Herman Somuk
APT9
Born c. 1901 Gagan, Buka District, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Died 1965 Gagan, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Lived and worked in Gagan, Autonomous Region of Bougainville
Somuk was one of Bougainville’s pioneering artists. He started working in the 1920s with support from a Marist priest, Father Patrick O’Reilly, who visited Bougainville in 1934–35. O’Reilly’s journal, Séjours à Bougainville, Îles Salomon 1934–45, in the collection of the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, is illustrated with 28 original drawings by Somuk and an additional two illustrated tales. Many of Somuk’s drawings, now held in collections throughout Europe, document stories, customs and life in Bougainville between the wars, and also engage with Christian themes. In 2012, the Red Cross revisited Somuk’s drawings, using them as a teaching aid in artistic workshops in Bougainville as part of the creative treatment for ongoing trauma from the regional crisis of the late 1980s and 1990s.
Herman Somuk / Solos language group, Autonomous Region of Bougainville c.1901–65 / Tavaux forcés (imposed labour) c.1942–43 / Crayon on paper / 20.5 x 26.5cm / Collection: Musée d’Oceanie la La Neylière, France / © Herman Somuk / Photograph: Natasha Harth, QAGOMA
The work of Gagan artist Herman Somuk provides some of the earliest insights into modernity in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. His lively drawings in crayon document the lives, traditions and beliefs of the people of Buka Island, as they navigated the introduction of Christianity, and the effects of colonial rule and two world wars. Working actively from the 1920s, Somuk was originally provided with art-making materials by Father Lukan and the local Gagan nuns, and he seized this opportunity to bring his customs and beliefs to life.
Somuk’s drawings reveal a deep respect for the ways of his people — they record the importance of ceremony and clan structures, and bear witness to the historical events affecting their lives. Two drawings created in the early 1940s dramatically record the loss of life caused by the aerial bombings of World War Two, as well as the living conditions under Japanese occupation.
