Middle Sepik River Suspension Hook-La Korrigane Expedition-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
One of the paramount qualities in assessing a piece of New Guinea art is expression or the sense of the object having a living spirit—as my friend Joel Cooner puts it—that the sculpture “looks back at you.” This early Middle Sepik suspension hook collected in the early 1930s on the famous French La Korrigane Expedition does just that. It has a wonderfully composed and expressive face above a stylized body with a cut out elliptical center. The hook dates to the 1900-1920s era, is 29 ¾” (75.4 cm) in height.