Impressive statuettes of Venus callipyge or immodest, bison or horses galloping on the walls of caves, mammoth ivory engraved with hybrid signs… Their symbolism escapes us, but not their universal magnetism. Why does prehistoric art touch us so much? Prehistoric researcher Patrick Paillet tells us everything.
If their symbolism escapes us, the arts of prehistory touch us deeply. Their universality but also their modernity have and continue to fascinate the greatest artists, as much as the simple mortals that we are, because it is perhaps the best, the very essence of our humanity which is revealed through the works of these extraordinary prehistoric artists.
Why did men and women, tens of millennia ago, decide to paint, engrave, decorate all over the planet the places they inhabited, the walls of caves and the objects of their daily life? How did they represent their real, dreamlike or mythical world with so much talent? And why do these prehistoric works exert such magnetism on us? Questions to share in an exhibition: “Arts & prehistory” at the Musée de l’homme in Paris.
With Patrick Paillet, researcher in prehistory, lecturer at the National Museum of Natural History for the exhibition Art and prehistory which is held at the Musée de l’homme until May 22, 2023.