Very Important Rockefeller Irivake (Price On Request)

Product Description

Abstract and anthropomorphic large figure from the Pie River, located to the east of the Era River. Abstract, anthropomorphic form stands on separate legs with dynamic varying outline, wide hips, and torso leading straight to a rounded head. The figure is enlivened with various curvilinear details highlighted with red and white pigments. Several age cracks. Figure represents Irivake, the ancestor hero who is considered as the founder of headhunting, also believed to have climbed to the sky and to command  lightning. The back appears with a collection number in red, and the following: Ipigau (village), Upper Pie River, Papua, P63.20. Provenance: Private New Jersey Collection, ex. Michael Rockefeller collection, ex. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC. Sothebys, Nov. 4, 1980, Lot 33. Exhibited in Katonah, NY, Katonah Gallery, Oceania: The Art of Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, April 5 – May 26, 1974. Published in Douglas Newton, New Guinea Art in the Collection of the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1967, pl. 103.

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