everyone's edification. The museum is a testament to how non-European peoples have navigated the world for so long and in so many profoundly riveting and varied ways.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Container for Magical Substances | Guri-Guri
19th century
Toba Batak culture; Indonesia
Ceramic, wood, fiber
2
Figure | Tabataba
Late 19th century
Tolai; Gazelle Peninsula; Bismarck Archipelago; New Britain; Melanesia
Wood, Tree core, Feather, Fiber, Pigment; painted
Rassiga; 4131
S 42394 L
3
Figure | Tabalivana
Around 1900
Tolai; Gazelle Peninsula; Bismarck Archipelago
Dye, Wood, Bast Fiber, Feather, Animal Tooth; carved, painted
Fellmann; 0563
029907
4
Shield | Ngaile
Around 1900 or earlier
Sulka; Jaquinot Bay; New Britain
Wood, rattan, pigments, feathers; carved, painted
Mencke; 0214
014345
5
Headdress | Tokatokoi
Around 1900
Tolai; Gazelle Peninsula (Northeast); New Britain
Wood, raffia fiber, rattan, feather, sea shell; carved, bound, inserted, wrapped, fabric, sewn
Fellmann; 0563
029910
6
Mask
Around 1900 or earlier
Bogajim; North Coast New Guinea (East, North); Astrolabe Bay; New Guinea (East, North)
Wood, Lime, Bast, Cassowary Feather, Plant fiber
Hagen; 0491
027128
7
Orator’s Stool
Around 1900 or earlier
Sepik, Middle Course; Sepik; East Sepik Province
Wood, Coconut fiber, Cowrie, Hair
117356
8
Suspension Hook
Early 20th century
Sepik; New Guinea; East Sepik Province; Sepik, Middle Course
Wood, Pigments; carved, painted
Brignoni; 2198
118876
9
Gable Mask
Early 20th century
Iatmül; Angerman; Sepik; Sepik, Middle Course; Sepik
Wood, Pigments; carved, painted
Haug; 0943
063214
10
Uli Figure
Around 1900 or earlier
New Ireland; Melanesia; Lemau; New Ireland (North Coast)
Wood, lime, pigments, carbon black; carved, painted
Krockenberger; 0932
062972 a
11
Uli Figure
19th century or earlier
Lassigi; New Ireland (North Coast); New Ireland; Melanesia
Wood, Coconut fiber, Pigments, Lime, Turbo petolatus, Putty; carved, painted
Thiel; 0791
049272
12
Malagan Image of a Giant Fish Mouthing a Human Figure
Early 20th century
Nusa; Bismarck Archipelago; New Ireland; Melanesia
Wood, Turbo Petolatus, Putty, Pigments, Coral; carved, painted
Eberhardt; 0763a
047131
13
Feathered Cape | Kahu Huruhuru
2nd half of the 19th century
Maori; New Zealand; Oceania; Aotearoa; Oceania
New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax), Feather; woven, braided
033596
14
Figure | Kiʻi Pōhaku / Akua Pōhaku
19th century; before 1898
Hawaii; Oceania
Coral stone
Sprösser; 1318
087674
15
Gable Figure | Dilukai
Late 19th – early 20th century
Republic of Palau, Caroline Islands
Wood, pigment
16
Ear Plugs with Jewelry Discs
11th - 15th century AD
Chimú culture; North Coast (Peru); South America
Turquoise, Tree pitch, Cotton, Mother-of-pearl, Spondylus; carved, inlay work (opus sectile)
Mattel; 3396L
M 32248 a+b L
17
Fox Headdress or Back Ornament
Phase II; 300-400
Gold, copper; hammered, clamped, gilded
Moche culture; North Coast (Peru); South America; Huaca de la Luna
Sutorius; 2205
119154
18
Feather Turban
Wari culture; South Coast (Peru); South America
Cotton, feather, totora cane, woven canvas
Hagmann; 3380L
M 32205 L
19
Figure of an Orejón, Inca Noble
15th - 16th century AD
Inka culture; Peru
Hammered gold
Sutorius; 2205
119159
20
Mask
Phase II; 300-400
Copper oxide, Titanostrombus galeatus snail, basalt, gold; hammered, gilded
Moche culture; North Coast (Peru); South America; Huaca de la Luna
Sutorius; 2205
119156
21
Transformation Mask
19th century
Bella Coola; Vancouver Island; North America
Wood, Animal hair, Textile, Pigment; carved, painted
Krongut; 0443
019178
22
Robe of the Chief Mato-Tope
1833
Mandan; North America
Bison skin, quill, porcupine bristle, pigment, deer hooves; quill work
Wied; 0640
036125
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the Linden-Museum.
© Linden-Museum Stuttgart