Vokeo Island Kundu Drum-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
I’ve been thinking a lot about connoisseurship lately and how it is not a specific skill brought out on rare occasions in evaluating New Guinea art. Because we are lacking anything approaching a working Oceanic art history connoisseurship IS our present Oceanic art history. Who has done the research to document where such a fine old drum as this originates? This knowledge exists only in the minds of the dead or aging—such as mine. It is a shame and that is why I hope my website, archive, catalogs and Pinterest posts have some life beyond my own. The drum with its distinct flared bottom comes from Vokeo Island, the largest of the Schouten Islands that lie west of the mouth of the Sepik River. It is a beauty. The carvers here were some of the best of New Guinea. The lines are precise and deeply carved. The patina of age is fantastic. The drum dates to the late 19th century, is 20” (50.7 cm) in height—the monitor lizard skin tympanum has not survived. SOLD