Adorning the World: Art of the Marquesas Islands

Renowned as the final refuge of Paul Gauguin, the Marquesas Islands northeast of Tahiti are home to the Enata, a Polynesian people who developed one of the most extraordinary traditions of sculpture and decorative art in the Pacific. This book features works, including many previously unpublished, from the Metropolitan and other museums and private collections, and it explores the fascinating ways in which Marquesan art embodied and enhanced secular and religious life.

Created to honor the archipelago’s diverse gods and ancestors, adorn the bodies of its people, and decorate everyday objects, art in the Marquesas encompassed virtually every aspect of sacred and secular life. Marquesan art is celebrated for its elegant stylization of the human image and intricately decorated surfaces, while also displaying an astonishing diversity of forms that range from robust figural sculpture in wood and stone to the most elaborate tattooing in the Pacific.