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Oceania Angoram peoples, Papua New Guinea Commemorative Figure Wood, pigment, fiber H. 80 in. (203.2 cm) Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection This remarkably powerful figure was made to honor and commemorate an ancestor. The skull-like form of the head emphasizes that the figure refers to a deceased person. The figure's great height—much larger than most Oceanic figures—reinforces the importance both of the particular person being remembered and of the ancestral world in general. A belief in honoring important deceased members of a community is one of the conceptual bases for the visual arts in Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. |