Captain James Cook’s Great Southern Sea, an immense and vague continent, made of water and scattered islands.
None of the still unknown places, no people among those revealed by the travellers of the Age of Enlightenment, have inspired more illusions and more dreams than this last, unknown corner of the planet.
“Uncontaminated, good without God, just without laws”, unaware of Rousseau, those far “savages” became the finger pointed against the Old World in the civilizational controversy that was overwhelming it.
The vessels returned with never-before-seen plants and animals, rocks, shells and objects to which unknown men had given surprising, marine shapes, immaterial like wind and dreams are, as the Surrealists of the early 20th century so well understood.
Objects made more of hints and voids than of peremptory masses and volumes that impose themselves and demand space.
We now call these works Oceanic Art and invite you to explore a selection of them in the first exhibition dedicated to Oceania by our Gallery.
Sculptures inspired by and with their roots in the Sea, just as African Art has its in the Earth.
Tuesday 14 – Friday 31 May 2024
