Boylan & Philips
Shield depicting The Phantom standing in front of Skull Cave
Shield depicting The Phantom standing in front of Skull Cave
checkbox
For sale
Yes
layers
Remaining
1
attach_money
Price
$6,000
local_shipping
Shipping
$400.00
Description
By John Wahgi
Andane village, Wahgi Valley, Jiwaka Province, Papua New Guinea
Wood, rattan, commercial paint. 172 x 64 cm.
Collected by Chris Boylan, Mount Hagen, 2012.
Private collection, Australia.
Photo: Stephen Oxenbury.
Inv. I-6
John Wahgi often depicted The Phantom in conjunction with his home, the Skull Cave. This reinforces ancestral connections and mirrors the place high in the mountains where the Wahgi spirits travel after death. These images of skulls—on The Phantom’s ring, his belt buckle, and the mouth of his skull cave home—ressonate with the Wahgi cosmology of ancestral spirits.
$6,000
Each shield is guaranteed to be an original and unique work of art created in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea, often over the course of genertions..
Item is located in Australia. Please check with us for a shipping estimate.
PLEASE: contact us with any questions before purchase!
To purchase, contact us through the website below.
Item details
GTIN: 171578
Price
$6,000.00
Quantity available
1
Dimensions
Product
Length/Depth: 68 in
Width: 25.25 in
Height: 5 in
Package
Length/Depth: 78 in
Width: 35 in
Height: 10 in
Shipping
$400.00
Delivery restrictions may apply:
Shipping calculator is approximate. Please contact us for actual packing and shipping rates to your location.
Shipping calculator is approximate. Please contact us for actual packing and shipping rates to your location.
Refund & return policy
Refund available if product is damaged or defective
Exceptions may apply. Please message Jonathan for more information.
Meet your seller
Boylan & Philips
In the second half of the twentieth century, an artistic tradition arose in the Wahgi Valley of the highlands of Papua New Guinea of painting traditional war shields with the image of the comic book superhero The Phantom. This derived from some seemingly inexplicable intersection of the age-old bellicose traditions of one of the most culturally remote areas of the world and twentieth-century comic book illustration, if not pop art—a phenomenon that art historian N. F. Karlins has referred to as pop tribal. The frequent text in English or in Tok Pisin on other examples—"man ino save dai" (man who cannot die) or "man bilong pait" (man of war)—only adds to the multicultural depth. Though these appear to be curiously syncretic objects to the Western eye, to the people of the Wahgi Valley they held deep meaning to the martial power of moral rectitude and the guidance of ancestral spirits.
A new book published in February 2021 by art dealers Chris Boylan of Sydney, Australia, and Jessica Lindsay Phillips of Toronto, Canada, is an exhaustive study of this tradition. Titled Man Who Cannot Die: Phantom Shields of the New Guinea Highlands, it features essays by a number of experts in the field, placing the shields within their historical, cultural, and cosmological contexts. A catalog section illustrates 105 examples from museum and private collections in North America, Europe, and the Antipodes, drawn from a research group of some 150 shields, which represent the majority of known examples.
For Wondercon, Boylan & Phillips will offer a special discount on the book and will provide a virtual exhibition of the shields, some of which will be available for purchase.
Pictures
Shield depicting The Phantom standing in front of Skull Cave
Boylan & Philips
Seller has unpublished this item.
