Michael Rockefeller The works in this area of the Rockefeller Wing were collected by Michael C. Rockefeller during two trips to the Asmat region of New Guinea. Michael Rockefeller first went to New Guinea as a member of the Peabody Museum (Harvard University) expedition to the Baliem Valley in the interior of the island. Because of his interest in art, he decided, while there, to make a trip to the Asmat people of the southern coast to gather objects for the Museum of Primitive Art, of which he was a trustee. He first visited the Asmat in the summer of 1961 and returned in the fall of that year. In gathering works, photographing people, and taking extensive notes, Michael Rockefeller's purpose was to record and preserve the art of this remarkable culture, to document the context of its creation, and to understand its creators. "The Asmat artist enjoys some real advantage over the artist of the Western world. The Asmat culture offers the artist a specific language in form. This is a language which every artist can interpret and use according to his genius, and a language which has symbolic meaning for the entire culture. Our culture offers the artist no such language. The result is that each painter or sculptor must discover his own means of communicating in form. Only the greatest geniuses are able to invent an expression which has meaning for a nation or people. Furthermore, the Asmat is a culture where art is a necessary and integrated element. There can be no war, no feasting without the expenditure of tremendous effort on the part of the sculptor. Thus as long as the culture is intact, art will flourish...." From a letter by Michael C. Rockefeller, November 16, 1961 Michael C. Rockefeller with a group of Dani men in the New Guinea Highlands. 1961. Photograph: Jan Broekhuijse. ©2007 Harvard University, Peabody Museum Photo 2006.15.1.1.29
