Art of the Ancestors Sulawesi Gallery Renovation
It is our pleasure to reintroduce you to our newly renovated and expanded Sulawesi gallery for this month of September.
Our newest expanded reiteration includes over fifty additional artifacts from European and American museums with a primary focus on the ancient and diverse traditions of Sulawesi's central highlands. There, the generically named 'Toraja' peoples comprised of Mamasa, Kalumpang, Tae, Toala, and Sa'dan speakers still live and flourish in traditional village settings. Also included in this gallery are additional works from the Lake Poso, Kulawi, and Minahasa regions.
Celebrated here are several painted Toraja textiles from the Dallas Museum of Art as well as an array of outstanding antique painted bark cloths from various Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen collections. From the same institutions, seldom-seen incised and painted wood and hide shields light up the gallery with their striking palette and intricate designs. In the realm of sculpture, a pair of Kulawi figures, and the addition of a Mamasa figure from Yale University and one from U.C.L.A's Fowler Museum of Cultural Anthropology standout. One of my personal favorites is a remarkable bowl on display at Yale that epitomizes the virtues of traditional Indonesia art. Here, a sublime mix of delicacy and an evocative statement of power and prestige grace an aristocrat's ceremonial feasting side bowl for vegetables or choice delicacies.
We are also fortunate to share Dr. Reimar Schefold's images of monumental stonework in situ from the Bada or Napu Valley. These include cisterns or tombs (kalambas), decorated lids, and a megalithic statue (watu). Fashioned from intractable granite, such stone creations are thought to be between 800 and more than 2,000 years old. The largest of these imposing and enigmatic statues measures up to four meters tall, and like Sulawesi itself, is shrouded in myth and mystery.
— Steven G. Alpert