Oceanic Masterworks in the Humboldt Forum
Oceanic Masterworks in the Humboldt Forum
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
In 2013, construction began on a new museum to house the German nation's collections of Asian art and those of traditional peoples (from Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum). The Humboldt Forum is now part of the city's vibrant 'Museum Island' and is built next door to the Pergamon Museum, famous for its antiquities and Islamic art. The Forum's site opened in 2021 with nearly 500,000 objects in storage and a floor space exceeding 430,000 square feet. Intent on being a forward-looking arena for the arts of Asia, the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Oceania, the Forum was envisioned to further foster the "universal story of the human race from multiple perspectives." The inner layout often affords close-up viewing points as well as long vistas to further appreciate and see the same object from different perspectives.
This month, Art of the Ancestors presents twenty chef-d'œuvre examples of Oceanic art with items ranging from Hawaii to New Guinea from the Forum's Ethnographic Museum. These choices are intended as an invitation to further explore the Humboldt Forum's extraordinary holdings of non-Western art and to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the Königliches Museum für Völkerkunde (Royal Museum for Ethnology) upon which those holdings are largely based.
The Humboldt Forum stewards three particularly fine Hawaiian items. The first is a great feathered figure of the Hawaiian god of war, Ku, known as "the snatcher of land." This imposing figure is composed of once brilliant yellow and black o'o and red iwi feathers that were plucked from molting live birds without killing them. Their precious feathers were then ingeniously and painstakingly intertwined with fine netting and stout basketry. The addition of human hair, dog teeth, seeds, and pearl shells magnified Ku's imposing presence.
This particular god image was collected by Captain Cook, while a simple but evocative royal cape, also utilizing the same feathers, is illustrated and described in museum notes as dating prior to 1819. Under the heading 'acquisition,' a brief liner note in German reads: "Donation of King Kamehameha III in 1838 to Wilhelm Friedrich III (the King of Prussia)". Another remarkable Hawaiian object in the Forum's collection is a carved rendition of Kihawahine, a mortal who, after her death, was transformed into a shape-shifting lizard goddess. As a major deity, Kihawahine was known as "the suppressor of evil spirits." She became the personal protector of Keōpūolani, the Queen consort of King Kamehameha the Great, who was coincidentally born in 1778, the same year of Captain Cook's arrival in the Hawaiian islands.
Other Polynesian material featured here includes items collected in the 19th-century by the redoubtable and talented Karl von den Steinen. Many of our readers will recognize this author of important anthropological work on the Marquesas islands and the Indian cultures of Central Brazil. Von den Steinen was the first outsider ever to make contact with the Xingu of Brazil (1884), just as Cook was the first European to visit Hawaii. The Forum's large Marquesan wooden tiki figure is of merit, and the ivory ear plug ornament illustrated here is fine, both representative of the type of material von den Steinem placed in diverse museum collections. The earring depicts vigorous figures with seemingly intertwined body parts. A similar piece also worn by women, collected by von den Steinen and now in the British Museum (Oc.1929,1111.1), is described as representing a woman with her attendants in the magically fraught and dangerous act of childbirth.
From von den Steinen, there is also a seldom-seen tapa-bound wooden shrine figure from Fiji akin to those kept in spirit houses and used by priests to communicate with the beyond. The next major group of Islands near Fiji is also represented below. From the Island of Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, there is an enchanting dance shield with intricately carved designs in addition to rarely seen painted animal and human imagery. Thurnwald (1912) documented men with similar shields that were used during 'unu' ceremonies for a boy's first initiation rites. Unu dances were once performed in which these shields were displayed as the legend of the sun and the moon fighting the morning star was being retold. This story served as a metaphor for a village chief's offer (that has been described as a ceremonial 'treaty' or 'contract') to shelter and afford vengeance for a boy coming of age under his tutelage and protection.
Another emblem of identity, and for projecting power and protection, is a remarkably fine ceremonial scepter (gi okono) from New Caledonia. Like the previous dancing shield, this item also displays a balance and attention to detail that pleases anyone who has ever worked wood or attempted to match diverse materials together. Here, a finely tapered ovoid stone of mottled greenstone has been laboriously polished to perfection. The haft displays the head of a human figure at the juncture or lug where stone and wood meet. The grip is further mounted on an endocarp or half shell of a coconut that was then dexterously wrapped with unseen bits of Western trade cloth, fine sennit binding, and thicker cordage made out of the fur of the red flying fox (Pteropus vetulus). Museum notes describe this gi okono as being donated by Hans Nevermann. Nevermann was, among his many posts and accomplishments, a former longtime curator of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum. He led an expedition to Melanesia in 1933/4 when he visited New Caledonia, and along with many others associated with this museum, he made ethnographical knowledge accessible to a broader public.
Moving to Micronesia, one is reminded of the mastery involved in traveling enormous distances in single and double-hulled seafaring canoes. The epitome of seafaring knowledge from the Marshall Islands is encapsulated in their navigational charts. Charts can represent an individual atoll, contiguous atolls, or a larger geography (rebbelib), while another type of chart (mattang) was used to educate young sailors. Both were assembled from the cut midribs of coconut palms that were then tied together with sennit bindings. The attached shells represent islands, while the path of the sticks indicates the prevailing marine currents and wave patterns between islands. Their way-finding went beyond celestial navigation as Marshall Islands pilots were keen observers of the natural world and of the ocean's flotsam and jetsam while sailing their craft. There are many surviving old charts, but the quality and varied nature of them has been best preserved in German museums as the German Empire (Deutsche Kolonialreich) administered this region from 1885-1914.
Collected during this period is also a rare example of a massive wooden lintel from a Palauan men's house. The figure is based on the legendary Dilukai, an excessively promiscuous woman whose father had her tied in a splayed leg position as punishment. Ironically, stout-built and well-ornamented men's houses were often where women from outside villages came and slept with young men to gain wealth and prestige for their own families. The jewel of this region, however, is from the tiny atoll of Nukuoro. Featured here is one of at least nine statues that were collected in either 1873 or 1879 by the self-trained naturalist and ethnologist Johann Stanislaus Kubary. Kubary worked for the fabled Hamburg trading house of Godeffroy and Son, which also operated its own museum of ethnology and natural history from 1861 to 1885. Once defunct, its contents were then mostly distributed to various other museums, with this statue arriving in Berlin in 1962 via an exchange with the Hamburg Museum.
Standing at five foot six inches tall (168 cm), she is one of the most impressive of all surviving Nukuoro wooden figures or tino aitu. As a major female deity, and one that was propitiated with offerings, food and flowers to augur against malevolent spirits or ill fortune, she would have most likely been kept in an extended family's temple site or malai. With their perfectly balanced proportions and striking minimalism, Nukuoro deities at their finest are essential renderings of the human form. This tino aitu reminds one of a classical Greek Cycladic marble figure in the sense that human likeness has been created and codified, which can perhaps be artistically equaled but never really excelled.
The Forum's largest aggregation of Oceanic art is from New Ireland and New Guinea. From the north coast of New Ireland, statues, masks, architectonic ornaments, and screens were carved or crafted for displays and used during Malangan ceremonies. The Malangan cycle is a time-consuming and expensive vehicle for celebrating the death of an important person — and the initiation of young men into the arena of ritual knowledge — all while honoring the local spirits of the land. Affirmations of kinship, clan, status, and land ownership rights are expressed in part through symbolic carvings, masked dances, mythical stories, and ritual re-enactments (See New Ireland: Art of the South Pacific by Michael Gunn, Tribal Art Magazine, and reproduced by Art of the Ancestors on 5/22/2020). The wooden creations associated with a Malangan were skillfully painted in red, white, and black natural pigments. Additional ornamentation was created with the possible addition of bits of vegetable fiber, natural sponge, and diverse shells, including the 'trap door' of a sea snail (Turbo petholatus opercala), which were strikingly utilized as eyes.
Once used, most Malangan carvings, which were normally fashioned from softer frangible woods, were disposed of or sold. The need to create new carvings, often in an attempt to supersede previous efforts (as the ownership of Malangan objects was inherited and strictly controlled but could be distributed like a modern "copyright'), led to a riotous continuum of creations that included fanciful fish, birds, pigs as well as mythical creatures that can be remarkably dramatic, even fantastical in their composition. Illustrated here are a ceremonial painted cane and fiber screen (bonga) from a woman's house and an unusual mask of compelling quality collected in 1880. The latter's face, with its large hooked nose and swept-back designs that are reminiscent of the suckers on the undersides of an octopus' tentacles, also sports a wide conical barkcloth hat and earrings made of rotan coils. As a funerary mask, its visage speaks to the linkage, longing, and divide that separates the living and the dead. In central New Ireland, reverence for a prominent man was expressed in the creation of figures known as uli. Uli were displayed when skulls were exhumed and then re-interred for secondary burial. Berlin hosts a number of uli originally collected by Augustin Krämer. This particular uli was donated in 1909 and is exceptionally well carved with its powerful bearded figure supporting two smaller raised 'children' cradled within its upraised arms. The figure is also a hermaphrodite. Its phallus and female breasts are prominently displayed, which "may symbolize the fertility of people, animals, and gardens and represents the powers of a chief to bring success in warfare."
The quality of the Humboldt Forum's most important New Guinea material, all collected prior to 1914, is as instructive as it is profound. Early collected items include a mask stitched from plaques of cut, polished, and fitted turtle shell from the nearby Torres Straits that was collected in 1860. It was formerly part of the King of Prussia's Kunstkammer or Chamber of Art. Two other New Guinea items of note illustrated here were collected on the Kaiseren (The Empress') Augusta-Fluss Expedition of 1912-1913. As the name implies, the interests of the empire (and trading companies) that incorporated ethnological research were often inseparably tied to one another. The first item from this expedition is a feathered mosaic panel from the Kambot people, from the Keram, a tributary of the Lower Sepik River. Feathered paddles and panels were once thoughtfully kept and used there as histograms. They were carefully tucked away and stored in men's houses for display during initiations when a clan's oral history was ritually perpetuated.
By the time of Thurnwald's arrival, as a member of the expedition's team, the villagers were willing and eager to swap these once highly treasured feathered mosaics for metal tools (See Boissonnas: Feather Mosaics from the Keram River, Tribal Art Magazine, Winter: 2018). While these panels are well conserved in Western musea, they have been for some generations no longer made or revered by the peoples of the Keram River. Another item featured from the same expedition is described as a 'hausverzierung' or 'house ornament.' Its small repeated vertical prongs most likely indicate that this carving was an important ritual house hook. Such hooks were held in high esteem and used to keep valued property, ranging from baskets of food to ritual paraphernalia, away from vermin or succumbing to unwanted hands. Hooks were the embodiment and living reminder of vaunted ancestors and an egress into the spirit world. While the depiction of a splayed-legged woman in a birthing position is a common theme in the art of the Sepik region, few hooks can equal this one for its marvelous composition and animated dynamism. Her spiraling shell eyes shine. The sensory and expansive ear ornaments and the anthropomorphized elements emerging from her chest all speak to a world of seamless connectivity. Laying ancestral claim to this hook would have perpetually reminded its former owners of their own 'coming into being' as individuals and as part of a community maintaining something more significant than one's personal interests.
The Humboldt Forum beckons.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Feathered Figure of Hawaiian God of War, Ku
Before 1778
Hawaii
Feathers, mother of pearl, human hair, dog teeth, seed pods
Collected by James Cook (1728 - 1779). Previously owned by Royal Prussian Art Chamber, Ethnographic Department (1801 - 1873).
Purchased by Martin Heinrich Karl Lichtenstein in 1819.
VI 253
2
Feathered Mantle
Before 1819
Hawaii
Feathers, plant fiber
Previously owned by Kamehameha I (1758-1819), Kamehameha III (1813-1854), and sea merchant ship "Princess Louise" (1825 - 1846).
Donation from King Kamehameha III. to Friedrich Wilhelm III. 1831.
VI 366
3
Figure | Kihawahine
Before 1886
Hawaii
Wood, carved, inlay work from mussel shell, human teeth
Purchased by Eduard von Arning in 1887
VI8375
4
Tiki Figure
Before 1898
Marquesas Islands
Wood, carved
Purchased by Karl von den Steinen in 1928
VI 42462
5
Earring | Pu Taiana / Pu Taiata
Before 1897
Marquesas Islands
Bone
Purchased by Karl von den Steinen in 1899
VI 15761 a
6
Figure | Matakau
Before 1882
Fiji
Wood, plant fiber, bark pulp, boar tooth, glass, iron
Purchased by Karl von den Steinen in 1882
VI4607
7
Ceremonial Scepter | Gi Okono
Before 1934/1935
New Caledonia
Blade made of nephrite, ground, polished, pierced, handle made of wood, covered with textile, wrapped with flying fox wool cords and plant fiber cord, two snail shells
Access unclear from Hans Nevermann in 1934/1935
VI 43109
8
Dance Shield
Before 1909
Bougainville, Solomon Islands
Wood, carved, painted black, white and red
Access unclear from Richard Thurnwald in 1909
VI 28018
9
Figurative Ceremonial Bowl
Before 1906
Solomon Islands
Wood, mother-of-pearl, carved, painted
Donated by Arthur Baessler in 1906
VI 25087
10
Navigation Chart
Before 1898
Marshall Islands
Wood, snail shell, coconut fiber
Exchange by Georg Irmer 1898
VI 14669
11
Gable Figure for Men’s House
Before 1908
Palau
Wood, carved, painted
Collected by Augustin Krämer (1865 - 1941).
VI 26845
12
Shrine Figure of the God Sope | Tino Aitu
Before 1877
Nukuoro
Wood, carved
Collected by Johann Stanislaus Kubary (1846 - 1896). Acquired in exchange with the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg in 1962.
VI 46934
13
Figurative House Panel | Bonga
19th-century
New Ireland
Wood, bamboo, tapa cord
Collected by Edgar Walden (1905), German Marine Expedition (1907 - 1909).
VI34042
14
Mask
Before 1880
New Ireland
Wood, carved, painted red, black and white; Opercula of Turbo petholatus; plant fiber, braided; Cap made of rotan, bark pulp, seed capsules, black vegetable putty
Donation from Franz Hernsheim in 1881
VI 2825
15
Uli Figure
Before 1909
New Ireland
Wood, carved, painted
Donated by Franz Boluminski in 1909
VI27739
16
Zoomorphic Mask
Before 1860
Torres Strait Islands
Tortoiseshell, plant fibers
Purchased by G. Linde in 1860
VI664
17
House Post
Before 1902
Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Wood, carved, painted black, white, red and yellow, plant fiber
Purchased from New Guinea Compagnie in 1902
VI21303
18
Mask
Before 1924
Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Wood, carved, painted black, white and red, plant fibers, wet snails and mother-of-pearl strung on plant fiber cord; Cassowary feathers, rattan feathers
Purchase from Wokatsch in 1924
VI42189
19
Feather Mosaic
Before 1912
Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Wood, black and white feathers, plant fiber
Purchase from Sepik expedition around 1912
VI38609
20
House Ornament
Before 1912
Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Wood, carved, painted red, inlaid with shell
Purchase of Hans Franke's estate in 1986
VI54998
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum.
© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ethnologisches Museum