Splendid Isolation

Few Pacific Islands hold as prominent a place in the Western imagination as Easter Island. The most remote inhabited place on earth, Easter Island (now a province of modern-day Chile) is home to the Rapa Nui, a Polynesian people who developed a unique series of artistic traditions. While the island is renowned for the colossal stone figures that adorned its temples, much of its other art remains unfamiliar to wider audiences. This book examines the island's diverse artistic heritage and discusses more than fifty works, ranging from robust stone images to refined wood sculpture, rare barkcloth figures, and examples of rongorongo, the island's unique and undeciphered script. -- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.