MAORI ART.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 263, 5 November 1932, Page 15

MAORI ART.

The simple elements which underlie all primitive art were vividly and eruditely placed before the members of the Overseas Club at a meeting held yesterday afternoon by Mr. Gilbert Archey, who was briefly introduced by Mise Quayle, vice-president.

Some beautiful examples of Maori art were placed on the screen, and the fact mentioned that the people of the Marquesas were also Maoris in descent, and their carvings similar in that they made use of the human face and form. In their work the.human face had been used as the fancy of the carver had taken him, till it became a pattern. One remarkable fact about all the carving in the Pacific was that it consisted of an all-over pattern. The Maori had no appreciation of the value of the empty space in design. A fine example of a carved tattooed Maori head was shown, which had been used as the prow of a canoe, and which, said the speaker, was quite a good likeness of an old-time Maori warrior. These faces were later elaborated into a mask, and he pointed out how the Maori filled spaces by widening out the mouth. It had been said that the slanting eye in Maari carving showed a trace of Mongolian tradition, but he felt that this was not so. It was only an attempt to adapt the pattern to an elongated space, which in some cases made the eye almost vertical in placing. Every taiaha had a Maori head at its point, explained Mr. Archey, and it was traditional that the Maori went into battle with the head pointing down, eo that a pair of eyes were on the level - with his eye as he held that these two eyes would see what the enemy was going to do, and thus preserve him from danger. The Maori treatment of the human body was, on the whole, fairly representative of the human figure, which was used for the panels of the house. Various examples shown showed the figure gradually sinking back flatter against the posts, with the tattooed spirals becoming more flattened till even" the-angles of the eyes becamc an excuse for working in the double spiral. - .