Rare head sculpture "aripa" ·  Papua New Guinea - upper reaches of the Korewori - Inyai village area, Ewa people · ID: 3050589

Description

wood, pigments, base

The Ewa people live near the source of the legendary Korewori River, high up in the Sepik Mountains. In the 1960s, probably the greatest treasure of oceanic art ever found was unearthed here, near the village of Inyai, when caves and grottos filled with large quantities of figurative sculptures were discovered by chance.

The present work is stylistically very close to these carvings which are the oldest wood carvings known from Oceania (cf. Haberland, 1968, ill. 33).

They come in different forms and represent a variety of supernatural beings. Christian Kaufmann succeeded in identifying the five main types of Korewori carving (Meyer, Vol. I,1995, p. 240). Nevertheless, it is very difficult to assign it precisely to a particular type of figure. This sculpture presumably depicts a male hunting spirit.

Comparing literature

Haberland, Eike, Die Grotten der Karawari-Berge, New York 1968, ill. 33 Meyer, Anthony J.P., Ozeanische Kunst, Vol. I, Köln 1995, p. 240 Kaufmann, Christian, Korewori - Magische Kunst aus dem Regenwald, Basel 2003, p. 53 ff.