Art in Oceania: A New History

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The arts of Oceania are astonishing: great statues, daunting tattoos, dynamic carving, dazzling woven and painted fabrics, intricately carved weapons, and a bewildering variety of ornaments, ritual objects, and utilitarian but beautiful things. Art in Oceania is the product of a remarkable collaboration among a team of anthropologists, art historians and curators of both European and Pacific Islands descent. The product of years of engagement with communities across the Pacific, and research in the collections of dozens of museums, this book is a revelation of Oceanic art, past and present, reimagined for the twenty-first century. The book reveals the art of Oceania as profoundly dynamic, at once grounded in tradition and full of innovation. It ranges from the earliest archaeological evidence through the great historic works collected by such voyagers as Captain Cook to the arts of the last fifty years. It does justice to the variety of Pacific cultures, from those of the Highlands of New Guinea to the the furthest reaches of Polynesian settlement in New Zealand and Easter Island. It ranges across genres, from ancient rock art through ritual architecture to contemporary painting and installation art, as no previous survey has done. Its hallmark is the argument that art in Oceania is a product of history - from the changing relations among Pacific peoples to their resilience and creativity in the face of colonial intrusions and the challenges of globalization. Art in Oceania reinterprets icons of Oceanic art in the context of the colonial encounters that shaped them, and brings the story of Oceania's modernisms into view as part of contemporary history.

Reviews

'A magisterial, nearly encyclopaedic volume on a so far relatively neglected field that is beginning to attract increasing scholarly and popular interest. This one should be on every art lovers bookshelf' - Loyd Grossman (Judge for the Art Book Prize)
'A brilliant and highly original achievement. Nuanced, multi-disciplinary and fully collaborative in authorship and spirit this book will undoubtedly stand as the definitive introduction and reference work on the rich and diverse arts of Pacific peoples for many years to come' - Ruth B. Phillips, Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Art and Culture and Professor of Art History, Carleton University
'Ambitious and brilliantly successful. The collaborative scope is unprecedented. Each chapter is a revelatory essay, filled with astonishing images and evocative quotations This volume sets a new standard for the cultural history of a complex, dynamic region' - James Clifford, University of California
'Extraordinary the sheer magnitude of knowledge to which this book extends far surpasses any studies conducted previously' - Aesthetics
'Coming from Thames & Hudson it goes without saying that the book is well designed, superbly illustrated, with sufficient footnotes to satisfy even the fastidious reader, a sound bibliography and index this volume must stand as the authoritative overview of the art of a region of the world that has both a rich history and a lively contemporary art community' - The Burlington Magazine
'As beautiful in its way as the objects it describes' - Daily Telegraph

Author Bio

Nicholas Thomas is Professor of Historical Anthropology, University of Cambridge. Among his previous books are Oceanic Art in the World of Art series and Islanders: the Pacific in the Age of Empire, which won the Wolfson History Prize in 2010. Peter Brunt is Senior Lecturer in Art History at Victoria University of Wellington.