Ancestors of the Lake

Menil coup: Tiny treasures of the Pacific come to Houston for their onlyAmerican appearance

"Loin Cloth" (kain kaioo), painted bark cloth (tapa), The Menil Collection,Houston
Photo by Paul Hester/© 2010 Hester + Hardaway
"Double Figure from a Housepost, Le Lys," Kabiterau village, Lake Sentani,Papua, Indonesia, wood, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Paul Wirz, "Chief's House with Roof Ornaments in Tobati," copy print 1921 or1926, gelatin silver print, © 2011 Dadi Wirz and Museum der Kulturen Basel,courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Photographic Study Collection,Department of the Arts and Africa, Oceania and the Americas
Paul Wirz, "Woman’s Grave with Maro on Display," gelatin silver print, © 2011Dadi Wirz and Museum der Kulturen Basel, courtesy The Metropolitan Museum ofArt, The Photographic Study Collection, Department of the Arts and Africa,Oceania and the Americas
Jacques Viot , "Man (Viot’s Cook) with Figure," 1929, gelatin silver print, ©2011 Musée du quai Branly
Photo by Thierry Ollivier/Michel Urtado/Scala, Florence
"Hook," collected in a Humboldt Bay village, Lake Sentani, Papua, Indonesia,wood, © 2011 Tomkins Collection
Photo by Paul Mutino
"Figure from Post of a Chief's House," Ifar village, Lake Sentani, Papua,Indonesia, wood, © Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
Photo by Kathrin Leuenberger, Ethnographic Museum of Zurich

Surrealist vanguardists André Breton, Joan Miró and Max Ernst were just mad about maro — decorative barkcloths from New Guinea's Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay. Houston audiences can join the ranks of 20th-century art stalwarts as these rare objects, along with a group of highly stylized, abstracted wooden sculptures, are revealed in an exhibition at the Menil Collection that opened this week.

Not surprisingly, these significant indigenous objects were among the first works snatched up in the 1920s by the nascent art collectors, John and Dominique de Menil.

But let's backtrack a little. It's important to note that these objects weren't recently brought to Western museums by contemporary anthropologists.

In fact, this genre was nearly lost to the waters of the modern-day Indonesian province of Papua, located on the western portion of New Guinea. That near-catastrophe was performed by puritanical missionaries who stopped by the island's shores in the 1500s. Centuries later, the Dutch Etna Expedition retrieved a few stray works. Still, it wasn't until the 1920s that interest in the region began to build steam.

Enter two 20th-century Renaissance men: Swiss explorer, ethnologist, photographer and collector Paul Wirz and French adventurer, art dealer, photographer and author Jacques Viot. Both figures can be credited for bringing the art of Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay to the masses — and to the attention of active Surrealist circles in 1930s Paris.

Viewers of the Menil exhibition can connect the dots between the imagery and patterns present in the New Guinean art and the canvases and sculptures by Ernst and Breton on display in the museum's permanent galleries of Surrealist art. Notes curator Virginia-Lee Webb in the exhibition's catalogue, it was Ernst who introduced Viot to John and Dominique de Menil.

When Parisian gallery owner Pierre Loeb commissioned Viot to journey to New Guinea to purchase sculptures and maro from local artists, the adventurer returned with a slew of pieces that would soon populate galleries in Paris and New York. Collectors went mad — the de Menils purchased three maro and three Sentani sculptures. Several of Viot's finds arrived at New York's Museum of Primitive Art in a monumental 1953 exhibition.

Since then, public discourse on the art of the region had all but gone silent — until now. Ancestors of the Lake unites for the first time remarkable works from Lake Sentani and Humboldt Bay alongside photographs by Viot and Wirz and newly discovered stills by Man Ray.

The Menil Collection is the exhibition's only stop on American soil before it heads to the University of East Anglia. Dadi Wirz — the son of Swiss explorer Paul Wirz — spoke at the Menil Friday night. D.W. recounted his journeys to Lake Sentani as part a rare glimpse upon classic East meets West exploration.

Ancestors of the Lake is on View through Aug. 28.

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Movie Review

Timothée Chalamet cements star status in new movie Marty Supreme

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Timothée Chalamet

In a time when true movie stars seem to be going extinct, Timothée Chalamet has emerged as an exception to the rule. Since 2021 he has headlined blockbusters like the two Dune movies and Wonka, and also earned an Oscar nomination for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (his second nomination following 2018’s Call Me By Your Name). Now, he’s almost assured to get his third nomination for the stellar new film, Marty Supreme.

Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a world-class table tennis player living in New York. But reducing Marty to his best skill doesn’t do him justice, as he’s also a motormouth schemer who will do almost anything to achieve his dreams. He doesn’t have any qualms about wooing married women like neighbor Rachel (Odessa A’zion) or actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), or hiding his true ping pong skills to win money in scams with friends like Wally (Tyler the Creator).

Marty is seemingly on the go the entire movie, whether it’s trying to convince Kay’s millionaire husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) to fund his table tennis ambitions; or trying to track down the dog of Ezra (Abel Ferrara), a man he accidentally injures; or trying to avoid the ire of the boss at the shoe store where he works. Just when you think he might slow down, he’s off to the races on another plan or adventure.

Directed by Josh Safdie and written by Safdie and frequent co-writer Ronald Bronstein, the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives, and yet the throughline of Marty keeps everything tightly connected. His particular type of brash behavior turns much of the film into a comedy as he does and says things that are both shocking and thrilling.

Another thing that makes the movie sing is the fantastic characterization by Safdie and Bronstein. Almost every person who is given a speaking line in the film has a moment where they pop, which speaks to airtight dialogue that the writers have created. Characters will be introduced and then disappear for long stretches of time, and yet because they make such an impression the first time they’re on screen, it’s easy to pick up their thread right away.

Safdie, as he’s done previously with brother Bennie (Uncut Gems), calls on a host of well-known non-actors or people with interesting faces/vibes to inhabit supporting roles, and to a person they are crucial to the film’s success. O’Leary (of Shark Tank fame), rapper Tyler the Creator, director Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette, and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi each deliver knockout performances. The relative unknowns who play smaller roles are just as impressive, making each beat of the film feel naturalistic.

Leading the way is the powerhouse performance by Chalamet. For one person to believably play both the famously reserved Dylan and also a firecracker like Marty is astonishing, and this role cements Chalamet’s status as his generation’s movie star. A’zion is a rising star who gets great moments as Marty’s on-again/off-again love interest. Paltrow pops in and out of the film, lighting up the screen every time she appears. Fran Drescher as Marty’s mom and Sandra Bernhard as a neighbor also pay dividends in small roles.

Josh Safdie’s first solo directorial effort is unlike any other movie this year, or maybe even this century. Thanks to its breakneck storytelling, a magnificent performance by Chalamet, and countless intangibles that Safdie employs expertly, the film smacks viewers in the face repeatedly and demands that they come back for more.

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Marty Supreme opens in theaters on December 25.

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