Voyageurs et Curieux celebrates its 20th anniversary
ABOVE: Ancestor figure, Guadalcanal or New-Georgia, Solomon Islands, Melanesia.
H. 45 cm
Provenance :
Private collection New York, U.S.A. ; Galerie Voyageurs & Curieux, Paris (2001 - 2003) ; Fernand Lafarge (1921-2013), Amiens, France then by descent 2019
Publication :
Carlier, J-E, Regard sur les Îles Salomon, Voyageurs & Curieux, Paris, 2002, p.57
A new space has opened at 20 rue Mazarine (at the back of the courtyard) in the heart of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, and in it an ambitious exhibition on Melanesian statuary is being installed, which will be accompanied by a beautifully illustrated catalog with detailed and informative text. What better way to mark the twentieth anniversary of Galerie Voyageurs et Curieux?
The exhibition is scheduled to run from June 17 through July 17, 2021. Aficionados will have the opportunity to view about twenty carefully selected pieces that will highlight the formal inventiveness and tremendous stylistic diversity of the wooden figural creations from this vast region’s islands, from Papua New Guinea to New Caledonia by way of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, to mention just a few of them.
The focus will be on aesthetics, but the exhibition will also offer insight into the different ritual contexts that gave rise to the creation of these works while also shedding light upon the social dimensions of these art forms that have come to be collectable in the West.
Galerie Voyageurs et Curieux
20 rue Mazarine, Paris
www.voyageursetcurieux.com
Melanesian Statuary
June 17 - July 17, 2021
ABOVE: Sculpture
North of New Ireland, Bismarck Archipelago, Melanesia
H. 48 cm
Provenance :
W.D. Webster (1863-1913), Oxon, UK, sold on 10 March 1897 to lieutenant general A.H.L.F. Pitt-Rivers (1827-1900) for the Pitt Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset, UK
Publication :
Augustus Lane Pitt-Rivers, Acquisition Journal, 1897 ; Carlier M-A et Carlier J-E, Affinity: Medieval and South Pacific Art, Brimo de Laroussilhe et Voyageurs & Curieux, New York, 2017, p.20
ABOVE: Finial of a cultual adze
Monumbo bay, Bogia, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia
H. 37 cm
Provenance :
Old private collection, Hambourg, Germany
ABOVE: Ceremonial headdress topped with a kangaroo figure
Sulka people, New Britain, Bismarck Archipelago, Melanesia
H. 86 cm