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Suspension hook, janus
East Sepik Province
early 20th century
Wood, black, red, yellow, blue, white pigment
H. 89 cm.
TC 97

"...Hooks of this type were not only utilitarian objects but were as well, important ritual figures in the local belief systems. In the creation myth of the Iatmul culture the great mother crocodile gives birth to mankind. This hook shows the creation myth with the head of the human figure being expulsed from the rear of the crocodile whose stylized body is represented by the human's body in a complex system of multiple representations of the iconographic elements. During initiation the young boys are cut with bamboo knives giving them raised keloid scars that imitate the bite of the crocodile." (Meyer 1995: 232-233)

Provenance:
Galerie Meyer, Paris
Patrick Caput, Paris
Alain de Monbrison, Paris
Sotheby's New York, November 10, 1987:lot 129
Carlo Monzino Collection, Lugano
Wayne Heathcote/Maureen Zarember, New York
George & Ruth Kennedy, Los Angeles 1964
Catholic mission on the Sepik River, possibly Marienberg c1960's
Reported to have been collected at Kambot (Kambok) Village

Publishing History:
Marseille. Art Papou. Austronesiens et Papous de Nouvelle-Guinee. M.A.A.O.A. Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris: 273.

The Endless Enigma. Dali and the Magician of Multiple Meaning. Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf. Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2003:12.

Anthony J.P. Meyer. Oceanic Art, vol1. Köln. Könemann Verlag 1995: 228, figs 240-241.

Thomas Leavitt. Arts of New Guinea. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California 1964: 24.

Exhibition History:
The Art of the Sepik River. The Art Institute of Chicago. October 16- November 28, 1971: number 136. See the installation photo on Ron Johnson's site http://.sorrel.humboldt.edu. The exhibition traveled in 1964-65 to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Municipal Art Gallery (Barnsdale Park, LA), the Seattle Art Museum and the Portland Art Museum.