ocean art prints
ocean art prints
Some of Lukas Griffins ocean art prints are shown here, as well as some information about the history of ocean art.
Ocean art goes back a long way before the ocean art prints of today’s era, Oceanic Art refers to the works of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Islands, from Hawaii and the Easter Islands to Australia. This includes Hawaii, Easter Islands Polynesia New Zealand and Australia and is broken into four regions. Art generated by these different individuals has a wide range of styles and approaches due to the wide variety of geographical regions and historical cultures represented.
Oceania's art
Oceania's art incorporates indigenous cultures from Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, and Lebanon Dahia. The islands' inhabitants may trace their ancestry back to two distinct waves of Southeast Asian immigrants, each arriving at a different point in time. 40,000-60,000 years ago, a group of Australo-Melanesian peoples arrived in New Guinea and Australia, the ancestors of today's Melanesians and Australian Aboriginals. The Melanesians arrived in the northern Solomon Islands some 38,000 years ago. In the second wave, the seafaring Austronesian peoples of Southeast Asia arrived after another 30,000 years. They'd eventually meet and be able to go to the uttermost Pacific islands as a group, no matter how long it took. They had no writing system and used perishable materials for their handiwork, therefore there are very few records of these early peoples. They didn't see their labor as "art" in the same way as people in the West did. As opposed to this, they produced items for ritualistic or everyday use, such as religious or social rites.
Lapita civilisation
Around 1500 BC, the Lapita civilisation, descended from the second wave, began to spread to the farther-flung islands. Around the same time, the earliest examples of sculpture in Oceania appeared in New Guinea. From 1000 BCE onwards, the Lapita people would consolidate and begin to build the current Polynesian civilizations of Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji. When they migrated further out to sea between the years of 200 BC and 1 AD, they would settle in northern Cook Islands and Marquesas Islands. As early as 1000 BC, bronze artifacts from Vietnam's Dongson culture, renowned for their superb craftsmanship, were making their way to Oceania, where they had a profound impact on the region's indigenous cultural legacy. Despite the lack of documentation dating back to the year 1000 AD, most artistic traditions, such as those of New Guinea sculpture and Australian rock art, have survived to the present day. A rise in trade and engagement as well as the colonization of new locations like Hawaii, Easter Island, Tahiti, and New Zealand characterize this time period. Easter Islanders began construction of the island's 900-plus moai statues in the early 11th century (large stone statues). A Micronesian island called Pohnpei began creating Nan Madol, an artificial island city with canals, around the year 1200 AD, according to historical records. Oceania was originally discovered by Europeans around the year 1500. There is a distinct shift in regional styles, although local aesthetic and architectural traditions have been retained.
Before Europeans
Before Europeans came in the 16th and 17th centuries, Oceanian societies were still using Neolithic technology. Residents of Geelvink Bay (Teluk Cenderawasih) in northwest New Guinea imported small amounts of metal from Indonesian Moluccas (Maluku). Forging was a closely guarded cult secret, and only a few forging tools were sold, thus it had minimal impact on the regular working conditions of the time.
Even in Polynesia, where axes and daggers were more often used, the stone blade served as the primary instrument. Tridacna shell was occasionally used for blades in parts of Oceania where stone was uncommon, such as Micronesia and the Solomon Islands. Weapon and tool blades were made from obsidian when it was readily available. Bamboo and bivalve shells, both of which can be sharpened to a razor's edge, were also employed. Some of the finer cutting and engraving was done using hafted shark and rodent teeth and unhafted boar tusks. Animal bones were used to fashion tools like gouges, awls, and needles during this time period. The majority of Oceania's crafts were made with wood, which necessitated the use of all of these tools.
Melanesia and New Guinea
Clay was also used in Melanesia and New Guinea, primarily for sculptures, some small musical instruments (whistles), and pottery. Except in a few isolated pockets in New Guinea and the northern Solomon Islands, the majority of clay vessel production was done by women. Clay rollers were spirally coiled in the traditional technique. In order to decorate the pot, males had to get involved.
Drilling and abrading equipment were used for some shell and turtle shell processing. Even though stone carving was more difficult and time-consuming than woodworking, it was done a lot and was prevalent throughout the Pacific Islands; hammering, pecking, and polishing were the most common techniques. Even a substance as tough as jade might be mastered through the use of abrasive grinding.
Ocean Art Sculptures
Sculptures in religious settings were frequently given life through the application of paint, which was revered for its mystical properties. In addition to ochres, there were also a few pigments derived from plants. Sap was occasionally used in addition to water as a medium. Brushes made from chewed or frayed sticks, small bundles of feathers, scraps of wood, and even one's own fingers have been used for ages. Rock walls, bark, and tapa were all used as canvases for the paintings in addition to the sculptures (cloth made from pounded bark). The most common form of art in Australia was rock painting, but bark panels were also used. Sago-palm spathes and tapa cloth sheets were used for painting in Melanesia. Natural dyes were used by Polynesian women to make stunning abstract designs on tapa. A few of the techniques they employed included painting, stenciling using leaf templates and rubbing over relief-design tables, stamping, and printing with carved bamboo rollers
Oceanic Art from the 1940s to the 1990s
Oceanic art did not have an established place as an unique category in the literature on entire globe art history until after World War II. Instead, it was conflated in with the native arts of Africa and the Americas under the banner of Primitive Art, a vast spectrum of artistic activity that was missing from fine arts museums. Previous recognition of the aesthetic value of African, Oceanian, and American arts, such as that of Cubist painters or surrealists was linked to the art group's own preoccupations and interests. The publications in this section span the period from the first post–World War II survey in the United States in 1946 to the establishment of Oceanic art in art museums, as a field of study in art history, and as prestigious objects in the art market. The Arts of the South Seas exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art displayed magnificent examples of art from the Pacific Islands, which had become familiar to Americans during the war years; Linton and Wingert 1946, an edited catalogue, is said to be the first to provide a representative picture of Oceania's diverse art styles. Nelson A. Rockefeller founded the Museum of Primitive Art in New York in 1954 to showcase the artistic excellence and historical significance of the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas (Newton 1978). As the term Primitive Art fell out of favor in art historical and museological circles, the term Oceanic Art came to be used to describe the arts of the Pacific region. The movement toward recognizing Oceanic peoples' artistic products as "art" in metropolitan cultural institutions was led by influential anthropologists and was based on their extensive knowledge of museum collections as well as long periods of fieldwork, as exemplified in Gathercole et al. 1979. Leenhardt 1950 makes an important contribution by viewing art as a social phenomenon that, along with language, myths, and customs, has shaped Oceanic societies. Jean Guiart was a Leenhardt student who became an internationally recognized specialist in the arts and religions of Oceania, particularly Melanesia; Guiart 1963 is a major work. Carl A. Schmitz furthered the goal of establishing the prestige of Oceanic art as "art" worthy of the highest level of Western scholarship and connoisseurship . Oceanic art was featured in ethnographic museums, despite the fact that some influential voices, including the author of Fénéon 1920, advocated for "art from remote places" to be admitted to the Louvre. Meyer 1995 exemplifies how the international tribal art market still places a high value on exceptional pieces with a proven provenance that serve the interests of serious art collectors.
