Specifications

• Height:19,5  cm.
• Material: wood
• Position: standing
• Gender: male
• Indigenous name: itara
• Price realised: € 2.480,-

Provenance

James Willis (1934-2019), San Francisco 1980; Lempertz, Brussels 29-1-2020, lot 224.

Publications

Ref.: Schefold, Reimar & Steven Alpert (eds.) (2013), Eyes of the Ancestors: the Arts of Island Southeast Asia, pp. 268-69, ill. 92; Moss, Laurence A.G. (1986), Art of the Lesser Sunda Islands. A Cultural Resource at Risk.

Exhibitions

Additional information

By means of cordage these figures were hung in couples on a forked post at the back of a dwelling to safeguard the offspring. These small figures, usually between 15 and 25 cm., came onto the market in the 1970s. Since then an acquiring taste in the West for these sculptures helped to a forgery industry. In Dili on the Northeast coast of Timor a large Atauro community exist which was most probably responsible for the sale of these family heirloom objects. Several sculptures came out of this area with a mix of Atauro and Timor styles. The modern itara lack the typical dry patina on the hips (where the loincloth was attached) and the remnants of the cords at the height of the armpits. The present item has neither of them, but it was already acquired in 1980!

Photo credits

lempertz, Brussels