By Australian Museum
Australian Museum
What’s in a face? Humans have bestowed faces and their artistic representations – whether human, animal or spirit – with incredible importance and power, using them to express beliefs and create identities.
Spirit Faces
Masks have the potential to transform personalities or capture a being’s essence and take on significance well beyond their physical form. As objects, these masks link to both past practices and living cultures and have influenced modernist artists such as Matisse and Picasso. As faces, they continue to ‘speak’, inspire, scare and enthrall.
The Australian Museum would like to acknowledge The Papua New Guinea National Cultural Commission, for their collaboration and advice of "Spirit Faces" exhibition.
