Art Of The Solomon Islands

Not a work of scholarship; still less is it a comprehensive survey of Solomon Islands art forms. Conveys some impression of the variety of design to be found in the Solomons.

Through over sixty works, this book explores traditional, or kastom, beliefs in ancestral ghosts, the world of spirit beings, ocean-bound raiding expeditions and the indigenous aesthetics of the self - the use of adornments to express identity and status from the mid nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries.--From back cover.

The Conru Collection encompasses a broad range of artworks made between the eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. Most of the objects were collected in the early period of Pacific exploration. The collection is representative of the artistic output of the region and includes masks from Nissan and Bougainville, war canoe ornaments from New Georgia and Choisel, and numerous figural sculptures from throughout the island chain, as well as weaponry, jewellery and articles for daily life.

Includes detailed chapters devoted to each of the five major cultural regions of the Pacific: Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and the islands of Southeast Asia.

Melanesia is one of the most culturally diverse and artistically fertile regions of the world. This book is an exporation of one of the richest collections of Melanesian art, that of the British Museum. It is the product of sustained dialogue with people from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, West Papua, and New Caledonia, who are authors or co-authors of many of its chapters. Melanesia: Art and Encounter is a companion to this outstanding collection. The book ranges over an extraordinary variety of historic and modern art forms, from striking masks and shell valuables to intricately woven fabrics, string bags, and paintings on canvas. It investigates histories of exploration and exchange, conversion to Christianity and cultural revival, drawing upon a wealth of new information gleaned from archives, photographs, oral histories, and dialogue with Melanesians. The book is a revelation, not only of the arts of Melanesia, but also of the challenges and possibilities of collaborative research today.

The material in this book was first used in the catalog issued for the 1953 Loan Exhibition of the Art of the South Pacific Islands, held at the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco. 102 reproductions, mostly of carvings.