Ice Age Art: The Beginning of Human Creativity (Exhibition)

Exist Dates

1978 May 24 - 1979 January 15

Biographical or Historical Note

abstract

Exhibition. Opened in May 24, 1978 and closed January 15, 1979. Located in Section 3, Floor 3 in Gallery 3 at the American Museum of Natural History. "Ice Age Art: The Beginning of Human Creativity" wasan exhibition of mankind's earliest artistic expression as portrayed through an array of cave paintings, carvings, engravings and sculptures which recreated the world of the Upper Paleolithic European hunter.

Summary

"Ice Age Art: The Beginning of Human Creativity" wasan exhibition of mankind's earliest artistic expression as portrayed through an array of cave paintings, carvings, engravings and sculptures which recreated the world of the Upper Paleolithic European hunter. Cro-Magnon painters and sculptors depicted animal portraits as well as portraits of the people themselves. Also featured were examples of the female statues, or "Venus" figurines. The exhibition's major sections illustrated the conditions of life and the human outlook in the period covered by the art, 35,000 to 10,000 B.C. Eleven silkscreen reproductions of cave and rock art were made available by artist Douglas Mazonowicz of the Gallery of Prehistoric Paintings, New York. Original photographs in the exhibition were supplied by Jean Vertut and Alexander Marshack. Numerous fine replicas of artifacts were supplied by the Moravske Museum, Brno, Czechoslovakia, and the Musee des Antiquites Nationales, St. Germain-en-Laye, France. The exhibit was made possible, in part, through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and was on view in Gallery 3 on the third floor of the American Museum of Natural History from May 24, 1978 through January 15, 1979.

Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: Margaret Cooper.

Sources

American Museum of Natural History Press Releases, January 4, 1978. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

American Museum of Natural History Press Releases, May 10, 1978. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

American Museum of Natural History Press Releases, March 27, 1978. Departmental Records, 101; American Museum of Natural History Library Archives.

New York Times, 4/28/78.

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Related Corporate, Personal, and Family Names

American Museum of Natural History. Gallery 3.
Location of exhibition.

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