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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Arts & Graphics / Three Panamanian Kuna Mola Reverse Applique Textiles, ex-Collection
Central America, Panama, Guna (Cuna) culture. A group of three mola panels from the collection of researchers Ann Parker and Avon Neal, authors of the standard 1977 reference Molas: Folk Art of the Cuna Indians. The panels, worked in hand-stitched reverse applique, were collected from Guna women in the San Blas Islands of Panama by Parker and Neal during the 1960s and 1970s. The Parker and Neal publication remains a standard reference cited by institutions worldwide, including the Smithsonian. Each panel is hand-stitched in the reverse-appliqué technique, in which layers of cotton cloth are cut away to reveal the colors beneath and the edges are turned and stitched down by hand. The first panel depicts a bullfight, with a matador holding a red cape before a large bull whose body bears the text "CHALI MARTINES.", likely the maker's rendering from memory of "Charlie Martínez," a popular bullfighter known through regional media or traveling spectacles. The second centers on the Italian television puppet Topo Gigio, shown with a striped rainbow body and surrounded by smaller figures within television screen frames. The piece reflects the Guna encounter with broadcast television and international children's programming during the 1970s and 1980s, when Italian children's shows reached Latin American audiences and became part of popular visual culture. Item # 204135
Estimate:$150
To the auctionView all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorArts & Graphics
Estimate:
$150
Indonesian Style Polychrome Wooden Shadow Puppet
09/10/2026
$26
Est: $26
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