Arts of Oceania

The islands of the Pacific, from New Guinea to Hawai'i and New Zealand, produced some of the most inventive sculpture anywhere. Carved ancestor figures, canoe prows, shields and ceremonial boards embody genealogy and spiritual power, built from wood, shell, fibre and pigment. Much of it was made for initiation, exchange and ceremony, and some objects were meant to be renewed or even left to decay once their work was done.