SAWOS OR IATMUL SUSPENSION HOOK (SAMBAN)

German Private Collection

Ludwig Bretschneider, Munich

Harry A. Franklin, Beverly Hills, acquired from the above by 1963

PUBLISHED

John Lunsford, Arts of Oceania, Dallas, 1970, n.p., cat. no. 48 (listed)

George R. Ellis, Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form, San Diego, 2009, p. 24, cat. no. 2

Salt Lake Art Center, New Guinea Primitive Art: The Harry Franklin Collection, 1963

Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Arts of Oceania, October 10 - November 29, 1970

San Diego Museum of Art, Oceanic Art: A Celebration of Form, January 31, 2009 - January 3, 2010

Almost certainly carved with stone tools, the style of this suspension hook conveys an impression of great archaism. An exceptional encrusted patina indicates long exposure to smoke whilst hanging from the rafters, with the hook's prolonged use attested to by the smoothly worn surfaces of both the suspension hole at the top of the head and the hooks at the bottom of the figure. The pleasingly asymmetric features of the face and the attenuated form of the body possess a febrile and rhythmic quality, emphasized by the way the lower legs and the hook seem to swing away from the vertical axis of the body.