Wola Shield

Wola Shield, 2011
diptych: two lightboxes with plots, 100 x 140 cm x 16 cm / 187 x 116 x 16 cm

shown in:
“Affaire de Coeur 5 – The most beautiful bird of our time”, Lee Eugean Gallery, Seoul, South Korea (2019)
“Dimensione Disegno. Posizione Contemporanee”, Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona, Switzerland (2016)
“Max von Moos – gesehen von Peter Roesch, Christian Kathriner & Robert Estermann”, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Museum of Art Lucerne, Switzerland (2011)
“Robert Estermann – Sissy Circus and Other Singularities”, Agnès b. Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2010, solo show)

Bibliography:
“Dimensione Disegno, Posizioni Contemporanee”, exhibition catalogue, Museo Civico Villa dei Cedri (Hrsg.), Edizioni Sottoscala, Bellinzona, ISBN 978-88-95471-28-0, pp. 11-12, 41-48, 127-128, 136-137, 140
Kunst-Bulletin, Niklaus Oberholzer, “Drei Künstler blicken auf Max von Moos”, 5/2011, Zurich, pp. 58-59
Schweizer Fernsehen, Tagesschau, “Max von Moos einmal anders”, 18. March 2011, Zurich
Radio DRS1,Katharina Altemeier, “Max von Moos: Künstler mit eigener Prägung”, 19. March 2011, Zurich
Radio DRS1, amo, Regionaljournal Zentralschweiz, “Max von Moos im Kunstmuseum Luzern”, 18. March 2011, Lucerne
Neue Luzerner Zeitung, Kurt Beck, “Künstlerbesuch in surrealer Bilderwelt”, 23. March 2011, Lucerne, p. 11
PRESTIGE, “Gesehen von…”, 24. March 2011, Basel, p. 42
Radio DRS2, DRS2 aktuell, “Kunstmuseum Luzern im Dialog mit Max von Moos”, 6. May 2011, Zurich
artensuite – Kulturmagazin, Dominik Imhof, “Kein Tag ohne Linie”, 1. March 2011, Bern, p. 10
Bolero, “Der Maler Max von Moos, kommentiert”, JSC, 1. April 2011, Zurich, p. 62
artensuite – Kulturmagazin, Dominik Imhof, “Gesehen von”, May 2011, Bern, p. 7
NZZ am Sonntag, Gerhard Mack, “Mit dem Griffel denken”, 30. January 2011, Zurich, p. 73

Abstract of: The Art of War: Wola Shield Designs by Paul Sillitoe,
published in Man, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Sep., 1980), pp. 483-501
Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland

Why do the Wola Highlanders of Papua New Guinea decorate their war shields? After describing the various kinds of shield they use (two made of bark and two of solid wood), an attempt is made to answer this question by first looking at the abstract designs put on these weapons (which reach their ultimate abstraction in a wooden cross). The statements of some informants establish a connexion between these and the anthropomophic designs painted on other shields. In a sense they are ‘men’. The establishment of this anthropomorphic theme in all designs leads to a possible explanation for them, related to the revenge obligation, which occurs throughout Melanesia. The shield designs, both man-like and abstract, contain a revenge ‘message’. This use of structuralist ideas relating to communication offers a stimulating alternative for the study of material culture, although the assumptions about the unconsciuos present problems.

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