The South Pacific islands of New Ireland were home to a complex and vibrant culture that produced some of the most imaginative carvings of Melanesia. The art of New Ireland traditionally centered around a series of mortuary ceremonies and feasts intended to honor the dead. In northern New Ireland, the name malangan was given to these ceremonies and their associated sculptures and masks. Malangan rites and rituals also marked important stages of an individual’s life. Men in particular, competed during their lifetime to obtain the greatest number of malangan rights, as the accrual of rights and privileges to specific malangan images conferred increased social status and prestige. Cleverly incorporated into carved sculptures, these images and motifs served as a visual resume for the deceased and additionally illustrated broader concepts such as clan, gender, death, and the spirit world. At the climax of the malangan ceremony, the commissioned sculptures were exhibited in temporary display structures. Each sculpture honored a specific individual and was intended to serve as a representation of an individual’s soul or life force.
Malangan sculptures often portrayed stylized representations of birds, fish and other marine animals of identifiable species, alluding both to specific clan myths and the animals’ natural characteristics. The carved fish depicted in this sculpture is a representation of a Rock cod or awam. This fish is a hermaphrodite species that has the unusual life cycle of turning from male to female with age. This fish served as an important symbol of fertility for the clan because with its change in sex it became capable of reproducing. The Rock cod also symbolized the matrilineal structure of the New Ireland culture and illustrated an ancient myth describing the founding of the clan. Carved from the traditional wood of the Alstonia scholaris tree, the fish is finely painted with native pigments of red ocher, black charcoal, and white lime. The application of the very fine painted motifs is typical of 19th-century malangans. The artist’s skill in painting the surface of the malangan was essential, as it was believed to be responsible for bringing the sculpture to life. The placement of the opercula shell eyes, which so closely resemble the human eye, was the artist’s final step in the production of the malangan, as it was thought that the soul of the deceased entered the sculpture at that moment.
This New Ireland sculpture of a fish embodies the magical allure of malangan sculpture that so captivated the Surrealists. The elaborate and multi-meaning nature of malangan sculpture appealed to the Surrealists and their preoccupation with dreams and worlds beyond reality. The movements leader, Andre Breton, and other prominent members owned and exchanged malangan sculptures, and it is likely through these exchanges that the fish malangan entered the collection of Dutch Surrealist painter Joop Moesman. Born in Utrecht in 1909, Moesman first encountered Surrealism during an exhibition at the Gallery Nord in Utrecht in 1928. The owner, Willem Wagenaar, sold Surrealist magazines and works by famous Surrealist painters. Through Wagenaar, Moesman explored the ideas and theories behind the paintings and saw works by Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, whose work became a lifetime inspiration. Moesman would become the foremost surrealistic painter Holland has known. His paintings were considered provocative and twice they were removed from public exhibitions, due to authorities’ concerns about the public’s reaction. Pictured later in life in his studio in 1973, we observe Moesman at work, painting amongst several of his malangans, continuing to inform his Surrealist paintings. The fish malangan sculpture can be seen on the left of that image.
