The Parthenon Sculptures
The Parthenon Sculptures

Author: Ian Dennis Jenkins

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 9780674026926

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The Parthenon sculptures in the British Museum are unrivaled examples of classical Greek art, an inspiration to artists and writers since their creation in the fifth century bce. A superb visual introduction to these wonders of antiquity, this book offers a photographic tour of the most famous of the surviving sculptures from ancient Greece, viewed within their cultural and art-historical context. Ian Jenkins offers an account of the history of the Parthenon and its architectural refinements. He introduces the sculptures as architecture--pediments, metopes, Ionic frieze--and provides an overview of their subject matter and possible meaning for the people of ancient Athens. Accompanying photographs focus on the pediment sculptures that filled the triangular gables at each end of the temple; the metopes that crowned the architrave surmounting the outer columns; and the frieze that ran around the four sides of the building, inside the colonnade. Comparative images, showing the sculptures in full and fine detail, bring out particular features of design and help to contrast Greek ideas with those of other cultures. The book further reflects on how, over 2,500 years, the cultural identity of the Parthenon sculptures has changed. In particular, Jenkins expands on the irony of our intimate knowledge and appreciation of the sculptures--a relationship far more intense than that experienced by their ancient, intended spectators--as they have been transformed from architectural ornaments into objects of art.

Hajj
Hajj

Author: Venetia Porter

Publisher:

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780674062184

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The Hajj is the largest pilgrimage in the world today and a sacred duty for all Muslims. With contributions from renowned experts, this book opens out onto the full sweep of the Hajj: as a sacred path walked by early Islamic devotees, as a sumptuous site of worship under the care of sultans, and as an expression of faith in the modern world.

The Brutish Museums
The Brutish Museums

Author: Dan Hicks

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781786806833

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Walk into any European museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objectsare all stolen. Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes - a collection of thousands of brass plaques and carved ivory tusks depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of BeninCity, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections. The story of the Benin Bronzes sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. In The Brutish Museums, Dan Hicks makes a powerful case for the urgent return of such objects, as part of a wider project of addressing the outstanding debt of colonialism.

Mapping a New Museum
Mapping a New Museum

Author: Laura Osorio Sunnucks

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-12-20

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1000412512

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Mapping a New Museum seeks to rethink the museum’s role in today’s politically conscious world. Presenting a selection of innovative projects that have taken place in Latin America over the last year, the book begins to map out possibilities for the future of the global museum. The projects featured within the pages of this book were all supported by The Santo Domingo Centre of Excellence for Latin American Research (SDCELAR) at the British Museum (BM), with the aim of making the BM’s Latin American collections meaningful to communities in the region and others worldwide. These projects illustrate how communities manage cultural heritage and, taken together, they suggest that there is also no all-encompassing counter-narrative that can be used to "decolonise" museums. Reflecting on, and experimenting with, the ways that research happens within museum collections, the interdisciplinary collaborations described within these pages have used collections to tell stories that destabilise societal assumptions, whilst also proactively seeking out that which has historically been overlooked. The result is, the book argues, a research environment that challenges intellectual orthodoxy and values critical and alternative forms of knowledge. Mapping a New Museum contains English and Spanish versions of every chapter, which enables the book to put critical stress on the self-referentiality of Anglophone literature in the field of museum anthropology. The book will be essential reading for students, scholars and museum practitioners working around the world.

Masterpieces of the British Museum
Masterpieces of the British Museum

Author: British Museum

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780714151052

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This new and updated edition includes many recent acquisitions and new discoveries, such as Picasso's stunning Vollard Suite and the intriguing Vale of York Viking hoard, and showcases a selection of more than 250 of the most beautiful and important objects drawn from across the Museum. Each object is presented with its own fascinating story and is strikingly illustrated in full colour. From the Warren Cup to Durers Rhinoceros, the Lewis Chessmen to the Aztec turquoise serpent and the Gayer-Anderson Cat, the iconic objects of the British Museum are here presented in an exciting and accessible new way, highlighting the superb craftsmanship and ingenuity of those who created each of these splendid pieces.

Hokusai
Hokusai

Author: Timothy Clark

Publisher:

Published: 2017-05

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9780500094068

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A major publication on Hokusai's remarkable late work, incorporating fresh scholarship on the sublime paintings and prints the artist created in the last thirty years of his life

A Little Gay History
A Little Gay History

Author: R. B. Parkinson

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 130

ISBN-13: 023116663X

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Originally published: London: The British Museum Press, 2013.

Reflections
Reflections

Author: VENETIA. PORTER

Publisher:

Published: 2021-01-05

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780714111957

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Reflections: Contemporary Art of the Middle East and North Africa brings together an extraordinary collection of work from the British Museum for the first time. The contemporary art of the Middle East and North Africa is rich and vibrant. Whether living in their countries of birth or in diaspora, the featured artists are part of the globalised world of art. Here we see artists responding to and making work about their present, histories, traditions and cultures, reflecting on a part of the world that has experienced extraordinary change in living memory.The British Museum has been acquiring the work of Middle Eastern and North African artists since the 1980s, and the collection - principally works on paper - is one of the most extensive in the public sphere. Collected within the context of a museum of history, the works offer insights into the nature of civil societies, the complex politics of the region, and cultural traditions in their broadest sense, from the relationship with Islamic art, to the deep engagement with literature.The introduction to the book by curator Venetia Porter explores the history of the collection and the works included. The essential framework for understanding the politics and context within which the artists are working is provided by Charles Tripp's essay. The works are grouped into seven chapters, each beginning with a short introduction. The authors explore the selection within themes such as faith, abstraction and the female gaze.

The British Museum
The British Museum

Author: David Mackenzie Wilson

Publisher: Peoples of the Past

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13:

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The British Museum is the oldest publicly funded museum in the world. This volume tells the story of the collections, the buildings that house them, and the people who have administered and curated them since its foundation in 1753.