Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Ice Age Art Now

Jill Cook, Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum,

Ice Age art now presents extraordinary drawn and sculpted images from the end of the last Ice Age in the British Museum collection. These astounding works, some dating back to around 24,000 years ago, reveal the deep roots of drawing, sculpture and modelling in the era of the great painted caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain.

In this talk based on her thrilling new book, Jill Cook, Keeper of the Department of Britain, Europe and Prehistory at the British Museum, considers a selection of engraved drawings, models, sculptures, decorated equipment, patterns and jewellery made by people establishing new lifestyles after their near extinction during the coldest Ice Age period known as the Late Glacial Maximum. Expressed on carefully selected materials found around the occupation areas of camp sites, Cook explores the relationship of these stunning objects to the engraved, painted, modelled and sculpted imagery applied to the walls of the famous caves.

Works of striking freshness and immediacy are presented as pieces with contemporary relevance to be appreciated and enjoyed, rather than explained away as primitive offerings – and the extraordinary skill and imagination of these image makers find echoes in modern and contemporary art. Works by Rembrandt, Matisse and Maggi Hambling are also included to highlight such essential elements of line, form, shading, composition and abstraction present in the long history of art, despite being separated by tens of thousands of years.

The accompanying British Museum Partnership Exhibition Ice Age Art Now is now open at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley, part of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations.   YPS have planned a group visit on 27 August see:

https://www.ypsyork.org/events/visit-to-cliffe-castle-museum-keighley-ice-age-art-now-exhibition-27-august/

2.30pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on Tuesday 12 August.

YPS Members free, non members £5.

Member’s report

In this lecture Jill Cook explained that she wanted to stress that the works chosen from the British Museum collection of Ice Age imagery share a common humanity with us and are part of our understanding of Art History not just a branch of academic archaeology.  Jill reminded us that we all make art from how we select our clothes, colour our hair, decorate our homes and many other choices.  This imagery dating from 24,000 to 12,000 years ago has focused on a selection of objects that were found in and around the famous caves of France and Spain in the nineteenth century.  Although these people lived by hunting and foraging, we recognise in their art the same feelings and thoughts that are shared by humans across time.

Wild animals such as bison, horse, ibex and reindeer were around in much larger numbers than the humans who represented them on both their cave walls but also in small objects that could be carried outside the cave or as personal adornment.   There are well made drawings made on bone, stone and antler with stone tools but there are also some less well drawn pieces showing that drawing takes practice and we were shown an apprentice example of the drawing of a horse from Rembrandt’s studio with a more experienced hand at the top corner showing how to make the shape more lifelike.  There are many representations of women in small sculptures from ivory or stone as well as small models baked in clay and wall paintings. These cover the whole female life cycle including youth, pregnancy, giving birth etc.   There are tools that have also been decorated with a representation of the human body.

To make useful stone tools a keen sense of three-dimensional geometry was necessary, an example being spear throwers which were used to propel the spear with greater force than just a hand throw.  Many of these are beautifully decorated showing great attention to the creation of a beautiful as well as useful tool indicating the importance of both function and value to the hunter.   There are many examples of personal ornaments made from shells, teeth, bone, antler, ivory and stone and in one burial of children their lower bodies had been decorated with rows of tiny, perforated sea snail shells which must have been part of a cover or apron over them.  Pattern was also important on tools and weapons as well as on personal ornaments and some are complex geometric patterns that perhaps indicated social status, group identity or a spiritual meaning that distinguish humans from the animal world.

This talk was based on the book “Ice Age Art Now” written by Jill Cook and published this summer to accompany the exhibition with the same title at Cliffe Castle Museum as part of Bradford City of Culture.

Catherine Brophy