Kanak Post Figure, New Caledonia

Kanak Post Figure, New Caledonia
height 25 1/4in (64cm)

Provenance
Richard I.M. Kelton Collection, Marina del Rey, California

Cf. Newton, Douglas (Ed.), Arts of the South Seas - Island Southeast Asia, Melanesia, Polynesia, Micronesia - The Collections of the Museé Barbier-Mueller, Prestel, New York, 1999, fig. 11, (Inv. 4701).

According to Roger Boulay (Ibid., p. 304), "In the past, these human figures crowning posts originally driven into the ground were sometimes mistaken for ridgepole finials. A similar piece, in the Museé d'Aquitaine, Bordeaux, was described by its collector (1877) as being located near the entrance door to a chief's house."

In the present work, the full figure with distinctive Kanak features--rounded head, enhanced chest and bulbous legs--stands balanced on the tip of a short post; fine dark, reddish-brown patina.