Context (CMS Context)
Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern, William Wyseman Professor of Anthropology, 1993- 2008, Cambridge University, who conducted fieldwork in the PNG Highlands and in Port Moresby from the 1960s onward. Displayed in the donor’s rooms at Girton College.

Kauage (c. 1944-2003) was born in Chimbu Province in the Papua New Guinea highlands. In the late 1960s he was employed as a labourer in Port Moresby and was inspired by an exhibition of drawings by a fellow-Highlander, Timothy Akis. Like Akis, he was encouraged and supported by Georgina Beier. Together with her husband Ulli, Georgina influentially fostered contemporary art, theatre, and literature in Nigeria and Papua New Guinea.Kauage's work evolved rapidly. Early on he drew fantastic creatures inspired by Chimbu myth, but soon progressed to scenes of Moresby town life and political events. Embracing colour, he went on to produce major paintings around Papua New Guinea's Independence in 1975, aspects of colonial history, and his own experience - not least his meeting with the Queen, who awarded him an OBE in 1998. His later works were often signed 'Kauage - Artist of PNG'.
Event Date 21/4/2009
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Untitled drawing with black felt-tip on paper. Images shows a humanoid figue, probably a woman as small breasts are visible beneath the outline of chest straps. The figure wears a 5-pointed headress with spiked trailer and stands in front of/is joined to a quadruped with spiked back and three-pronged tail. Signed ‘KUAGE’ in pen at bottom right.Condition good: several small maraks/smudges around edges of image.
Event Date 21/4/2009
Author: maa

Context (Display)
Exhibited: Mathius Kuage: Artist of Papua New Guinea, 17 March- 21 April 2009.
Event Date 24/5/2019
Author: rachel hand