“SEA ART” by Ana & Antonio Casanovas of Arte y Ritual with contributions from Jerome Feldman, Philippe Bourgoin, & Wil Roebroeks | Review by Steven G. Alpert
SEA ART
Published by Ana & Antonio Casanovas
with contributions from Jerome Feldman, Philippe Bourgoin, & Wil Roebroeks
Photography by Hughes Dubois
Sea Art, as the inner jacket of this new book describes it, is an acronym for 'South East Asian Art.' This tome contains an astonishing compilation of artworks carefully chosen and curated by Ana and Antonio Casanovas. Every so often, there is a book that breaks new territory and inspires the imagination by genuinely broadening our horizons concerning an aesthetic corpus of material. Sea Art is just that sort of publication.
The introductory essay is composed by Jerome Feldman, well-known to many of our readers for his numerous articles, catalogs, and publications. These include The Eloquent Dead (1985), Nias Tribal Treasures (1990), and Arc of the Ancestors (1994). In Sea Art, he traces the sculptural parallelism, or common stylistic links that run through much of the art illustrated. His writing is also augmented by 161 mini plates illustrating a number of iconic items found throughout the arc of Asia, Oceania, and the Pacific.
In Sea Art, material culture is finely illustrated with objects from across the great expanse of Indonesia's 17,000 islands, from Enggano in the far west to Papua in the East. Indonesia, of course, lies like a net, one where countless migrations have passed through the alveolus lungs of this extensive geography for millennia. Adat istiadat, or the ways of the ancestors, still informs the collective memory and traditions of Indonesia's many living cultures.
"Art is truly a language that springs from the world of its creators. The early arts from Island Southeast Asia and Oceania give us a glimpse into the philosophy, cosmology, and the values of cultures that were isolated from the major religions and politics that arrived with later contact with the outside world. As such, they give us insights into alternative universes with their own logic, aesthetics, and values. The diversity of expressions across the vast oceanic world is staggering." (Feldman: Sea Art: Intro: p. 57)
Items of excellence are also illustrated from other diverse areas, including Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Nagaland (India), and the Nicobar Islands. Additional text by Philippe Bourgoin discourses on the history of collecting traditional arts from Asia, including Southeast Asia. He provides meaningful information about a few of the seminal agencies or persons who collected material in situ from a European vantage point and art historical perspective.
Lastly, there's a fine piece by the archaeologist Wil Roebroeks that recounts evidence of early human migrations. He also chronicles recently discovered figurative cave paintings on the island of Sulawesi. Deep in the karst formations at Maros-Pangkep, in the Bantimurung District and not far from Makassar, remarkable images of animals such as a warty wild boar or an anoa (a dwarf buffalo with sharp horns) have been published in recent years. These animals are endemic to the island, and the discovery of these paintings rocked both the academic world and the popular imagination. These lively and artistically fluid images were painted around 50,000 years ago, making them the world's oldest figurative cave paintings ever found.
The source for this veritable feast is due to the collecting and conservation efforts of important works by Ana and Antonio Casanovas. Through this publication, the collection's remarkable contents are being shared with a broader audience. To whet our readers' appetite and curiosity, we are reproducing twelve select examples from myriad highlights, including some of our favorite pieces.
Readers of Art of the Ancestors have been presented with articles and artworks from the Island of Enggano. When the word 'feast' is spoken, one can readily imagine the circular wooden crowns known as an epaku. These were worn by chiefly women as part of their elaborate attire, who, as 'feast givers,' danced at the kaleak baba, a festival where hunting rituals and gratitude for the harvest were lavishly expressed and ceremonially renewed. A central crouching figure dominates the crest of this hat, and its facial characteristics and muscular crouching guise are reminiscent of some Polynesian forms. Modigliani (1891) wrote that they represent slain enemies, though such figurative imagery can also be repeatedly found on other carvings that were not involved in warfare.
One of Sea Art's chef d'oeuvre is another Enggano piece in the form of a blackened head with an alert, wide-eyed face, gnarling teeth, and circular ear plugs, all neatly inlaid with mother-of-pearl set with resin and pins. Several related heads have long resided in museums where they are recorded as having been the prow ornaments for war canoes. By the end of the 19th century, mostly through introduced diseases and the practice of black-birding, the population had shrunk to only several hundred persons. As such, we know little about the heyday of traditional Enggano practices and their remarkable art-producing culture.
From one of the region's most diverse art-producing islands, Borneo, three stellar items from Kalimantan are illustrated below. The first two are the product of the Bahau Saa' people of the Middle Mahakam river basin, whose distinctive carving style assuredly blends Modang and Kayan elements into their own inherited traditions. Their artistry is readily recognizable in a few surviving chiefly seats, inner house panels, hardwood baby carriers (katung), and the carved struts that were used to stabilize woven rattan baby carriers. The Bahau Saa' version of wide-eyed squatting heart-shaped faced protective figures is iconic. With their compact muscularity, these figures exude raw torque, a compressed force that is indeed equaled by the carving's elegance and technical execution. Such a blend of conventions is only encountered amidst a few and quite diverse traditional world art traditions. The finest Bahau and Modang creations invite favorable comparisons when appreciated alongside the sculptural traditions of the Fang, Taino, or Hawaiian peoples.
Another item from Borneo that is particularly important is the last major piece that I am personally aware of to be recovered from the muddy banks of the Telen River in East Kalimantan. It is a sinuous archaic anthropomorphic statue. Caressed by the elements: wind, water, and mud, it most likely once adorned an elaborately decorated family sepulcher. (See Bock, The Head-Hunters of Borneo, 1881: color-plates 8 & 9) It is also likely related to a tutelary figure in the Dallas Museum of Art (Eyes of the Ancestors: Second edition, Tuttle, pages 134-135) that was once clearly affixed to a similar structure.
Sea Art is particularly strong in Moluccan entries as there are an astonishing fifty-three pieces under this area heading from diverse and distant islands. Among the many intriguing objects is a classical and beautifully proportioned seated shrine figure from Leti that sets a bar or standard for such hunkered figures. One of the most interesting items for a student of this material is a unique figure from the Kei Islands. There is only one other cognate (Sea Art: fig/page 269) in this highly localized 'bird-man' style. The caption notes suggest it was: "Probably attached to an altar or important door as seen by the hole under the arms and the cord markings on the wood." It is an impressive moment when a unique object of importance and beauty is published for the very first time (See Ana and Antonio Casanovas: 1997, pl 29).
This publication is enriched by such sculptures. There's no less an array of eye-stunners deriving from Eastern Indonesia (Nusa Tenggara Timor) that principally include the islands of Sumba, Flores, and Timor. The emotional content of this material is powerful and varied. A pair of dignified and imposing male and female figures belong to a class of effigy posts that were used to memorialize important ancestors in the Waikabubak region of the Western part of the island, also used as poles that witnessed ritual sacrifice. In East Sumba, they form the inner architectural uprights that support platforms in the vaulted peaks of chiefly houses where clan treasures were kept within a proscribed enshrined area. Juxtaposed to the quiet refinement of this post is an intense and early example of a mask (biola) from Belu with a hardened granulated surface and a riveting expression. Biola were once kept in a village's ceremonial house, the uma lulik, by the Tetum people of West Timor. They were taken out and danced during festive occasions that included 'the dance to the rising sun,' the loro'sae, when a successful headhunting expedition's exploits were heralded and ritually celebrated.
The last item illustrated is one of the finest Timor Leste commemorative figures extant (ai tos). This male statue is perfectly balanced. Its bent knees and arms convey a simultaneous yet counterintuitive sense of ease and vigilance. The shifts in the statue's planes (due to being initially carved with softer iron tools, then being caressed and weathered by nature) follow and accentuate the rhythm of the wood's grain. That's why the best ai tos may appear to be moving, even slightly walking, as one limb is in a slightly different position than its counterpart. By ending our introduction with an extraordinary piece, we invite our readers back to the beginning of this 400-page volume. Sea Art is an invaluable publication — akin to a pilot's handbook for navigating the shoals of the past, which are often sparsely represented and often little understood. Sea Art is a must for anyone interested in finer material from this area.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
Antonio & Ana Casanovas are the founders of Arte y Ritual, a gallery specializing in Tribal Art since 1986. Over the years, they have organized thematic exhibitions at international fairs, galleries, and museums worldwide. Notable exhibitions included, Maluku, an exhibition and the title of their first catalogue on the art from the Moluccan islands presented in New York in 1997, Traces: Primitive and Modern Expressions at Jan Krugier Gallery in New York in 2001, Origins: Primitive Art in Private and Public Collections in the Iberian Peninsula in Conde Duque Museum in Madrid in 2005, and ADAM, Analog Digital Ancient Masters at the Parcours des Mondes in Paris in 2014. They have always had a special attraction to Indo-Pacific Art, a field Antonio began collecting in 1884 and together they have studied and explored this fascinating art both in the west and around Island SEA where they have travelled extensively. SEA ART commemorates a 40-year journey dedicated to the search, appreciation and study of the art from this region of the world traditionally known as Oceania.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. Art of the Ancestors does not receive a commission should any of our readers purchase the aforementioned book. Art of the Ancestors is a strictly non-commercial educational platform and has no vested interest in the professional activities of the authors listed above. Their opinions are their own.