FIGURE DE GRADE EN FOUGÈRE ARBORESCENTE, ÎLE DE MALEKULA, ARCHIPEL DU VANUATU |

Figure de grade en fougère arborescente, Île de Malekula, Archipel du Vanuatu

Collection Marcel Evard, acquis ca. 1960
Collection Morris Pinto, New York
Collection Daniel Cordier, Paris
Sotheby's, New York, 17 mai 2002, n° 336
Collection privée, Paris, acquis lors de cette vente

Paris, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, Sculpture Monumentale de Nouvelle-Guinée et des Nouvelles Hébrides, 1961

Bucher, Sculpture Monumentale de Nouvelle-Guinée et des Nouvelles Hébrides, 1961, n° 25

Very good condition overall. Wear consistent with age and use within the culture. Slight loss of material on top left as well as bottom left on the back of the figure. Profound encrustation throughout the extremely well preserved carved fern.
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Sculptée dans la racine d'une fougère arborescente, cette statue témoigne, parmi la richesse foisonnante des styles mélanésiens, de la créativité extraordinaire des arts du Vanuatu. Ces monumentales sculptures indiquent, par leurs détails iconographiques, l'appartenance à tel ou tel grade de la société secrète à laquelle les hommes sont initiés. Après les cérémonies d'acquisition de grade - signifiant l'accès aux connaissances et l'enrichissement personnel en cochons - elles étaient le plus souvent placées au bord de l'aire de danse, et parfois devant la case de l'intéressé, auquel elles servaient d'emblème (Kaeppler, Kaufmann et Newton, L’Art Océanien, 1993, p. 555). L’abstraction de la figure humaine atteint ici une de ses expressions les plus abouties. La monumentalité de la tête est mise en valeur par la tension de la face composée de volumes géométriques superposés. Avec un talent égal, le sculpteur a accentué, dans les modelés et dans la pose, le naturalisme de la figure animale figurant au revers de l’œuvre. Exposée à Paris en 1961 à la galerie d'art moderne Jeanne Bucher, cette œuvre s’affirme comme l’un des témoins archaïques du corpus.

Carved from the root of a tree fern, this statue is a testament to the exuberant richness of Melanesian styles and the extraordinary creativity of Vanuatu arts. Through their iconographic details these monumental sculptures are a mark of belonging to a specific rank of the secret society where men are initiated. After graduation ceremonies - giving the newly ranked initiate access to knowledge and personal enrichment through pigs - they were most often placed on the side-lines of the dance area, and sometimes in front of the hut of the person, whose emblem they became (Kaeppler, Kaufmann and Newton, L’Art Océanien, 1993, p. 555).

In this piece the abstraction of the human figure reaches one of its most accomplished expressions. The monumentality of the head is highlighted by the tension of the face made up of layered geometric volumes. With equal talent, the sculptor has accentuated, both in the outlines and in the pose, the naturalism of the animal figure on the rear side of the piece. Exhibited in Paris in 1961 at the Jeanne Bucher modern art gallery, this piece stands out as one of the archaic exemplars of the corpus.