Papuan Gulf Spirit Board-Turama River-New Guinea Art-Oceanic Art
Here is an old and unusual Papuan Gulf spirit figure from the remote Turama River, well to the west of where the classic gope boards originate. Turama River material is quite rare, and this spirit board is a unique merging into the figurative bioma form with its two legs. This one comes from the Harry A. Franklin Collection and was published in Coaxing the Spirits to Dance: Art and Society in the Papuan Gulf of New Guinea, ed. Robert Welsch, 2006, Fig. 79, p. 45 and exhibited at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 1–September 17, 2006 and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 24, 2006–September 2, 2007. The board is pre-contact, stone-carved, dates to the late 19th/early 20th century, stands 37 ¼” (94.6 cm) in height and is published in my most recent Parcours des Mondes catalog Three Collections of Oceanic Art, no. 6, pages 16/17.