Entrance Board for a House

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Culture Telefol

Title Entrance Board for a House (Amitung)

Date 19th or 20th century

Medium Wood and pigment

Dimensions Object: 117 1/4 × 15 1/4 × 5 5/8 in. (297.8 × 38.7 × 14.3 cm)
Overall (includes mount): 118 × 19 1/4 × 13 15/16 in. (299.7 × 48.9 × 35.4 cm)

Credit Line Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University

Accession Number 71.67

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About this Work

Known for their architectural forms, the Telefol peoples of the New Guinea Highlands created this entrance board for a house. Such boards often decorated the entrances of both ceremonial houses and other structures. While the pigment has faded over the years, this board would have originally been brightly painted. When interviewed in the 1960s, a number of Telefol artists stated that the overall design on such entrance boards has no unified significance; however, the individual motifs used to create that design do have specific meanings.

Provenance
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Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Entrance Board for a House | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=71.67