Prehistoric Cycladic Art

In September, 2006, the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, Greece, hosted the exhibit, “SHAPING THE BEGINNING: Modern artists and the ancient eastern Mediterranean,” showing the influence of ancient forms of art on modern artists like Brancusi, Matisse, Derain, Picasso, Giacometti, and Moore. The exhibit set up modern sculptures and paintings side by side with ancient artifacts. The museum focused on major themes like spirals, grids, labyrinths, and bulls, as well as material elements like surface, simplicity, and flatness of form to create an intriguing “dialogue.”

Evidently lost in obscurity for millennia, the female idol figurine art of the Cyclades was rediscovered and greatly admired by late 19th-century modern artists like Picasso. In fact, a copy of his famous “Guernica” painting hangs in the Museum of Cycladic Art in a statement of reciprocity.

I find it interesting that, according to the Associated Press [Jan. 9, 2006], Peggy Sotirakopoulou, curator of the Cycladic collection at the Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens, commented that while the use of the female figurines may be unknown, they were not designed to be “abstract.”

"Visitors say, 'Oh how pure, how white the figurines are,' " says Sotirakopoulou. In fact, the artists originally painted realistic details on the faces.