Buka's Herman Somuk-"The First Modern Artist of the Pacific"
Patrick Nomos | 1/5/2021
(Photo Credit: "Imposed Labour" c.1942-1943, by Herman Somuk. Collection: Musée d'Océanie A La Neylière, France/ Photograph: Natasha Harth / Image courtesy: QAGOMA).
Represented at an exhibition entitled "The 9th Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art" (ATP9) held at the Queensland Art Gallery|Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane, Australia from 24/11/2018 to 28/4/2019, were four artworks by Herman Somuk, considered by ethnographer Dr Nicolas Garnier to be "The First Modern Artist of the Pacific". Herman Somuk's artworks displayed at ATP9 were entitled: "Guérian,the founder of Gagan, went to Sine after his death" (c.1930); "Man with Upe" (c.1930); "Imposed Labour" (c. 1942-43); and "Shooting Allies" (c.1942-1943).
These four artworks were lent to ATP9 by the Musée d'Océanie A La Neylière, near Lyon, France that was founded in 1971 by Marist priest and ethnographer Patrick O’Reilly (1900-1988) and Claude Dessirier to house artefacts collected by Marist missionaries throughout Melanesia and Polynesia. Because of difficulties in obtaining appropriate travel documents, Herman Somuk's surviving child, Peter, was unable to accept an invitation by the ATP9's organisers to travel to Brisbane to view his father's artworks. Herman and his wife, Keang, had four children; Colette, Rose, Jacob and Peter.
(Photo Credit: Herman Somuk / "Man with Upe" c.1942-43 / Collection: Musée d'Océanie A La Neylière, France / Photograph: Natasha Harth / Image courtesy: QAGOMA).
Herman Somuk (1902-1965) lived at Biruwat Hamlet, near the Catholic Mission at Gagan Village, Buka Island, Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB). Acknowledged as a talented storyteller, Herman spent his evenings telling stories to his fellow villagers about the warlike exploits of his ancestors.
Starting in the early 1930s, Father O'Reilly, who was visiting Gagan, encouraged Herman to illustrate his own stories. Although Herman had never drawn before he became increasingly interested in drawing. Using ink, coloured pencils and blank paper provided by Father O'Reilly from the Gagan Primary School, Herman produced over 500 drawings depicting Melanesian stories and customs, and traditional dances and ceremonies.
In July 1951, Father O'Reilly organized an exhibition in Paris, France of the drawings he had collected in Melanesia, including Herman Somuk's artworks. These drawings weren't seen again publicly until 2016 when they were exhibited in the form of an album prepared by Father O'Reilly entitled, "Patrick O'Reilly & Somuk 1900 - 1988. Séjours à Bougainville, Îsles Salomon - 1934-1935".
This album contains hand-written text illustrated with more than 550 black and white photographs, postcards and reproductions as well as 28 original drawings by Herman Somuk representing everyday situations, rituals and portraits; two stories illustrated by Herman and a paragraph about him. In June 2016 this album was bought at auction for €108,400 (PGK461,000) by the Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Paris, the French national museum for non-European art. This enabled the museum to show Herman's drawings in the context in which they were created, his inspirations and the various interpretations of the Western world in an exhibition format.
Despite achieving considerable fame in Parisian artistic circles in the early 1950s following the exhibition of his drawings by Father O'Reilly, Herman is unlikely to have received monetary reward for his artwork. Herman was buried at Gagan, without fanfare, in 1965. It would be an appropriate gesture from those who financially benefited from his exceptional talent to contribute to a permanent memorial to mark his last resting place.
Photo: Herman Somuk/"Man with Upe" c.1942-43/Collection: Musee d'Oceanie A La Neyliere, France.