The incredible adventures of Double Figure

Collected in 1929 from west New Guinea by Parisian poet and filmmaker Jacques Viot, Double figure captivated a generation of surrealist artists. Having spent a lifetime travelling the globe, Double figure is enjoying life as a prized work in the National Gallery's Pacific Art collection.

By the mid-1920s, artists active in Paris held a fascination with objects created in tribal communities in the Pacific. In their search for art beyond the real, surrealists turned to sculptures that came from the dreams and imaginations of Pacific Islanders, who were themselves considered exotic. The sculptural challenges and solutions in volumes and form in Pacific art inspired those desperate to escape European conventionalism and challenge standing ideas of ‘good taste’.

While working at Galerie Pierre in Paris, Viot successfully represented artists including Joan Miró, Max Ernst and Jean Arp. Unfortunately, he was not as talented at managing his personal affairs. Beleaguered by outstanding debts, Viot offered to undertake a one-man expedition to Australia and New Guinea to collect Pacific art on behalf of Pierre Loeb, the owner of Galerie Pierre.

Although Viot never reached Australia, he visited west New Guinea, now known as Indonesia’s Papua Province. Viot first saw Double figure, one of the National Gallery's most prized artworks, at the shores of the huge and remote Lake Sentani. The adventurer recalled:

'Thanks to a secret society of sorcerers whose members I discovered there, I had become friendly with a few old men who still, in all innocence, left their sex uncovered. They gave me a present. Somewhat unsteady on their legs, aiding each other along the way, they went and dug in the silt at the water’s edge with their hands … [uncovering] a representation of their souls. It was the most moving object I had ever seen. Carved into the same trunk… two figures emerging from the same stalk, a couple at the moment of creation in all its virginity. I understood that they preferred to see it in my hands rather than in the waters of the polluted lake. I have called this statue Le Lys.'

Unique in form, Double figure — affectionately referred to as Le Lys, or ‘the lily’ — is one of a group of about 60 wood sculptures Viot acquired from the lake. While its indigenous name is unknown, the term To-reri uno (people made of wood) has been recorded at Lake Sentani. Sentani houses were traditionally built over the lake, supported by tall wooden poles. Double figure would have sat at the top of one such pole in the house of a chief.

Viot returned to Paris with a great number of objects from west New Guinea including ‘the lily’. An exhibition of this collection was held at Galerie Pierre in January 1933. Double figure impressed all who viewed it. There is little doubt Max Ernst, the German painter and sculptor, visited the exhibition — there are strong comparisons between Double figure and Ernst’s equally scaled and visually similar sculpture Les asperges de la lune (Lunar asparagus).

Double figure disappeared from view shortly after it’s Paris debut, having been acquired by artist Jacob Epstein. He secreted it away for decades in his Hyde Park home, rarely letting visitors view the artwork.