Oceanic Art

Anybody wanting to know about art or material culture from Oceania needs to read this book. Your life will be greatly improved, birds will start singing, and people in the street will probably come up to you to give you a pie or ask you on a date. But seriously, Thomas draws upon his vast knowledge-base in this subject area to provide necessary, informed and critical context to objects so often dismissed as 'merely' art. Read it, read it now.

In his book Oceanic Art, Nicholas Thomas goes beyond the eye's view of the artwork produced from Oceania, giving the reader the background information and reasons why the distinct works of art were created. Thomas goes through each culture, giving and explaining examples to match the history of each respective culture. I was impressed by the thoroughness of Thomas, not only showing ancient artwork, but photos from Oceania today, as the respective cultures are being preserved. His analysis of the artwork was very well done as he not only explains the artwork, but gives the reader a sense of the culture also. Having studied art, I was impressed with all the examples and pictures in the book, then relating art with history. I would highly suggest this insightful book.