Lot n° 159
Estimation :
700 - 800
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 910EUR
Abelam statue, Maprik Mountains, Papua New Guinea - Lot 159
Abelam statue, Maprik Mountains, Papua New Guinea
Circa 1950
Height: 93cm
Wood, natural pigments
Provenance :
Marie José Guigues Collection
Patrick Padovani Collection
The Abelam people, renowned for their remarkable artistic creations ranging from architecture to painting and sculpture, are farmers specializing in the cultivation of tubers, mainly yams. They live in communities around the Prince Alexander mountain range, as well as in the plains stretching towards the Sepik River in northern Papua New Guinea.
A female figure, whose solid, compact volumes are accentuated by the treatment of the surface, which is covered with flat tints of bright colors. The head, topped with a diadem-like crest, offers a face whose polychromy reinforces its expression of wisdom and serenity. The black triangle motif on the forehead recalls the arched shape of the nose, whose red bridge accentuates its volume. Beneath the hollowed-out red-rimmed eyes, surmounted by thick black eyebrows, are the drooping cheeks that announce the lower part of the face, painted black, and the wide, half-open, prognathic mouth with its thin lips. The body, shaped from a cylindrical block, is barely distinguishable from the thick neck. The arms, glued along the abdomen, are adorned with multiple painted bracelets, while the fingers of the hands are signified by strokes of white paint. Arms, in the extension of which are sculpted legs, similar to thick poles, decorated with polychrome parallel lines. The feminine attributes are visible - drooping breasts sculpted in bas-relief, sex carved into a point, each covered in black paint. A work combining modernity - rendered by the vividness of pure colors - and archaism - through the elementary treatment of volumes.
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