*Massue u'u, Marquesas Islands, French Polynesia L.140 cm Appears under the addition in vegetable fibers a lack, a scratch. Scratch on the handle at the level of the base. Provenance : European private collection Bonhams, London, sale of June 23, 1993, lot 183. Private collection, Switzerland Bibliography: Rossi Milene, "Un bernois nommé Wäber, peintre et dessinateur du troisième voyage du Capitaine Cook," Éditions D, 2008, p. 71. Exhibition: Bern, Galerie Duflon & Racz, "Un bernois nommé Wäber, peintre et dessinateur du troisième voyage du Capitaine Cook", 3 - 18 October 2008 Geneva, Opera Gallery, Jean Dubuffet | Pierre Soulages - Fondamental, January 29 - February 22, 2020 A prestigious object and combat weapon, this superb Marquesan puzzle of great classicism - through its forms and personified features - represents a male figure. The highly stylized body is reduced to the essential: rounded head, narrow arms inscribed in a schematized cross. The intensity of the gaze is emphasized by "solar" eyes with circular, finely striated edges, engraved with fine, linear lines, the pupils symbolized by two tiki heads in high relief, while a third head sculpted in the center of the crosspiece marks the nose. These carved tiki faces would facilitate communication and the link with the etua deities, thus reinforcing the spiritual power (mana) of the warrior to whom it belonged. The whole face has a deep dark patina obtained by burying it in a tarodière, the whole being then polished with coconut oil. Under the two lateral protuberances used for striking, signifying schematized arms, on the handle with a light brown patina, with orange tones, appears on the upper part of the object a rich and refined concentration of engraved decorations: a double band of geometric motifs inspired by body tattoos frames a large face with pure features. Gauguin was one of the first Western artists to have studied primitivism and to have experimented with it on his paintings. Oceania, and more particularly Polynesia, was a profound source of inspiration for him, and the admiration it aroused in him at the end of his life. As he remarked in 1900, "Among the Marquesans in particular, there is an unequalled sense of decoration. Give them a subject of the most ungainly geometrical forms and they will succeed in keeping the whole harmonious and in leaving no unpleasant or incongruous space. The basic motif is the human body or face, especially the face. One is surprised to discover a face where one thought there was nothing but a strange geometric figure. Always the same thing, but never the same thing. Kirke Varnedoe explains, in Primitivism in 20th Century Art, that Gauguin was fascinated by Marquesan art: "The emphasis seems to be deliberately placed on a preference for Marquesan art. By concentrating on the ornamental style of the Marquesas, he was choosing an aesthetic whose exceptional character he recognized as carrying a double connotation: at once aristocratic and barbaric. These drawings, like those on the "casse-tête" that Gauguin also copied, were as refined as to satisfy the idea he had of the past grandeur of Polynesian culture. Gauguin's work entitled Cylindre en bois avec le Christ en Croix (Wooden Cylinder with Christ on the Cross), a block of wood entirely carved with Polynesian motifs, depicts on one of its sides a figure of Christ crucified on a cross inspired by a U'u club, illustrates the power of the inspiration that the arts of the marquises gave him. This lot is temporarily imported and is subject to a 5.5% buyer's fee in addition to the sale price and the hammer price.