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# The Met's Tapa: Art of the Gift Opens November 2 With Gifts Made for Robert Louis Stevenson
- URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/met-tapa-art-of-the-gift-in-polynesia-november-2/
- Published: 2026-11-01T12:36:24.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-01T12:36:24.000Z
- Description: The Met's new In-Focus show gathers 13 works of Polynesian bark cloth from Fiji, Samoa, Futuna and Niue, including six textiles given by Samoan chiefs to Robert Louis and Fanny Stevenson.
- Author: unknowndivide staff
- Tags: Culture, #surfacing

Some of the most striking abstract art of the 19th century was made from tree bark. Starting November 2, The Met puts that on show in [Tapa: Art of the Gift in Polynesia](https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/tapa-art-of-the-gift-in-polynesia?ref=unknowndivide.com), a focused exhibition of bark cloth from across the Pacific that runs at The Met Fifth Avenue through December 12, 2027\. With their bold geometric designs, these 19th century textiles look startlingly modern, and the show is built around the stories of giving they carry.

## What tapa is

Tapa is cloth made from the softened inner bark of trees, with individual strips of fibre turned into an entirely new surface and then decorated with designs that are painted, stamped or stencilled. It goes by many local names, including masi in Fiji, siapo in Samoa and hiapo in Niue. The tradition reaches back more than 3,500 years to island Southeast Asia, and across Polynesia it signals status and plays a central role at major ceremonial events. The 19th century tapa in this show were made by women, and they were given and received as part of a wider system of ceremonial gifting and exchange.

## Thirteen works, one gallery

The show brings together 13 works from Fiji, Samoa, Futuna and Niue in Gallery 359, the In-Focus gallery of the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing. It is only the second exhibition in that space since the wing reopened in May 2025, and it is a good example of what a tight, single-room show can do. The selection includes a hiapo on loan from [Te Papa Tongarewa](https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/?ref=unknowndivide.com), the national museum of New Zealand, alongside sculpted works and Fijian masi like the panel above, its crisp stencilled geometry built up in black and rust brown.

## Gifts for Robert Louis Stevenson

The heart of the exhibition is a group of six textiles given as diplomatic gifts by high-ranking Samoan chiefs to the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson and his wife, Fanny Stevenson, who lived in Samoa during the last years of his life. Stevenson was not a neutral observer there. In 1892 he published A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa, a sharp critique of German, British and U.S. interference that argued for the Samoan chiefs and their customary structures of governance. Seen in that light, the textiles read as deliberate moves by Samoan leaders, using existing ceremonial frameworks to bring a newcomer into their cultural and political relationships. Many of the works in the show are on view for the first time.

## A contemporary voice

The show closes the loop with a large contemporary monochrome painting by John Puhiatau Pule, the Niuean poet and painter born in 1962, whose early paintings drew inspiration from the hiapo designs Niue is famous for. Placing his work alongside 19th century cloth makes the point that this is a living tradition, not a closed chapter.

The exhibition is curated by Maia Nuku, The Met's curator for the arts of Oceania, and Met director Max Hollein has described the cloths as active instruments of diplomacy and exchange rather than simply crafted objects. The full [exhibition announcement](https://www.metmuseum.org/press-releases/tapa-art-of-the-gift?ref=unknowndivide.com) has more background. You can also explore Pacific bark cloth in [The Met collection online](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/316402?ref=unknowndivide.com), where the masi panel shown here is available as a public domain image.

## Why it matters

This one is Surfacing. It is a small show with a long run, and the Stevenson story alone is worth the trip to Gallery 359\. For more museum shows worth planning around, read about [Luxury & Loss at the Walters](https://www.unknowndivide.com/luxury-and-loss-walters-art-museum-feather-shell-tusk-horn/) and [Es Devlin: Other Worlds at the Design Museum](https://www.unknowndivide.com/es-devlin-other-worlds-design-museum/).