The Royal Academy is celebrating the 250th anniversay of Cook’s first voyage to the Pacific with an exhibition of the art of the region of Oceania: Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.
I think it’s will be a fascinating, complex day out for those of us who can get there. Here’s what the Royal Academy says about it:
‘The year is 1768, and Britain is in the throes of the Age of Enlightenment. As a group of artists agrees to found the Royal Academy, Captain James Cook sets sail on a voyage of discovery to track the transit of Venus and search for terra australis incognita – the unknown southern continent, as Europeans called it. What Cook and his crew encounter on arrival is a vast number of island civilisations covering almost a third of the world’s surface: from Tahiti in Polynesia, to the scattered archipelagos and islands of Melanesia and Micronesia.
‘The indigenous populations they met came with their own histories of inter-island trade, ocean navigation, and social and artistic traditions. This spectacular exhibition will reveal these narratives – celebrating the original, raw and powerful art that in time would resonate across the European artistic sphere.
‘Oceania will bring together around 200 exceptional works from public and private collections worldwide, and will span over 500 years. From shell, greenstone and ceramic ornaments, to huge canoes and stunning god images, we explore important themes of voyaging, place making and encounter. The exhibition draws from rich historic ethnographic collections dating from the 18th century to the present, and includes seminal works produced by contemporary artists exploring history, identity and climate change.’
Meanwhile, there has been considerable excitement over a claim by archaeologists that they have identified what they believe to be the wreck of the Endeavour, Cook’s ship on his voyage of two and a half centuries ago.
My thanks to regular contributor Chris Brady for the interesting Royal Academy link.