Post #351707 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Dec 28, 2007 9:34 AM

Will, that is absolutely hilarious! I would buy one of those in a flash!

Rob, thanks for those great images. I did include that Marquesan guy above, the post that calendar gal is holding onto is pictured here:

That's why books are better than websites, no scrolling past images :) . (Then again, there is never enough space in books, like for all this, so the reproduction of the above photo in Tiki Modern [p.109] is quite small)

I did not include the big Tiki outside because I believed that as a reproduction he is not close enough to the original and as such not the best example for the book-to-carvings link (the tattooed forehead is not as prominent). BUT this (and Swanky's post) bring up another point that I was planning to make with this post:

That big Marquesan, and the other big Tikis at the Mai Kai were done by Barney West I believe, and his carvings were more interpretive than merely exact copies. Herein lies the division between what I would call classic or "authentic" mid-century Tiki Style and Tiki Modern. BOTH fall under the umbrella of Tiki Style (which falls under Polynesian Pop). The Mai Kai with its predominantly authentic Tiki art is a great example of CLASSIC Tiki, while on the other end of the spectrum the Hala Kahiki is all interpretive Tiki MODERN.

We have to go back to the heyday of Tiki to understand the difference. Not until the Tiki revival fueled by Tiki News and the BOT was the "interpretative" style of carvers like Milan Guanko and Andres Bumatay appreciated as an art form in its own right. Actually, Oceanic Arts as a supplier PRIDED itself to be able to deliver very-close-to-the-original carvings to its clients, the wacky Witco stuff was looked down upon. Not that they did not also sell it, they used the carvings of, and employed all the good modern carvers at the time, like Barney West, Milan Guanko, Richard Ellis, and Ed Crissman. Here is a catalog page that shows some of their not-so-authentic carvings:

But the fact that Tiki Modern was viewed as bad taste, and the genuine desire to employ "authentic" South Seas art made exact replicas often more desirable for sellers and buyers in the industry. Plus, as can be seen in the above examples like this shield on the right

...and this spirit hook's grinning face

...the actual original art sometimes was so cartoony and modern that it needed no embellishment. These carvings are in fact further (with the others in TIKI MODERN) excellent examples for the reason why primitvism and modernism gelled so well in the 50s/60s.

So, while not quite as creative, classic Tiki style is no less pop art than the more interpretive Tiki Modern, and a good Tiki environment should have samples of both.