Rapa Nui Sculptures
Sculptures Rapa NuiIn one place the most important timber spring for the isle was the toromiro bush or tree. Why was it so important? On Easter Island, as shared by the Polynesian community, the primordial purpose of Easter Isle was to act as a mediator between man and the super-natural realm, and most of this "art" was engraved in lumell.
The attitude towards the collection of these wooden works can be seen as a gate to the comprehension of the change in significance of an artistic genre over time. Easter Island woodcarvings divide the curved posture and the disproportionately large number of wooden sculptures from Polynesia. However, carving has become a sophisticated craft on Easter Island, and the skinny males, also known as Moai Kavakava, are one of a kind in this area and therefore very popular.
An especially detailled carvings is made on the face and skull of the males and the females have a generally shallow shape. In Rapa Nui traditions, Tuu-ko-ihu is said to have ascended Punapau and seen two dormant ghosts that just had the shape of a rib, no body. Returning to his home, he immediately took accidental wooden objects and made two sculptures depicting these two ghosts he had seen.
The most interesting wood sculptures are compositions of man and animals such as the moko, a moai aringa, a double-headed tangata manu and a bird-figurine. Anthroposophical worship resulted in a particular and singular image and developed through the religious value of the bird kept by the people.
These woodcarvings, according to the first tourists to the Isle, were kept up to heaven in ceremonial practice or carried as trailers while the attendees were dancing and singing. Timber itself was regarded as a being with a spirit, and the sculptor had to know the right ceremonial way of dealing with it, from felling a forest to finally shearing it.
The woodcarvings were to work in a very particular societal environment, linked to convictions deeply embedded in geneology, story and legend and embodied by chieftains and ghosts. Usually the figurines were wraped in tapas or shawls and only released for parties if they could also be hung on the throat or at the groin.
The hut doors are protected by timber paintings of the lizard and other zomorphic characters that may protect the doorstep from the spirit. Obviously, the oldest kinds of figurines were made by craftsmen for ceremony and ceremony. It is the most interesting time for contemporary carvers, since there was a supremacy of sculpture and the shape of the timber was often followed in its initial state.
Later undisturbed, unified wooden fragments from international springs were introduced. In 1804 a well-known bird figurine, gathered by a native of Russia and now in the St. Petersburg Musuem, shows how skilful the woodcarvers were. The shape of the bird man was adjusted to the shape of the timber's naturally curved surface.
On the bill is sculpted a man's face, seen from above and looking like a man with a long moustache, then the picture changes from the side to a snout. During the early phase of Easter Island's development, there were major changes.
On Easter Sunday 1722, the discoverer Jacob Roggeveen came across the isle, until then the inhabitants of the isle had lived in solitude for more than a thousand years. It was with this missions that the research, observations and collections of the archipelago's cultures began. After Cook's journey in 1774, the stream of works of art from the new discovery increased considerably.
Early, fine carvings and dancing utensils were the first to be sold. With the European contacts becoming more and more common, the islanders' attitudes towards their own treasured properties became more and more limited, and many of the properties that had been cut before the inscription. Materials and information collected on the Cook trip sets a benchmark for prospective travellers on the Isle.
Most of these wood figurines were either bought by gentlemen collecting antiques or lodged with evangelists, antiquarians or literature associations. In 1864 evangelists came to the Isle, and by 1868 the vast majority of the Isle had become Christian. For example, rigorous and traditional Viktorian ideals meant that many of the genitals of the characters were cut off from older specimens and left out entirely from new work.
However, this lack of comprehension is demonstrated by the fact that these wood figurines were most eagerly gathered and appreciated in the West and that many ingenious reproductions of the bird figurine were made for trade without realizing what they were. It is not easy to visually understand these wood figurines as they can be found in today's auctions.
Only in the twentieth century did an intelligent framework begin to emerge in which ocean artefacts could be viewed. By exploring English ships in Polynesia in the latter part of the eighteenth centuary, more oceanographic exhibits found their way to England than to any other part of the globe. It was only after the First War that he really had the chance to expand his collections with delicate works at low costs, as he did not know the value of seaware in England.
The works of contemporary art have often been shown in connection with ocean works. The Easter Island became an important influential place in his work and inspire motives like Lop Lop, the bird mannequin. Epstein also bought oceansic works by Charles Raton and Louis Carré in Paris and Kenneth Webster in London.
Until 1931 he had collected over two hundred of them. It was interested in their sculpural shapes and their initial worship contexts. One of Cook's journeys, he had seven Easter Island figurines on display in his own museum collections. Remains of oranges were found in the mouths and eye of the men, suggesting that it was an early example, perhaps used in a procession.
In 2002, the number was put at $100,000 to $150,000 at Sotheby's Paris and finally auctioned for over $300,000, which shows how the revaluation of these numbers has increased. Being an extraordinarily large skinny picture and the styling on its back suggesting a loin cloth were likely contributory factors to its value.
Epstein's own Easter Island illustrates the transformation of these figurines into popular local trophy and souvenir items for prestigious collectors and museals. As a result of their impact, the woodcarvings developed from those on the periphery, known as "primitive art", to their recognition internationally as one of America's largest fine arts galleries.
Over the last few years, the rapid rise in the prices of Australian arts has reflected another step in the historic background of these works. One Rene Gaffé masculine figurine in December 2001, for $625,000 and another for $614,500 at Sotheby's New York in 2008. Shape, origin, cultural and historic importance, shine and state have become important criterions, according to which the value of a wood figurine from Easter Island far away from its origin is assessed.