Très belle statue, peuple Kopar, Bas Sepik , Papouasie Nouvelle-Guinée

collects ée entre 1908 et 1911 lors de la Hambourg South Seas Expedition
Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg (inv. n° H56729 ; numéro 6729^I inscrit à l'encre rouge sur le mollet)
Serge Brignoni, Bern
collects ion Marcia et John Friede, New York

Reproduite dans :
Reche, "Der Kaiserin-Augusta-Fluss" in : Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition 1908 - 1910, II A. Melanesian, vol. 1, 1913 : 403
Friede, New Guinea Art - Masterpieces from the Jolika collects ion of Marcia and John Friede, 2005, vol. 1 : 72, n° 47 et vol. 2 : 90

Good condition overall, wear consistent with age and use within the culture. Hairline cracks along the body, an open crack on the back of the headdress, two small parts broken off from the buttocks, all visible in the catalogue illustration. Old and encrusted red patina.
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Au sein du corpus restreint des importantes et anciennes statues kandimbong, celle-ci s'impose comme l'un des très beaux témoins du style développé au plus tard au XIX^e siècle dans la région du Bas Sepik. Avec une force remarquable, la sculpture s'agence en une succession de plans s'inscrivant indépendamment dans l'espace - chaque vue opposant plans frontaux et arêtes vives des volumes profilés. Superbe dynamique du dos dont les lignes convergent vers l'extrémité de la coiffe, les surfaces décrochées du cou et de la tête ménageant sur la nuque un crochet de suspension. La force des volumes épannelés est accentuée par les marques irrégulières laissées à la surface par l'outil de pierre, et par les nuances de la patine grumeleuse, ocre rouge.

cf. Rijksmuseum Kroller Muller (1990 : 235, n° 89) pour une statue stylistiquement apparentée et de qualité comparable, interprétée comme une statue kandimbong - représentation d'un héros mythique, fondateur d'un clan ; et Peltier et Morin (2006 : 125, n° 63) pour une autre, attribuée aux peuples Singarin ou Kopar, provenant de l'ancienne collects ion Josef Mueller, avant 1939. Selon Kaufmann (in Peltier et Morin, idem : 413) à propos de cette sculpture arborant également la très haute coiffure des peuples vivant dans la région de l'embouchure des fleuves Sepik et Ramu : "elle représente un personnage important, vêtu du cost.mes masculin en étoffe d'écorce".

A very fine figure, Kopar people, Lower Sepik, Papua New Guinea

Within the small corpus of important and old kandimbong figures the offered figure is one of the finest examples of a style which developed in the Lower Sepik Province no later than the 19^th century. The figure is arranged as a succession of planes, each of which registers independently in space, playing upon the strong tension between flat surfaces and sharp edges. The back of the figure is particularly dynamic, the lines converging towards the top of the head, the downward planes of the neck and the head forming a suspension hook.  The power of the different volumes is accentuated by the irregular marks left by the stone tools with which the figure was carved, as well as by the nuanced shades of the ochre red patina.

cf. Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller (1990: 235, no. 89) for a related kandimbong figure of comparable quality, which represents a mythical culture hero and clan founder, and Peltier and Morin (2006: 125, cat. no. 63) for another figure, attributed to the Singarin or Kopar people, which was in the collects ion of Josef Muller before 1939. Discussing the latter figure, which also has the cone-shaped head-dress worn amongst the people of the Sepik and Ramu river mouths, Kaufmann notes that it 'must represent an important character dressed in the male bark-cloth cost.mes ' (ibid. 413).