Arts of the Pacific Islands
The Brooklyn Museum’s Arts of the Pacific Islands collection showcases the artistic production of people hailing from over 50 island groups and Australia. This visually striking collection features an immense variety of materials and techniques, and spans roughly 400 years of creativity.
The collection offers insights into the rich history, artistic achievements, and innovations of Pacific Islanders, Aboriginal Australians, and Southeast Asians. The majority of works come from Melanesia. Strengths include architectural and ceremonial works from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Ireland, and New Caledonia, as well as Polynesian barkcloth and Indonesian textiles.
Highlights
Purview
The Arts of the Pacific Islands collection comprises works by artists and communities spanning the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii in the north, New Zealand in the south, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the east, and Australia in the west. It also includes works by artists and communities from Island Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and the Philippines.
Although Pacific creativity spans thousands of years, most works in the collection were made in the 19th and 20th centuries. Examples include architecture, clothing, jewelry, musical instruments, prestige arts, religious and ceremonial materials, weapons, and everyday utilitarian objects. The vast range of materials includes bark, bone, clay, feathers, fibers, hair, moss, shells, wood, and even spiderwebs.
History
The Brooklyn Museum was one of the first art museums in the United States to collect Pacific art, and works by Pacific artists are among the Museum’s earliest acquisitions. These include 19th-century Hawaiian barkcloths, elaborately carved weapons, and Indonesian puppets. Such acquisitions prompted the Museum to develop an Ethnology collection distinct from Fine Arts and Natural Sciences in 1903.
The Pacific collection was first installed in 1900; it was later reinstalled with arts of Africa, Asia, and the Indigenous Americas as part of numerous cross-collection installations. Beginning in 1929, Indonesian arts were usually exhibited separately from the rest of the collection, most significantly in 1930.
In 1942, the Brooklyn Museum was the first art museum in the country to present an exhibition of Pacific art. The Pacific collection’s first permanent galleries opened in 1958. Although this collection does not currently have permanent gallery space, Pacific works are continually featured in exhibitions, such as Infinite Blue, African Art: Global Conversations, and Solid Gold.
