Rapa Nui Male Figure, Moai Kavakava

Description:

Rapa Nui Male Figure, Moai Kavakava, Easter Island, 19th century, probably made from Toromiro wood, standing on small rounded feet with incised toes and projecting ankle bones beneath attenuated bent legs and a prominent phallus, the curving torso with projecting lower abdomen and prominent rib cage and spinal column - a series of ridges interrupted by notches running from the buttocks to the nape of the neck - beneath a suspension hole pierced through, surmounted by a large head with inset shell and obsidian eyes beneath heavy arched brows incised with a chevron motif, and framed by elongated pendant ears with incised linear decoration, the rounded crown finely incised with an octopus-like creature toward the rear, dark brown patina, with blacking on the head, with inventory number "56.13," painted on the bottom of the left foot, ht. 18 in.

Provenance: Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts; Skinner, Boston, January 6, 2001, Lot 114; Private collection, Newton, Massachusetts; Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, May 4, 1967, lot 126; Gift to the Museum of Primitive Art by Nelson A. Rockefeller, April 1967; On permanent loan to the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, July 1956; Ex-collection Nelson A. Rockefeller; Priscilla Bigelow, Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

Exhibitions: Art Institute of Chicago, 1957; Museum of Primitive Art, 1957, 1961, 1965.

Literature: Corpus, Rapa Nui, Francois Dederen, 2014, Number 369, p. 548.
Estimate $25,000-35,000


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