Calder Crags + Vanuatu Totems from the Collection of Wayne Heathcote, Venus Over Manhattan, 2019
Whitehot Magazine
Calder Crags + Vanuatu Totems at Venus Over Manhattan
In a contemporary art gallery, it’s not often that Calder takes a backseat to ethnographic artwork but Venus Over Manhattan never fails to turn things on their head.
Calder Crags and Vanuatu Totems from the Collection of Wayne Heathcote, on view until June 8, 2019, presents a towering group of historical Vanuatu sculptures from the Ambrym, Banks, and Malekula islands alongside a suite of large-scale standing mobiles and crags by Alexander Calder.
Scultures in Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis, Missouri, 2016
Pulitzer Arts Foundation
Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art
Kota: Digital Excavations in African Art presented an installation of nearly fifty Kota reliquary guardian figures—unique wood-and-metal sculptures created to protect the bones of deceased ancestors.
Produced between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries in what is now Gabon and the Republic of Congo, Kota reliquary guardians depict abstracted human forms and were thought to bring the protection of ancestors and ensure the survival of communities.
Archival image of the Oceanic art gallery in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982. The Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Remaking The Met: A Plan for Renewal
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Plans for an overhaul of its Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, devoted to the art of sub-Saharan Africa, the ancient Americas, and Oceania
The Met’s galleries devoted to the art of sub-Saharan Africa, the ancient Americas, and Oceania were inaugurated in 1982. At the time, their opening marked a radical expansion of the cultural achievements recognized by the Museum. Since then, the Museum has witnessed a surge in transformative and expanded art historical studies on the vast areas of world art these galleries embrace. Those advances of the last thirty-eight years have in turn sparked a reenvisioning of this global crossroads within the Museum.
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height: 98 in (248.9 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 115 in (292.1 cm)
Boki Secret Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 99 in (251.5 cm)
Malekula Nimangi Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 85 in (215.9 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height: 83 in (210 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 92 in (233.7 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 57 in (144.8 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 66 in (167.6 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 60 in (152.4 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 57 in (144.8 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 77 in (195.6 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height: 98 in (248.9 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 115 in (292.1 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 120 in (304.8 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 115 in (292.1 cm)
Boki Secret Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 99 in (251.5 cm)
Malekula Nimangi Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 85 in (215.9 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height: 83 in (210 cm)
Grade Society Figure, Ambrym Island
early 20th century
fern wood, earth, vegetable matrix, paint
height 92 in (233.7 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 57 in (144.8 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 66 in (167.6 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 60 in (152.4 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 57 in (144.8 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 77 in (195.6 cm)
Banks Islands Suque Grade Society Figure
early 20th century
fern wood
height 56 in (142.2 cm)
Malekula Neten Mwelip Dance Staff
early 20th century
conch shell, bamboo, vegetable matrix, boar tusks, feathers, paint
height 29 in (73.7 cm)
Malekula Neten Mwelip Dance Staff
early 20th century
conch shell, bamboo, vegetable matrix, boar tusks, paint
height 31 in (78.7 cm)
Malekula Nevimbur Figure
early 20th century
bamboo, vegetable matrix, paint, boar teeth
height: 29 in (73.7 cm)
Malekula Nalawan Figurative Helmet Mask
early 20th century
bamboo, vegetable matrix, paint, boar teeth
height 42 in (106.7 cm)
Malekula Nalawan Ceremonial Body Mask
early 20th century
bamboo, vegetable matrix, paint, grass, boar tusks and teeth
height 102 in (259.1 cm)
Malekula Rambaramp Effigy
early 20th century
cane, vegetable fiber, clay, resin, pigment, bone
height 70 in (177.8 cm)
Malekula Rambaramp Effigy
early 20th century
cane, vegetable fiber, clay, resin, pigment, bone
height 70 in (177.8 cm)
Wooden Statue, Sawos People, Sepik River, Papau New Guinea, circa A.D. 1820
86 x 7 1/2 x 7 in
218.4 x 19.1 x 17.8 cm
Wooden Statue, Ngbaka Tribe, Congo, circa A.D. 1850
27 x 10 x 8 in
68.6 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm
Terracotta Head, IFE Nigeria, 12th-16th century
terracotta
8 1/4 x 5 x 5 1/8 in
21 x 12.7 x 13 cm
Superbe Divinite (Superb Divinity) from Niger, Mali, A.D. 1200-1400
terracotta
22 x 11 x 15 in
55.9 x 27.9 x 38.1 cm
Songye Community Figure (Turned Head), Republic of Congo
31 x 9 x 9 in
78.7 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm
Songye Community Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo
30 x 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 in
76.2 x 24.1 x 24.1 cm
Songye Community Power Figure by the Master of the Rubinstein Songye, Democratic Republic of the Congo
41 x 17 x 19 in
104.1 x 43.2 x 48.3 cm
Songye Kifweb Mask, Congo
14 x 9 x 7 in
35.6 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm
Songye Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo
21 x 6 x 6 in
53.3 x 15.2 x 15.2 cm
Songye Power Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo
eyes inlaid with Cowrie shells, head and waist with attachments of waterbuck antelope hide
22 x 7 x 7 in
55.9 x 17.8 x 17.8 cm
Reliquary Figure from KOTA/Obamba, Gabon, 19th Century or earlier
wood, copper, brass
20 3/4 x 8 x 6 in
52.7 x 20.3 x 15.2 cm
Figure de reliquaire Mbulu Ngulu (Kota)
c. late 18th- early 19th century
wood, iron, copper, brass, dried plant material
17 1⁄4 in (h)
43.5 cm (h)
Nok Head, Terracotta Head Nok Culture Nigeria
B.C. 400 - A.D. 200
terracotta
15 1/2 x 9 x 10 in
39.4 x 22.9 x 25.4 cm
Late Classic Dayak Figure, A.D. 1264-1291
49 x 9 x 9 in
124.5 x 22.9 x 22.9 cm
Ivory Initiation Figurine, Lega, Democratic Republic of Congo
ivory
11 x 4 x 3 in
27.9 x 10.2 x 7.6 cm
Baule Goli Mask, Ivory Coast
32 x 21 x 5 in
81.3 x 53.3 x 12.7 cm
Bamana Hyena Mask, Mali
19 x 8 x 8 in
48.3 x 20.3 x 20.3 cm
Bamana Kono Mask, Mali
37 x 14 x 9 in
94 x 35.6 x 22.9 cm
Venus Over Manhattan has created an exhibition of works, that on the surface, seem quite the juxtaposition. Visitors find works by Alexander Calder situated right next to totems and figures from Vanuatu, a Pacific nation of around 80 islands, in ‘Calder Crags and Vanuatu Totems from the Collection of Wayne Heathcote.’
In a contemporary art gallery, it’s not often that Calder takes a backseat to ethnographic artwork but Venus Over Manhattan never fails to turn things on their head. Their latest exhibition, Calder Crags and Vanuatu Totems from the Collection of Wayne Heathcote, on view until June 8, 2019, presents a towering group of historical Vanuatu sculptures from the Ambrym, Banks, and Malekula islands alongside a suite of large-scale standing mobiles and crags by Alexander Calder.
From Björk at the Shed to a power-packed panel on Lucian Freud at Acquavella, there is plenty to keep you busy.
From the Collection of Wayne Heathcote
Unlike the English word fetish, fétiche in French specifically means a charm embodying magical powers, a definition that serves as the jumping-off point for this disarming exhibit juxtaposing African and Oceanic ritual objects with works by modern and contemporary artists.
“Fétiche” is on view at Venus in New York through Saturday, April 16.
VENUS is pleased to present Fétiche, a group show juxtaposing contemporary Western art with historic African and Oceanic works to examine the literal power that art objects confer.
