Art & Culture

“Are these the remains of a two-million-year-old playground? Stones found at Chinese site could be toys used by man’s early relatives, say scientists”

The problem of Modern archaeology. The item is either a gift fro a mother that shows the loves caringly placed into making it or random stone fragments. We’re not really sure. **EB

“Are these the remains of a two-million-year-old playground? Stones found at Chinese site could be toys used by man’s early relatives, say scientists”

by Julian Robinson via “Daily Mail“

Scientists believe they may have uncovered evidence of a two-million-year-old playground in China.

Researchers found more than 700 stone artefacts in an area of less than six square metres in the Nihewan Basin, Hebei province.

Experts working at the Heitugou site have suggested the items were toys made by early hominids between 1.77million and 1.95million years ago.

Discovery: Scientists believe they may have uncovered evidence of a two-million-year-old playground in China (file picture)

The leader of the project, paleoanthropologist Wei Qi, has described the discovery as ‘amazing’.

The South China Morning Post quotes the Chinese Academy of Sciences expert as saying: ‘The site is a treasure chamber that may hold some useful clues to answer a lot of important questions, from the social structure of the early hominids to whether, when and how they arrived in Asia all the way from Africa.’

Close to 20,000 fragmented pieces but larger items – the majority between 20 and 50mm long – are believed to have been made by women and children.

Wei said one ‘finely made and beautifully shaped’ item was possibly a gift made by a mother for her child adding that ‘you can almost feel the maker’s love and passion’.

Researchers said the lack of evidence of animal remains and large stone tools added weight to the argument that the area was used by children rather than adults.

Scientists dated the site, discovered in 2002, using a special geochronological tool.

Researchers found more than 700 stone artefacts in an area of less than six square metres in the Nihewan Basin (pictured), Hebei province

The items have been excavated and documented with the findings due to be published in an archaeological journal in China.

Nihewan Basin used to be a huge lake and it is thought the items were buried in a sudden landslide.

However, a debate has surfaced over the findings and researcher Gao Xing of the CAS Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology said it was important to determine whether the artefacts were all hand made.

The South China Morning Post report him as saying: ‘It is difficult to rule out the possibility that they were just stone fragments created by natural forces.

‘To determine whether they were hand-made artefacts may go beyond the limit of science today.’

Coming Exhibition: Inventing Impressionism

“Inventing Impressionism”

Who: National Gallery (London)

When: Mar. 4, 2015 – May. 31, 2015 (View Hours Here)

Where:

National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London, UK

How Much: (View Pricing Here)

More Information: Here

“So universally popular are the Impressionists today, it’s hard to imagine a time when they weren’t. But in the early 1870s they struggled to be accepted. Shunned by the art establishment, they were even lambasted as ‘lunatics’ by one critic.

One man, however, recognised their worth from the beginning. Paul Durand-Ruel, an entrepreneurial art dealer from Paris, discovered this group of young artists – including Monet, Degas, Manet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley – and gambled.

Realising the fashionable potential of their derided ‘impressions’ of urban and suburban life, Durand-Ruel dedicated the rest of his life to building an audience for their work – creating the modern art market in the process.

Such was his perseverance, Durand-Ruel nearly bankrupted himself twice, before successfully globalising his operation with outposts in London, Brussels and New York, and establishing the one-man show as the international norm for exhibitions.

The ‘Impressionists’ – a term first used derogatively by critics – was to become the household name that stands today.

‘Inventing Impressionism’ features 85 masterpieces from the movement, all but one having passed through Durand-Ruel’s hands, including three of Renoir’s famous ‘Dances’ and five from Monet’s ‘Poplars’ series.”

Based on a True Story

The lawsuit this film is based upon opened up a can of worms legally, completely changing Art Law, Cultural Heritage Law, Museum Law, and the Law of Wars forever. In regards to justice for a long-ago wrong, it is satisfying to know the bad guys didn’t win. 🙂 I’m curious to see if this film is any good!

Coming Exhibition: China Through the Looking Glass

“China Through the Looking Glass”

Who: Met Museum

When: May. 7, 2015 – Aug. 16, 2015 (View Hours Here)

Where:

Chinese Galleries / Anna Wintour Costume Center
Metropolitan Museum
1000 Fifth Ave.
at 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028

How Much: (View Pricing Here)

More Information: Here

“This exhibition, organized by The Costume Institute in collaboration with the Department of Asian Art, will explore how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries, resulting in highly creative distortions of cultural realities and mythologies. High fashion will be juxtaposed with Chinese costumes, paintings, porcelains, and other art, as well as films, to reveal enchanting reflections of Chinese imagery.

From the earliest period of European contact with China in the sixteenth century, the West has been enchanted with enigmatic objects and imagery from the East, providing inspiration for fashion designers from Paul Poiret to Yves Saint Laurent, whose fashions are infused at every turn with romance, nostalgia, and make-believe. Through the looking glass of fashion, designers conjoin disparate stylistic references into a pastiche of Chinese aesthetic and cultural traditions.

The exhibition will feature more than one hundred examples of haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear alongside Chinese art. Filmic representations of China will be incorporated throughout to reveal how our visions of China are framed by narratives that draw upon popular culture, and also to recognize the importance of cinema as a medium through which to understand the richness of Chinese history.

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The man who returned his grandfather’s looted art

“The man who returned his grandfather’s looted art”

by Ellen Otzen via “BBC News“

At the end of the 19th Century British troops looted thousands of works of art from the Benin Empire – in modern-day Nigeria – and brought them home. One soldier’s grandson inherited two bronzes but recently returned them to their original home.

“It’s an image that’s deeply ingrained in my memory. The dead body seemed unreal. It’s not a picture you can easily forget,” says Mark Walker.

He was 12 years old when he first saw his grandfather’s diary – the photographs inside made a deep impression.

“They were very faded, but perhaps the most shocking one for me was a partly dried-up body being held up by two men on a pole.

“Clearly the people lifting the body didn’t actually want to touch it and that seemed to me to capture the feeling my grandfather also had about them. It was something so horrible you wanted to keep it at arm’s length,” says Mark.

The pictures were taken by his grandfather, Capt Herbert Walker, in West Africa in 1897.

The two Walkers never met – Herbert died in 1932, 15 years before his grandson was born and Mark’s grandmother showed him the journal, titled To Benin and back, while he was staying with her in 1959.

The Benin Kingdom, which is now part of Nigeria, had a wealth of natural resources including ivory, palm oil and rubber which the UK was keen to control.

Mark Walker spoke to Witness on BBC World Service Radio

But in January 1897, seven British officials who were on their way to see the Oba of Benin – the king – were killed in an ambush.

The Times of London reported that the men “on quite a peaceful mission” had been “massacred by the King’s people”.

Map of Nigeria showing location of Benin City

It is unclear who, if anyone, ordered the killings and there are indications that the mission was not as peaceful as the British press described it. Although its leader, acting Consul-General James Phillips had sent a message to the Oba asking to discuss trade and peace, he had told London he wanted to depose him.