Paris hosts the most complete exhibition on prehistoric art, with works “never seen before”

The Museum of Man Paris hosts the exhibition ‘Prehistomania’the most complete exhibition of reproductions of prehistoric cave painting, with works “never seen”according to its organizers.

In this space, located in front of the Eiffel Tower, you can see up to 60 reproductions of cave paintings made since the beginning of the 20th century, some monumental, such as the “Great God”from Sefar, seven meters long and four meters wide.

The French museum exhibits up to 200 documents and objects that take the visitor to the same caves, such as Altamira, in Spain, where bison can be seen that were drawn between 36,000 and 13,000 years before Christ.

Precisely the well-known bison of Altamira are two of the objects that are observed in copy form, thanks to the art of Katharina Marr.

“We have been able to show works never seen before”Marie Mourey, project manager of the exhibition and museographic curator of the Museum of Man, told EFE, who made this exhibition possible, together with the Frobenius Institute in Germany, the oldest in this country dedicated to anthropology.

With their work, figures such as the ethnologist and archaeologist Leo Frobenius or the cartoonist Agnes Schulz became guardians of an ancient art, such as cave painting.

They were just two of the dozens of explorers who throughout the last century captured the works that can be found in grottoes, caves or rocks.

Climate change has “naturally degraded” some of the known cave paintings and are only preserved in reproduction form, Mourey said, so these works represent “an inestimable heritage.”

“For example, in the Sahara today there is a desert that did not exist in prehistory,” he exemplified.

Through the exhibition you can travel through Southern Africa, Chad, North Africa, Papua New Guinea and Europe, on a route that begins by diving headfirst into rock art, thanks to its reproductions. “fragile”.

Later it continues with a tribute to those who studied and documented this art, then continues with a small sample of works by artists who were inspired by prehistory, such as Klee, Pollock, Arp, Lam or Picasso.

Finally‘Prehistomania’ It ends with a sample of how archaeologists work today.

This work has experienced a “scientific trial and error”as Mourey defines, until today, going from invasive work with cave paintings, even damaging them, to a technique in which the original piece is never touched, with the aim of preserving it in the best possible way .

The woman, essential

Women play a leading role in the work of documenting and preserving prehistoric art. In fact, cartoonists, scientists and photographers participated in this work from the beginning.

Examples of this are Elisabeth Pauli, Maria Weyersberg, Katharina Marr, Elisabeth Mannsfeld.

“Their expeditions allowed them to emancipate themselves from a life to which they were destined during the 1930s, as mothers of families, married, housewives, and their expeditions allowed them to have an artistic career,” Mourey said.

This exhibition can be enjoyed until May 20, 2024 at the Museum of Man in Paris.