Pacific Art in the British Museum

One of the world’s most significant collections of art from around the Pacific is held in London at the British Museum, and a new book being released in Aotearoa highlights its key pieces.

Pacific Art in Detail by Jenny Newell is being published in other parts of the world by the British Museum Press and Harvard University Press.

“The book shows the reader around the collection as if they were walking in the gallery with a guide,” says author Jenny Newell, a former British Museum curator who is now based at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

“The collection encompasses around 37,000 items and stretches from 8,000 year-old archaeological finds to contemporary paintings and sculpture. We’ve only been able to highlight a few of the items but have aimed to give everything context and included close-up, detailed images that a visitor wouldn’t usually be able to see.”

The collection began when a British Museum staff member, Daniel Solander, accompanied Captain Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The items gathered during those voyages were first displayed in 1778 and became one of most popular areas in the Museum.

Pacific Art in Detail by Jenny Newell is available to purchase from bookstores nationwide or online at www.tepapastore.co.nz  A database of the collection is also available online through the British Museum’s website. 

ENDS

Pacific Art in Detail by Jennifer Newell is published in Aotearoa by Te Papa Press, May 2011.   RRP NZ$34.99 ISBN: 978-1-877385-75-9

Te Papa Press is New Zealand’s unique museum publisher, creating popular non-fiction books about New Zealand’s art, culture, and natural world for museum visitors and readers everywhere. To see our other books visit www.tepapapress.co.nz

About the author:

Jennifer Newell was formerly a curator specializing in the Oceanic collections in the British Museum. She is currently a Fellow at the Centre for Historical Research, National Museum of Australia, Canberra.