Form Colour Inspiration: Oceanic Art from New Britain

This is the first publication to provide an extensive survey of the arts of New Britain, part of Papua New Guinea. The major focus is on the arts of the Baining, Sulka, Nakanai, who in connection with cult festivities and secret societies have produced an astonishing collection. From the head masks used in ritual dances and the stone sculptures of the Inuit secret society to the bold paintings of the Nakanai, the illustrated objects help to explain why it was the art of this region that ideally expressed Surrealist conceptions. Max Ernst and Paul Klee in their sculptures and paintings indeed found related solutions. Through their adaptations of New Britain art, its abstractional and fantastic have become artistic ways of expression familiar to a wide audience. This is only one reason for the fascination of confronting these originals, of which the background - world view, values and questions of artistic activity - and historical context is explained and discussed with photographs and texts.