This past weekend, we stumbled across a little gallery that has a wonderful collection of Papua New Guinea art. It’s called Xanadu Gallery, and it’s in Menlo Park, just north of Stanford University. It’s owned by the same fellow who is part owner of the Palo Alto Trader Vic’s, and he was responsible for the Papua New Guinea art on display there. That makes three different spots full of Papua New Guinea art, all within just a couple of miles: the Trader Vic’s, the sculpture garden at Stanford, and Xanadu Gallery. The Stanford sculpture garden is unrelated to the other two.
Most of the art was from Papua New Guinea, but there were also examples of Tahitian and Marquesan art, including a gorgeous outrigger canoe. There were tikis, masks, war clubs, drums, canoes… just an overwhelming array of gorgeous tiki art. About 1/2 – 1/3 of it was for sale, the rest is part of the owner’s private collection. I’ve posted a bunch of pictures in a thread on Tiki Central, and also at Humuhumu’s Life in Photos. There is another Xanadu Gallery location in San Francisco with even more art, hopefully I’ll get a chance to check it out soon.
- Xanadu Gallery
- Trader Vic’s, Palo Alto [Critiki]
- Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden, Palo Alto [Critiki]
- Xanadu Gallery, Menlo Park [Critiki]
- Xanadu Gallery — more PNG art on the San Francisco Peninsula [Tiki Central]
- Papua New Guinea Art in Menlo Park [Humuhumu’s Life in Photos]
- Papua New Guinea Tikis at Stanford University [Critiki News]
The Menil, my favorite museum in Houston (which is free, by the way) has an pretty extensive permanent collection of tribal and oceanic arts, lots from PNG. The museum also has a large collection of Surrealist works, mostly Magritte, and the tribal arts room explains that many of the Surrealists were obsessed with tribal artwork as the purest, least self-conscious form of art in history. Many of the oceanic items belonged to Magritte himself. Ya know, if you’re ever in Houston.
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Actually I own the Marquesan canoe now. Bought it at auction years ago. It was carved as a replica out of solid Koa wood. Hung for years in my two story high home Tiki bar. I believe it came from Fiji. It’s currently in storage somewhere in Central Texas while I relocate and build a new bar. I also own the 30 foot dugout canoe Mr. Hanson collected circa 1960 in Papua New Guinea. Said to be the largest dugout ever collected from PNG. Cheers.
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