Specifications

• Height: 27 cm.
• Material: wood, glass beads
• Position: squatting
• Gender:
• Indigenous name: korwar
• Price realised: € 18.750,-

Provenance

Utrechtse Zendingsvereeniging?; Protestant secondary school Kota Raja, near Hollandia (Jayapura); Eddy Hof (1914-2001), The Hague; Antonio Casanovas, Barcelona; Pascassio Manfredi, Paris; Private collection, USA; Sotheby’s, Paris 13-6-2018, lot 58.

Publications

Corbey, Raymond (2019), Korwar, Northwest New Guinea ritual art, p. 177, fig. 144.

Exhibitions

Additional information

Here we see the diminuative figure on the back with the head turned 180 degrees. Special hairdress with a curl swept backwards. A male sex seems to be indicated. Does the main figure sit on the legs of the smaller figure? On one of the photos another korwar is shown from the same area and aguably by the same hand, where the smaller figure is facing the taller figure his hands touching the torso. 

Photo credits

B/w photos: Cas Oorthuys 1956; colour photo: Sotheby’s, Paris.