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Oceanic Art-Ozeanisch Kunst-Art Oceanien, by Anthony J P Meyer. Cologne: Konemann, I995. ISBN 3-895o8-o8o-z, 640 pages (in z volumes), figures, maps, drawings, color plates, photographs, foldouts, glossary, reading list. A$IS.oo; NZ$I89.oo. Distributed by Edition Habit Press for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. *
Oceanic Art, by Nicholas Thomas. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1995 ISBN 0-500-20281-8, 216 pages, figures, maps, color plates, photographs, index, references. Paper, L6.95; US$14.95; NZ$29.95
Protection, Power and Display: Shields of Island Southeast Asia and Melanesia, edited by Andrew Tavarelli. Chestnut Hill, MA: Boston College Museum of Art, 1995. ISBN 0-964053-3-0, 108 pages, color plates, photographs, figures, maps, references. Paper, US$12.95.
The publication of two books with the same title, in the same year, that are poles apart in their presentation, demonstrates some of the general conceptual issues in relating art and culture, and the problems of interpretation that trouble our understanding of the art of other cultural worlds. Both books are intended as broad regional surveys designed for very wide readerships. A third volume under review here is much more modest in its scope and audience, focusing on shields of island Southeast Asia and Melanesia, but the book amplifies some of the same general conceptual difficulties as the two overviews.
Anthony J P Meyer's Oceanic Art is a beautifully produced, hardbound, dust-jacketed and slipcased double volume, sumptuously illustrated with over seven hundred photographs, many full-page and mostly in color. Typical of many previous works that endeavor to survey the art of the Pacific, the author takes a culture-area approach that classifies Oceanic art into regional styles and describes distinctive aspects of each style. The book is organized in the manner of an ethnographic art gallery that simulates and encompasses the geographic breadth of the Pacific. Over seventy separate sections describe major culture areas (Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia) or particular regions (eg, Lake Sentani area, Astrolabe Bay, New Ireland, Austral Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago, Para-Micronesia).
Oceania is so vast and diverse a region, however, that it defies attempts to adequately catalog its art and cultures within a single publication, even one as voluminous (640 pages) as this. In addition, the trilingual text in English, German, and French consumes much page space. Consequently, treatment of each region is cursory, most often a single...