The huge feast bowls of the Admiralty Islands off the north coast of New Guinea are among the most impressive ritual vessels in Oceania. Widely used in the archipelago, they are thought to have been created by the Matankol people of Lou Island, both for local use and for exchange with neighboring groups. The enormous bowls formerly were used to display and serve large quantities of food during ceremonial feasts. The body was carved from a single block of wood, but the handles often were made separately. At times, the handles include stylized human or animal imagery, and the spiral forms seen here have been interpreted variously as representations of pig’s tusks, snail shells, or the curling tails of reptiles or cuscus (a local marsupial).
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Artwork Details
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Title:Feast Bowl (Kelemui [?])
Date:late 19th–early 20th century
Geography:Papua New Guinea, Admiralty Islands, Lou Island
Culture:Matankol
Medium:Wood
Dimensions:H. 26 3/4 x W. 53 x D. 38 1/4 in. (67.9 x 134.6 x 97.2 cm)
Classification:Wood-Containers
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Object Number:1979.206.1453
[Julius Carlebach Gallery, New York, until 1953]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1953, on loan to The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1956–1978
Museum of Primitive Art. "The World of Primitive Art," July 12, 1966–September 11, 1966.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas from The Museum of Primitive Art," May 10–August 17, 1969.
American Federation of Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–May 15, 1977.
Seattle Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," January 5, 1975–February 16, 1975.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 23, 1975–May 4, 1975.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 8, 1975–July 20, 1975.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," August 25, 1975–October 10, 1975.
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," November 9, 1975–December 21, 1975.
Toledo Museum of Art. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," April 11, 1976–May 25, 1976.
Walker Art Center. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," June 27, 1976–August 8, 1976.
Denver Art Museum. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," September 10, 1976–November 7, 1976.
de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Primitive Art/Masterworks," March 12, 1977–May 15, 1977.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "The Art of the Pacific Islands," Sunday, July 1, 1979 - Sunday, October 14, 1979.
Shanghai. Museum of Art Pudong. "The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 1–August 20, 2023.
Doha. Qatar Museums. "The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 24, 2023–January 15, 2024.
Reichard, Gladys A. Melanesian Design: A Study of Style in Wood and Tortoiseshell Carving. Vol. 2 vols.. New York: Columbia University, 1933, pp. 9–10.
Nevermann, Hans. "Admiralitats-Inseln." In Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908-1910, edited by Georg Thilenius. Vol. Sect. II, pt. A, vol. 3. Hamburg: L. Friederichsen & Co., 1934.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 74.
American Federation of Arts. Primitive Art Masterworks: an exhibition jointly organized by the Museum of Primitive Art and the American Federation of Arts, New York. New York: American Federation of Arts, 1974, no. 114.
Badner, Mino. "Some Evidences of Dong-son-Derived Influence in the Art of the Admiralty Islands." In Early Chinese art and its possible influence in the Pacific basin: the proceedings of a symposium arranged by the Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, New York City, August 21-25, 1967, edited by Noel Barnard. Tʻai-pei shih: Fʻan mei tʻu shu yu hsien kung ssu, 1974.
Gathercole, P., Adrienne L. Kaeppler, and Douglas Newton. The Art of the Pacific Islands. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1979.
Ohnemus, Sylvia. An Ethnology of the Admiralty Islanders: The Alfred Bühler Collection. Bathurst and Honolulu: Crawford House Publishing, 1998, pp. 4–5, 201, 206, 209.
Parkinson, Richard Heinrich Robert. Thirty Years in the South Seas: Land and People, Customs and Traditions in the Bismarck Archipelago and on the German Solomon Islands. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999, p. 159.
Kjellgren, Eric. Oceania: Art of the Pacific Islands in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, pp. 108–109, no. 65.
Nuku, Maia. Oceania: The Shape of Time. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023, p. 136, fig. 44.
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![Feast Bowl (Kelemui [?]), Wood, Matankol](https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/ao/web-additional/DP-25392-001.jpg)
![Feast Bowl (Kelemui [?]), Wood, Matankol](/Rodan/dist/img/1x1-d7dcde.gif)
![Feast Bowl (Kelemui [?]), Wood, Matankol](/Rodan/dist/svg/rolling-0.9s-30px.svg)
