Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
>>[Music] >>[Dr Debbie Challis] A Fusion of Worlds: Ancient Egypt, African Art
and Identity in Modernist Britain is our new exhibition at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian
Archaeology. What we thought we'd do is look at modernist sculpture, particularly work
by Epstein, Edna Manley and Ronald Moody and look at how they were influenced by Ancient
Egypt as one of a number of cultures that influenced their art. So we were looking at
the form of Ancient Egyptian objects and how this influenced sometimes abstract or abstracted
representations of the human figure. >>[Dr Gemma Romain] We're also really interested
in the archaeologists working at this time, in particular Petrie, what he thought about
some of these artists and artistic interpretation of Egyptian art and of Egyptian sculpture.
>>[Dr Challis] One of the things we wanted to do with the exhibition was share Gemma's
and my knowledge about Ancient Egypt or the reception of Egypt in the 20th century art
world, but also have the input from people who were interested in it for various reasons
or just wanted to be involved in the exhibition, so we started in September 2013 inviting members
of the public in to basically co-curate or at least advise on sections of the exhibition
with us, and we had workshops in the Petrie Museum. And we have had five participants
in particular who've contributed text and ideas to the exhibition.
>>[Laura Craig] Working with the group's been really fun actually, I've been looking forward
to my Wednesdays with the group. Mostly because of the amount of interest. People are just
enthused and wanting to participate, and the amount of learning, the amount of time I get
to just discover new things that I didn't know about Egypt and about the way the Egyptians
lived and how that transpires into our lives now. My focus has been mainly on a set of
measuring cups. They were said by Petrie to be used for measuring *** and he expresses
that they were used for measuring something very precious or very poisonous. And I think
despite this orientalism the pots themselves are likened to the Ethiopian measure or the
lower Egypt measure, the Nubian measure for gold. So measuring gold dust. Which I just
think is just the most magical thing, and so much time and precision and devotion really
given to the adornment of artefacts with gold for worship.
>>[Dr Romain] Here we are in Hyde Park. In a corner of the park we can see one of Epstein's
most significant public sculptures, the Piece of Rima. And he's representing a woman as
being part of nature, so she's naked, she's looking up at the sky. This piece received
a lot of disapproval by various art critics and also by campaigns in the press, letters
sent to the press. >>[Ego Ahaiwe] We just take things for granted.
Times have changed in regards to how we view nakedness and Jacob Epstein was interested
in reconnecting with just being primal and going back to our basic instincts, really,
and celebrating that and not feeling ashamed. And that's something that doesn't lose an
importance through time. >>[Dr Romain] We see the views that he received
for not only this piece but for other pieces of public sculpture, that his artwork wasn't
British, was unchristian, was pagan but also of him as an outsider, so you have lots of
racial, anti-semitic abuse. >>[Dr Challis] Well of course, when people
think about the reception of Egypt, if they ever do in the 1920s, everybody thinks Tutenkhamun,
which was massively influential, of course. You have buildings designed that are influenced
by Tutenhamun, that are influenced by the Egyptian style, so you have the so-called
"Black Cats" building, the Carreras building up near Mollington Crescent, which is supposed
to be the facade of the temple to the cat goddess Bastet. It isn't, but that's what
it's supposed to be. Obviously Tutenkhamun was massively influential but there was a
reception of Ancient Egypt before then. So you have a massive exhibition at the Berlin
Fine Arts Society in 1922 where several objects in the Petrie Museum went to and were displayed
there, and that was very influential on artists at the time. So it's Tutenkhamun yes, but
there's also a lot of other things going on at the same time.
>>[Music]