About the exhibition
An exhibition 40,000 years
in the making.
in the making.
Discover masterpieces from the last Ice Age drawn from across Europe in this groundbreaking show. Created by artists with modern minds like our own, this is a unique opportunity to see the world's oldest known sculptures, drawings and portraits.
These exceptional pieces will be presented alongside modern works by Henry Moore, Mondrian and Matisse, illustrating the fundamental human desire to communicate and make art as a way of understanding ourselves and our place in the world.
Ice Age art was created between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago and many of the pieces are made of mammoth ivory and reindeer antler. They show skilful, practised artists experimenting with perspectives, scale, volumes, light and movement, as well as seeking knowledge through imagination, abstraction and illusion.
One of the most beautiful pieces in the exhibition is a 23,000-year-old sculpture of an abstract figure from Lespugue, France. Picasso was fascinated with this figure and it influenced his 1930s sculptural works.
Although an astonishing amount of time divides us from these Ice Age artists, such evocative pieces show that creativity and expression have remained remarkably similar across thousands of years.
Lion man
 |
The sculpture from Stadel Cave on the Hohlenstein is one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
This mammoth ivory sculpture depicts a man with a lion’s head and dates to around 40,000 years ago. The combination of human and animal features shows the capability to imagine something that does not exist. Through this invention, the artist expressed ideas rather than the real world. This required a creative mind and is evidence of the arrival of fully modern people of our own species, Homo sapiens, in Europe.
Swimming reindeer
This masterpiece has no obvious practical function. It is made from the tapering tip of a mammoth tusk and the sculptor took advantage of the shape and diameter of the material to create a composition in which a larger male reindeer follows a female.
Both animals have antlers so there is no doubt that they are reindeer and the scene is set in autumn. The engraved detail on the face and body of the female confirms an autumn-winter depiction by showing the texture of the thick pelt and its colour variations. Posed with their chins up, antlers back and legs outstretched, the animals are seen swimming as they do on migrations to their mating grounds and winter pastures.
Reindeer were a walking larder and source of raw materials. Human communities had to follow their prey. Journeys bring new encounters, surprises and difficulties. They are a source of stories, sagas, histories, myths and legends set in the real world or imaginary realms. The reindeer sculpture may have been a prop, prompt or illustration of such a story used to explore and bind communities, or to express their faith and develop their hope, through something beyond their ordinary existence.
Oldest known puppet or doll
This male figure is sculpted from mammoth ivory and was found with a burial in Brno in the Czech Republic. The grave was isolated from the big encampments in the area and contained the skeleton of a man who had died aged around 40 years old. The head and arms fitted onto the body on pegs so that they could be moved into different positions, as on a doll or puppet.
Top of the head of the Dolní Věstonice sculpture
The female body was a frequent subject for the Ice Age sculptor’s art. Made from mammoth ivory, antler, stone or baked clay, images of women appear right across Europe from France to Eastern Siberia. Most are naked except for some jewellery. In a period of harsh cold when clothing was a necessity this suggests that nudity was an artistic convention.
The nudes represent all the potential stages of a women’s life. Some are youthful and flaunt their sexual potential. Others are pregnant or giving birth, and for a few their child-bearing years are in the past. The focus on the reproductive body raises the possibility that these expressions were made by women for women, or were an iconic reflection on the origins of life.
Oldest known portrait in the world
This portrait was made from mammoth ivory and is about 26,000 years old. It shows a woman possibly wearing a fur hat, or more likely with her hair drawn up on the top of her head, with a fringe across her brow. The distinctive features of the face suggest this is a portrait and gives us a rare glimpse of an individual from so long ago.
Opening event
At the private view, Antony Gormley, artist and Trustee of the British Museum, introduces 'the contemporary minds of 40,000 years ago'. With contributions from
Dr Andrew Jones, Tom Holland, Sadie Holland and Lord Robert Winston.
Dr Andrew Jones, Tom Holland, Sadie Holland and Lord Robert Winston.
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