Introduction to Ice Age Art and AGM

For 40,000 years, mankind has been drawing and creating art.  Before paper or papyrus, there were cave walls to engrave or paint on, cliffs to mark.  What techniques did Ice Age man use?  How were the subtle colours produced?  How do you paint in the darkness of a deep cave?

Guiding us through this ancient world is Paul Bahn, who discovered the first Ice Age cave art in England—art that’s a mere 13,000 years old.  He’ll cover the story of the art’s discovery and authentication, followed by a presentation of the main techniques employed (including experimental reconstructions), the pigments, the lighting methods, and some of the many reasons why this art corpus comprises some of the greatest imagery ever produced.

Paul Bahn studied archaeology at the University of Cambridge, and completed PhD thesis (1979) on the prehistory of the French Pyrenees. He has held post-doctoral fellowships at Liverpool and London, plus a J. Paul Getty postdoctoral fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities. His main research interest is prehistoric art, especially rock art of the world, and most notably Palaeolithic art, as well as Easter Island.  He led the team which, at his instigation, searched for and discovered the first Ice Age cave art in Britain (at Creswell Crags) in 2003.

Image

Source:  https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Cave_of_Altamira#Media/File:9_Bisonte_Magdaleniense_pol%C3%ADcromo.jpg 

Replica of a cave drawing in Spain’s Cave of Altamira of a Magdalenian polychrome bison.

Lecture is part of a series hosted by The Arts Society Dumfries to find our more visit their website: https://tasdag.org.uk/