Overview
Few Pacific islands hold as prominent a place in the Western imagination as Easter Island. The most remote inhabited place on earth, Easter Island is home to the Rapa Nui, a Polynesian people who developed a unique series of artistic traditions. While the island is renowned for the colossal stone figures that adorned its temples, much of its art remains unfamiliar to wider audiences. This book examines the island’s diverse artistic heritage and presents and discusses more than fifty works, ranging from robust stone images to refined wooden sculpture, rare barkcloth figures, and examples of rongorongo, the island’s unique and undeciphered script.Author Biography: Eric Kjellgren, curator of the exhibition, is Evelyn A. J. Hall and John A. Friede Assistant Curator for Oceanic Art in the Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Jo Anne Van Tilburg is Research Associate at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA, and Director of the Easter Island Statue Project. Adrienne Kaeppler is Curator of Oceanic Ethnology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution.
Synopsis
Published in conjunction with the December 2001 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Beginning with theories of how the island came to be settled, Kjellgren (curator for Oceanic Art at The Metropolitan Museum) discusses the evolution of Rapa Nui society, art, and religious traditions from the early moai phase to the later "birdman" religion. Jo Anne Van Tilburg (Institute for Archaeology, U. of California) covers the legacy of the moai and sheds new light on the changing roles of the figures within the Rapa Nui society. Adrienne L. Kaeppler (curator of Oceanic ethnology, National Museum of Natural History) addresses the other genres of Easter Island art. The essays contain several b&w illustrations, and the catalogue comprises 50 reproductions, mostly in b&w. The book is distributed by Yale U. Press. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)