Not Currently On View in Intersections

Object Name:  Male figure

Place of Origin: Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea

Date/Era: 19th-early 20th century

Medium/Materials: Wood, pigment

Credit Line: Gift of the Wellcome Trust

Accession Number: X65.4990

This figure, memorializing a prominent male ancestor, once flanked the door of a house in the Admiralty Islands and later belonged to the prominent French Surrealists Andr Breton (1896-1966) and Paul Eluard (1895-1952). Like Picasso, Breton and Eluard were collectors of African and Pacific art, a passion that influenced their work and ultimately the course of European artistic and literary traditions.

Source: Gallery text, Intersections: World Arts, Local Lives, 2006