Melanesian Masks

Melanesia Masks - Australian Museum

All these special masks are from Melanesia. These have been selected for their variety in shape, décor and functionality for our Spirit Faces. Some of them refer to past practice and lively culture as examples, and their ageless" primitive" natures inspired the twentieth-century modernist movements and painters such as Matisse and Picasso.

Their faces "speak", inspiring, frightening and captivating.

Tribal Art of Oceania

Wealthy and vibrant social living, exuberant ceremonies and dancing are expressed in the eloquence of the arts, and the artistry of the Papua New Guinea population is among the best in Oceania. Papua New Guinea's arts consist not only of face masks and men's and women's figurines, but also of complicated canoe, house, weapon and utensilry.

There are two types of ornamental patterns: they can be pure geometrical, that is, they can only be a mixture of linear strokes, rectangles, squares, trigons or other geometrical shapes. Ornamental artwork with figurines of poultry or humans is the second type of ornamental design.

This is a way of representing the shapes that make up the design in a kind of shaped or stylised shape that is much more tolerable in design and layout than the normal shape. An exact look at the drafts in Papua New Guinea shows that they are founded on different animals or people.

One area selects a alligator, while other areas scatter faces on a shallow plate while producing the most complex and attractive bird designs, especially in the southeast of the isle. They are almost always well made and do not withstand the relatively coarse tools such as rockfalls and drill bits and sharkskin rasping and polishing that are used to create works with a soft sheen.

One of the most striking features of the Solomon Islands' traditional craftsmanship is the very nice ornamental fashion used in the manufacture of glittering designs from pearls or other molluscs. In this way, they are decorated with boats, homes and sculptured human, ornamental and fishing statues. A lot of large and small little small brown wood feeding dishes have the shape of a bir, with their heads, leaves and tails easily defined by an inlayed bowl.

It is the frigatebird and is cut in smooth heartwood with mother-of-pearl inserts and often cut to the most simple outlines, often with only the rest of a grand piano, a human skull or an Eyel. Lefthand: Goggle of the ancient Solomon Islands. Solomons Islands engraved sign. Vanuatu Magic Stone above is cut from lime stone and refined in the characteristic Vanuatu look with red/orange ocher with shades of pink and yellow.

It is made of local lime rock, with fine carvings, clearly above the egg-shaped shape with big hands, big hands, big forehead and nostrils. A smile on the face is cut from head to toe and accentuated by the use of a few points of whiteness. It is refined with a naturally red-orange ocher, then highlighted with the use of bright brown pigment and bright spots.

Formerly known as the New Hebrides (Captain Cook) and the Great Cyclades (French Bougainville), the Vanuatu Arcipelago extends about 500 nautical mile in the arch of Melanesia and consists of a fistful of small islets. Brillant blue, whit and red/orange.