26 Pacific Rim Masterworks in the Sainsbury Centre
26 Pacific Rim Masterworks in the Sainsbury Centre
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
One of England's most charming museums is the Sainsbury Centre, an open, innovative glass and steel structure located on the University of East Anglia campus in Norwich.
A guiding intelligence, passion, and thoughtful approach to collecting art make the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury collection very special. Their first acquisition was in 1929. It was a bronze head, Baby Asleep, by the famous sculptor Sir Jacob Epstein, who ironically, as many of our readers know, was a keen exponent and collector of traditional art. The Sainsbury collection is one of the few remaining intact modernist collections created in the 20th century. They also collected material spanning the ancient world to more modern traditional arts encompassing 5,000 years of human history, from prehistory to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
We have selected a number of Indonesian items, including pieces from the Modang-Bahau Dayak tribal complex, from central east Borneo in a mix with other Pacific, Melanesian, Inuit, and Northwest Coast pieces for a peripatetic voyage around the Pacific Rim using highlights from their collection as visual accents to a grand arc of geography and art.
The Sainsbury Centre's Dayak aggregation is represented by a perfectly balanced composition carved on a baby carrier (katung) from the Bahau Sa'a people. The central interlocking row of heart-shaped hunkered figures is a signatory. They stand as magic protectors of an aristocratic child while announcing the status of its owners to the supernatural realm and to everyday life. Also included from the same tribal complex are a side panel from a mausoleum or salong, an inscribed aristocrat's work board of superior quality, and a fine wooden ceremonial dish whose handle is decorated with a vigorous mythical protector in the guise of an aso or dragon-dog. Additionally, a monumental and dramatic wood carving of a sacred hornbill from the Ngaju people of central Borneo and a rare war shield from the Sakuddei of Siberut in the Mentawai islands are included for our readers' appreciation.
The renowned African collector Saul Stanoff once opined that if you own a masterpiece, you have a collection. There are a number of truly extraordinary pieces from Polynesia in the Sainsbury collection that were acquired from the 1940s-the 1960s. Of the Polynesian items illustrated, a masterful Fijian priest's yaqona dish (iBuburau Ni Bete) in the shape of a flying duck is one of only a few known in this form. According to the literature, these dishes all came out of spirit houses when the local population converted to Christianity in the mid-19th century. Other remarkable Polynesian pieces at the Sainsbury Centre include a spare yet emotive free-standing Maori figure from the 18th to the first half of the 19th century, whose function, while not completely clear, is said to represent a type of ancestral figure that was once bound to the base of an important house's interior central roof post. From Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, the collection has two mighty items. First, there's the highly sophisticated top of a 'staff god.' It is of a type associated with traditional cultural practices before they were essentially destroyed in 1827 by the Reverend John Williams, who had several idols broken and shipped back to England. Three complete staffs, the longest being thirteen feet tall, are today housed in the Museum of Mankind in London, the Otago Museum (Oldman) in New Zealand, and the Royal Scottish Museum. In tandem with the god staff head is another masterpiece of Polynesian art (ca. 1775-1825) that is often referred to as a 'fisherman's god' as such idols were said to have been placed at the fore of a canoe and supplicated to insure a voyage's success.
The remaining items span the Pacific from New Guinea and eastern Melanesia to the Inuit of Alaska and diverse Northwest Coast groups.
From the Solomon Islands, there is a grouping of fine items. Reproduced here is an old 19th-century canoe prow ornament representing both a wave-breaking protector and an aggressive prayer for success as the figure holds a human trophy head in its upraised arms. Such ornaments were placed just above the waterline. Also from Roviana (New Georgia) is a finely modeled portrait-like kneeling figure in the naturalistic style of the second half of the 19th century. From Santa Isabel is one of the region's most iconic items, a ceremonial shield with a brilliant mosaic of finely worked bits of nautilus shell set on a wicker frame and affixed with parinarium nut glue. These shields are said to date from the early to the mid-19th century. There are a total of twenty-five known examples in a similar ovoid or in rectangular form. However, they were never observed being used by 19th-century Western visitors to the Solomon Islands.
The Sainsbury collection also contains exquisite examples of marine ivories spanning 2,000 years of the old Bering Sea and Alaskan cultures. A marvelous and fanciful composite plaque of pierced carved walrus ivory depicts zoomorphic beings (Old Bering Sea culture, ca 500-700 AD). Dating to the second half of the 19th century, the historic wooden mask of a wolf from Norton Sound, Alaska, is a powerful reminder of transformational worldviews where animals and humans were once conversant with one another. The scholar Dorothy Ray illustrated a related mask and "considers that the type comes from St. Michael and were used in dances for the Messenger Feast." (1967: pl. 14; 35/Ray/Stephen Hooper).
Items of ceremonial use and personal adornment punctuate the Northwest coast holdings. A Tlingit caribou antler horn comb from the late 18th century has a provenance dating back to Vancouver's epic voyage. It brilliantly depicts a fusion of human and avian characteristics, bringing the playful metamorphoses of Raven, the trickster, alive with an astonishing immediacy even though this comb was crafted over two centuries ago. There's also an exceptional 18th/19th-century bone or marine ivory shamanic pendant and a perfectly preserved late 19th-century Chilkat robe woven of cedar bark and mountain goat's wool.
Lastly, two ceremonial feasting bowls of exceptional age and merit are also illustrated. The first bowl is Tlingit. It was created of formed, pressed, and carved mountain sheep horn and dates to the late 18th or early 19th century. The awareness and immediacy of the raised head of a snarling wolf are poignant in suggesting the animal's supreme spiritual power as a communicator, a brother, and a guiding force, as is lovingly reflected in this stellar functional object. The second is a small bowl or ladle, most likely of Haida, Northern Tlingit, or Tsimshian origin. It's an intriguing ca. 1800 item that, at first glance, was fashioned from wood but is also made of horn. Residues indicate a deeply drenched patina suggesting that it was likely used for dipping oil or as a petite ladle for dispensing costly Oolichan grease during potlatch ceremonies.
In conclusion, the Sainsbury Centre's collection numbers are in excess of 2,500 works. In tandem with the University of East Anglia, the Centre also houses the university's School of Art and World Art Studies and the Sainsbury Research Unit for the Arts of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas. Some universally recognized gems are among the items from traditional peoples stewarded at the Centre. Simply put, the Sainsbury Centre contains a remarkable array of world art.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Baby Carrier | Borneo
19th/20th century
Borneo
Kayan/Kenyah peoples
Shell, Wood
797
2
Work Board | Borneo
19th/early 20th century
Borneo
Kayan, Kenyah peoples
Wood
803
3
Panel from a Funerary Vault | Borneo
19th/20th century
Borneo
Kayan/Kenyah peoples
Wood
852
4
Oval Shaped Bowl | Borneo
Borneo
Ebony, Glass, Wood
1011
5
Hornbill Image | Borneo
19th/20th century
Kalimantan, Borneo
Ngaju/Ot Danum peoples
Wood
868
6
Shield | Mentawai
Siberut Island, Mentawai
Coconut, Wood, Pigment
1075
7
Priest's Yaqona Dish in Duck Form | Fiji
Early 19th century
Fiji
Shell, wood
912
8
Free-standing Male Figure | New Zealand
Late 18th/early 19th century
New Zealand
Māori peoples
Haliotis iris shell, Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
178
9
Head of a 'Staff God' | Cook Islands
Late 18th/early 19th century
Cook Islands
Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
188
10
Male Figure ('Fishermen's God') | Cook Islands
Late 18th/early 19th century
Cook Islands
Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
189
11
Neck Ornament | Hawaiian Islands
Late 18th/early 19th century
Hawaiian Islands
Fiber, hair, whale ivory
876
12
Club | Marquesas Islands
Early 19th century
Marquesas Islands
Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
193
13
Chief's Fly Whisk | Austral Islands
Late 18th/early 19th century
Tupua’i or Rurutu, Austral Islands
Coir, hair, wood
895
14
Canoe Figurehead | Solomon Islands
19th century
Roviana (New Georgia), Solomon Islands
Pearl shell, wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
173
15
Kneeling Male Figure | Solomon Islands
Late 19th century
Roviana Region, Solomon Islands
Fiber, gum, pearl shell, wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
172
16
Ceremonial Shield | Solomon Islands
Early/mid-19th century
Solomon Islands
Cane, Gum, Shell, Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1978
632
17
Hornbill Carving | Northern New Ireland
Late 19th century
Northern New Ireland
Pigment, Wood
942
18
Mask | Papua New Guinea
Late 19th/ early 20th century
Lower Sepik River, Papua New Guinea
Wood
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
165
19
Fan Decorated with a Face/Dance Mask | Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Fiber, pigment, wood
Bequeathed by Hugh Paget
40023
20
Hunting or Ceremonial Hat Ornament | Alaska
Early Old Bering Sea (AD 500-750)
Bering Sea, Alaska, North America
Walrus ivory
Purchased with support from the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Charitable Trust, 1996
1122
21
Wolf Mask | Alaska
Late 19th century
Norton Sound, Alaska, North America
Bark, feather, leather, metal, wood
502
22
Bowl with Wolf Head | Northwest Coast
18th/early 19th century
Northwest Coast, North America
Tlingit
Mountain-sheep horn
Purchased with support from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1980
728
23
Bowl with Legs | Northwest Coast
Early 19th century
Northwest Coast, North America
Haida
Mountain-sheep horn
Donated by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1973
124
24
Pendant | Northwest Coast
Northwest Coast, North America
Ivory?
Acquired by Robert and Lisa Sainsbury in 1992 as a gift from David Sainsbury. Bequeathed by Lady Sainsbury, 2014.
RLS 60
25
'Chilkat' Robe | Northwest Coast
Late 19th century
Northwest Coast, North America
Chilkat, Tlingit
Mountain-goat wool, yellow cedar bark
Purchased with support from Robert and Lisa Sainsbury, 1976
667
26
Comb | Northwest Coast
Late 18th century
Cross Sound, Northwest Coast, North America
Tlingit
Caribou antler
Purchased with support from the Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Art Trust, 1983
875
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of the Sainsbury Centre.
© Sainsbury Centre