$3,200 - $5,200
Rare Iatmul Spirit Painting, Tambanum Village, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Sago palm spathe, bamboo, rattan and natural pigments. 20th. century sago spathe painting. Iatmul peoples, Middle Sepik, Papua New Guinea Catalog Note: According to Friede (2005, vol. II: 117, fig. 222), the “traditional houses in Tambanum had portico entrances and beautiful facades of quilt palm leaves laid down in a herring-bone pattern. Circular paintings like this one were placed inside the portico roof, facing down. They served as guardian spirits, comparable to ‘house masks’.” For two closely-related examples cf. one in the JOLIKA Collection of Marcia and John Friede (Friede 2005, vol. I: 251, fig. 222) and a second in the Museum für Völkerkunde, Basel (inv. no. ‘Vb 19028’, Stoehr 1971: 66, fig. 80). Approx 94cm diameter. PROVENANCE (Nicolai Michoutouchkine). John Magers Collection, Sydney. cf: Lot 81, Sotheby’s New York - 15 May 2009, African and Oceanic Art from the Rene and Chaim Gross Foundation Est: 10,000 - 15,000 USD Sold for: 15,000 USD.
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