Title

Malagan Sculpture

Description

This Malagan sculpture comes from a sub-tradition called Walik because of the "eye of fire" located in the middle of the sculpture. There are two interpretations of the fish carved at each end of the sculpture. One interpretation is that the fish represent sharks, but the Melanesian people on the Tabar Islands would never portray sharks on a Malagan because sharks represent an aspect of their life force.

Semester

Spring 2026

Subject

Malagan

Morton D. May

Melanesian

Indigenous Art

New Ireland

Temporal Coverage

1908 – 1909

Spatial Coverage

northern New Ireland or Papua New Guinea

Language

object description is in English

Medium

The object is made out of wood, Indigenous paints, red ochre, pandanus seed fiber, resin, and shell

Source

Saint Louis Art Museum

https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/8376/

Is Part Of

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Morton D. May

Identifier

59:1977

Provenance

c.1908/09 - 1913
Prof. Dr. Augustin Krämer, Germany, collected in New Ireland

1913
Linden-Museum, Stuttgart, Germany

1973
Everett Rassiga Inc., New York, NY, USA

1973 - 1977
Morton D. May (1914-1983), St. Louis, MO, purchased from Everett Rassiga Inc.

1977
Saint Louis Art Museum, given by Morton D. May

Explanation of Omeka Map Location

The sculpture originated in Northern New Ireland or Papua New Guinea