Context (CMS Context)
(Bio) Female donor: Professor Dame Marilyn Stathern, 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.

(Bio) 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 15/9/2009
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Framed drawing, unglazed, black felt-tip on cream. Image shows a humanoid figure in front of a large quadruped. Purple stamp at rear “MOUNTED AND FRAMED/ by/ R. F. ANDERSON/ PORT MORESBY/ P.O.BOX 496 Phone 2412”Condition good; with some bubblng of paper at edges near frame and some marks on surface of the paper.?water mark at base
Event Date 15/9/2009
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Drawing was framed and unglazed, but now de-framed for storage and conservation reasons. The drawing appears to be on board not paper with a purple/blue stamp from the Port Moresby framer on the rear.
Event Date 6/5/2015
Author: maa