Patrick Paillet

They still appeal to the imagination, the prehistoric rock paintings that have been found since the 19th century, mainly in France and Spain. Lascaux, Altamira, … they belong to the collective memory of those who grow up in the West. However, prehistoric art is not at all limited to those inaccessible walls in caves, and of course not to Southwestern Europe either. That makes this luxuriously published book more than clear. It is the catalogue for an exhibition currently running at the Musée de L'homme in Paris (at Trocadéro).
What appealed most to me is the extensive attention paid to what is called 'small plastic': figurines made from the most diverse materials, such as mammoth or hippopotamus ivory, bones, stones or antlers. The accompanying texts and introductions make it clear that prehistoric man/woman did not just work haphazardly, but very reasoned. The same for the rock paintings themselves, which are of course also discussed, but for a much wider area. Especially the recent finds in Indonesia (Sulawezi) are spectacular, and are even estimated to be among the oldest ever (45,000 BP!). In any case, this book shows once again how uncertain we are still about the meaning of these artistic expressions, including whether these are really artistic expressions. More about that in my History account on GR: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5470954703.… (más)