Papua New Guinean Sepik Polychrome Spirit Figure Wood Carving. Bird-like features, with cowrie shells and a fibrous skirt complimenting the piece. 

Size: 3 x 3 x 13 in. 

Papua New Guinea is world-famous for its tribal art, particularly from along the Sepik River, one of the most profuse and diverse art-producing regions of the world. The numerous different tribes living along the river produce magnificent wood carvings, clay pottery, and other arts and crafts. Different areas along the Sepik produce so many distinct art styles that it can take an experienced museum curator to be visually able to distinguish individual styles. The Sepik area is most well known for its sculptural masks, shields, exaggerated humanoid figures, and other artifacts like garamut drums, formed from long, hollowed-out tree trunks carved into the shape of various totem animals. Many of the best collections of these are held in overseas museums, and are identified as being in the first wave of contemporary art primarily from the capital city of Port Moresby, and the oldest pieces, which were originally used solely for ritual and personal purposes by tribespeople before the tourist industry emerged around them, are considered particularly valuable and rare. 

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