FASCINATING ART OF ANCIENT SOUTHERN ARABIA-LARGELY UNKNOWN IN THE WEST-COMES TO THE WALTERS JULY 20

Collection has never been on view to the general public

Baltimore-Visitors can discover the artistic sophistication and visual splendor of South Arabian art through Faces of Ancient Arabia: The Giraud and Carolyn Foster Collection of Southern Arabian Art, on view at the Walters Art Museum, July 20-Sept. 7, 2008. Southern Arabia-now the Republic of Yemen-played a crucial political and economic role during antiquity through the trade in incense and exotic goods, such as spices and fragrances. In biblical times, the territory was known as the Land of the Queen of Sheba, the fabled monarch of one of several kingdoms that ruled the Arabian Peninsula.

Faces of Ancient Arabia includes more than 70 ancient sculptures, statues, relief carvings­ and inscribed blocks-drawn primarily from a recent gift to the Walters of 61 pieces from the Giraud and Carolyn Foster collection. The Fosters lived in Yemen during the early 1960s, where Giraud was the personal physician of Imam Ahmed, the last king of Yemen.

The mostly alabaster artifacts in this exhibition date from the sixth century B.C. to the fourth century A.D. To complement these ancient works, the exhibition will also feature paintings and drawings by world-renowned contemporary Yemeni artists Fuad al-Futaih, Hashim Ali Abdalla and Mohamed Zaidan as well as photographs of the country’s landscape, architecture and people by Detlef Michael Noack, retired professor of art from the Academy of the Arts, Berlin.

“Due to the generosity of the Fosters, visitors to the Walters will be able to enjoy the exotic, strangely modern-looking alabaster sculpture of ancient Southern Arabia for years to come,” said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “These impressive artifacts will bring to life the art and history of a fascinating civilization of the ancient world, largely unknown to most Westerners.”

The exhibition will include two- and three-dimensional representations of bulls, antelopes and ibexes-which were likely associated with the gods-funerary sculpture known as stelae, statues of worshipers and ritualists, commemorative monuments and inscribed blocks to memorialize the dead and worship the gods.

Background

Ancient Greek and Roman authors wrote about Southern Arabia’s immense wealth, huge temples and precious statuary. They marveled at its towering, multi-story houses-the first skyscrapers-and elaborate irrigation systems, including the first known high dam. The ancient Arabian kingdoms, particularly those of Saba’, Qatabân, Ma’în, Hadramawt and Himyar, flourished from the eighth century B.C. to the fifth century A.D.

The kingdom’s wealth was based on two factors: productive agriculture and precious commodity trade with Egypt, the civilizations of the Near East, and later, with the Hellenistic and Roman empires. The main commercial goods were fragrances and spices. Some were produced in South Arabia and Africa; others were imported from as far as India. The most important of these goods was frankincense and myrrh, which played a vital role in many ancient religions as well as in the domestic life of the upper class; for that reason, the caravan trade route through Arabia is called the “Incense Route.”

“What made long-distance caravan trade in ancient Arabia possible was the domestication of the dromedary, a one-humped camel native to the Arabian Peninsula that can survive without water for up to four weeks and carry 150 pounds,” said Walters Curator of Ancient Art Regine Schulz. “This exhibition will include the oldest known depiction of an Arab camel rider.”

The figurative and decorative art of ancient Southern Arabia evolved over a period of at least 1,200 years. Indigenous types and styles developed, although some motifs could have been inspired by the cultures of trading partners, especially when the art increasingly reflected Hellenistic and Roman influence. South Arabian sculptors worked primarily with indigenous stones, particularly calcite-alabaster and limestone. Ancient civilizations could have associated the translucent quality of the calcite-alabaster, a cream-colored stone, with sunlight.

When South Arabian art first became available on the international market, buyers were enthusiastic about the highly polished, structured pieces. Due to this appeal, illegal excavators and some art dealers cleaned pieces before they were sold, making reconstructions very complicated. Of the works from the Fosters’ collection, the alabaster heads and other statuary pieces are not in their original state. The brightly colored exteriors with inlays are absent; instead, only the alabaster stone surface is present. Today curators and conservators can try to reconstruct the faces by examining the less-polished, smooth parts of the surface, which had been painted areas. These parts usually included the hair, eyebrows, eyes and sometimes the mouth, which were all colored by natural pigments of black, red and yellow. Additionally, the eyebrows and eyes of some statues had inlays of shell, glass or semi-precious stones that did not survive due to theft or loss. Most of these inlays and nearly all of the paint are gone, but the faces are still impressive. Exhibition visitors will have the chance to explore these facial reconstructions on a computer, learning how the objects originally looked.

In the exhibition, the work of a Stela with Female Bust (1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.), is one of the best of its kind and was probably produced in one of the premier ancient South Arabian workshops. The stela displays the upper torso of a woman emerging from a kind of roundel with an inscription on the base, naming the man who donated the piece to the temple. The figure has raised her right hand, in a gesture of blessing or intercession, and holds in her left hand a wheat bundle, a symbol of fecundity. The interpretation of such female images is still controversial-it is either a priestess, who intercedes to the divinity on behalf of the donor, or one of the very rare human-formed representations of a deity.

The stylized figurative works produced in the early centuries have timeless-even modern-qualities. For example, Head-Stela with Stylized Face in Raised Relief (6th-3rd century B.C.) has a highly-stylized, flattish face with features in raised relief, reminiscent of modern art. Sculptured funerary heads and heads carved on stelae were placed into pillars with niches in the entrance areas of tombs and represented the deceased. Only a very few examples of this earliest type of head-stela have been preserved.

Contemporary Yemeni Art

This exhibition will also tell stories of contemporary Yemenis through drawing, painting and photography. Fuad al-Futaih is one of the most famous Yemeni artists. He is known for his experimentations with different materials and colors as he boldly portrays women. He also creates murals, sculptures and graphics as well as children’s book illustrations, stamps and coin medals. Al-Futaih studied art history at University of Cologne, Germany and art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has exhibited in France, Italy, the United States, Japan and Egypt. In 1989, he received the National Award of Fine Arts from the Republic of Yemen and founded the contemporary art “Gallery no. 1″ in the capital of Yemen, San‘â’. Two artists who worked and exhibited with him in this gallery are Hashim Ali Abdalla and Mohamed Zaidan. Their works are also well-known in Yemen. In particular, Zaidan’s paintings are so popular that they appear on postcards.

Photographs and video of Yemen by Detlef Michael Noack will also be on view in the exhibition. Noack has traveled extensively in Yemen, and his photography captures the grandeur of the architecture, landscapes and people of the country. Today he lives in Germany and creates documentaries on cultures such as Egypt, Greece and Yemen as well as the influence of ancient world cultures on modern and contemporary art.  He studied fine arts, art history and archeology in Berlin and Paris and has taught at universities around the world.

Publication

The exhibition is accompanied by a 160-page illustrated catalogue edited by Regine Schulz and Giraud Foster, including comprehensive essays authored by Robert Bianchi, a specialist in Egyptian, Nubian and South Arabian Art and former curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Antonietta Catanzeriti, a near Eastern Art specialist from the University of Venice, as well as essays by the editors. Distributed by the Walters Art Museum, soft-cover catalogues will be available for $24.95 in the Museum Store or at www.thewalters.org. The introductory chapters focus on the history of the collection as well as ancient Southern Arabia and its religious art and architecture. There is also a chapter about the Queen of Sheba and the Arabian Incense Route. In addition, works from the exhibition are detailed with descriptions and full photo documentation.

Admission and Hours

Admission to Faces of Ancient Arabia is free. *Museum hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and on Independence Day and Labor Day.

*Please note, the museum’s hours will change as of July 2, 2008.

The Walters Art Museum

The Walters Art Museum is located in Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre streets and is one of only a few museums worldwide to present a comprehensive history of art from the third millennium B.C. to the early 20th century. Among its thousands of treasures, the Walters holds the finest collection of ivories, jewelry, enamels and bronzes in America and a spectacular reserve of illuminated manuscripts and rare books. The Walters’ Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Byzantine, Ethiopian and western medieval art collections are among the best in the nation, as are the museum’s holdings of Renaissance and Asian art. Every major trend in French painting during the 19th century is represented by one or more works in the Walters’ collection.

Peabody Court is the official hotel of the Walters Art Museum. This historic property is just around the corner from the museum and features George’s, a full-service restaurant. For hotel reservations, call 1-800-292-5500 and ask for the special Walters discounted rate.

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WALTERS ART MUSEUM HOSTS MAPS: FINDING OUR PLACE IN THE WORLD

Exhibit Features Landscapes of Time and Space, Science and Imagination
Opening March 16, 2008

What makes maps so hypnotic? Is it the world of possibilities they offer as they take us on vicarious journeys? Perhaps their connection to a moment in history or their sometimes dazzling beauty?

Whatever your own connection to maps, you will discover unexpected new dimensions of these remarkable objects in Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, on view at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Md., March 16-June 8, 2008. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see over 100 of the world’s greatest maps: maps from ancient Rome and Babylonia; ground-breaking maps by Leonardo da Vinci and Mercator; maps loaned from great libraries of the world including that of Queen Elizabeth II housed in Windsor Castle and the Library of Congress. You will see not only the map that drew the first boundaries around a new American nation and the oldest road map of Britain but also maps that scarcely look like maps at all-sculptural forms carved in wood and landscapes fired on ceramic vessels. You will see maps made by dreamers like J.R.R. Tolkien and by visionaries like the Internet pioneers. You will learn how early maps were made and discover how map-making has changed over centuries.

“This will be the most ambitious North American tour devoted to maps since an extraordinary show mounted in Baltimore over 50 years ago,” said Walters Director Gary Vikan. “We are so pleased to have maps drawn from cultures and collections from around the globe.”

Maps: Finding Our Place in the World is organized by the Field Museum and The Newberry Library. Presented by Navteq. Maps: Finding Our Place in the World is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities. The exhibition at the Walters Art Museum is made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. Additional support is provided by Signal Hill, a Contributing Sponsor.

Unfolding the Meanings of Maps
Most people think of maps as useful tools to get us somewhere, but “they also tell us who we are. They reveal the priorities and technologies of our own civilizations and those of the past,” said William Noel, curator of manuscripts and rare books and curator of the Maps exhibition at the Walters. “They also tell us what is not considered important to the makers and users of maps.” For example, a map of colonial America completely ignores large American Indian nations.

In maps that represent religious or traditional views of the world, a sacred place-Jerusalem for the medieval Christian world, the mountains of central Asia for Hindus and Buddhists-is often at the center, and spiritual or supernatural realms can appear beside geographic locations. Navigational maps, by contrast, can focus on patterns of wind and waves, on coastlines or on measurements of latitude, longitude and angles-all aimed at getting sailors where they need to go. And the Congo artist who created the exhibition’s lukasa memory board-a conceptual map of local chiefdoms, history and politics-was concerned as much with secret knowledge of Luba genealogy as with visible places.

You Call That a Map?
Some of the objects in the exhibition scarcely look like maps at all like the lukasa, carved with ideogram, a clay fox astride a pot, and an Inuit shoreline carving.

“We deliberately set out to stretch visitors’ ideas of what a map can be,” explained Robert W. Karrow, Jr., curator of special collections and curator of maps at the Newberry. “We tend to think of geographic accuracy as the main goal of maps, but it’s important to recognize that there’s more than one way to view that.” An Inuit paddling his kayak along a shoreline in the dark, for example, has more use for a carved object with contours he can feel than for one with carefully drawn lines of latitude and longitude or boundaries drawn precisely to scale.

The idea driving the exhibition, said Karrow, is to look at maps on their own terms. Maps are as old as language, he points out, and old maps are not primitive versions of our own but languages suited to their time and place. “We don’t read Chaucer and say he couldn’t write well,” Karrow said. “We read him and get a picture of his times, and a new perspective on ourselves.” Similarly, maps are windows into lives, times and cultures. And like all products of human culture, they show us people addressing needs that are as old as humankind.

Expanding Our Knowledge
One basic need addressed by maps is to convey information and expertise. The exhibition offers many examples of map-makers developing ways to convey knowledge, especially new knowledge, about the world we inhabit: visible things, like the newly discovered continents of the Americas or the great city of Tenochtitlan, and things not seen, like the roundness of the earth, the realms of the spirit and the geography of fictional lands.

Scientists, in particular, often have the imagination as well as the knowledge to map things unseen. Jim Akerman, director of the Newberry Library’s Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for History of Cartography, pointed out that Leonardo da Vinci was a cartographer as well as an artist, and his map of central Italy-the first to use color to indicate changes in elevation, today called a hypsometric map-was a breakthrough. “There was no precedent for it,” Akerman said, “and there would be nothing like it for another three hundred years.”

Scientific maps can even create knowledge and make important discoveries themselves. For example, John Snow’s famous map of a cholera outbreak in the 1850s allowed him to pinpoint the source of the disease: a single contaminated well. A century later Marie Tharp’s charts of the Atlantic sea floor provided evidence for plate tectonics, the movement of the earth’s crust. But perhaps the most famous was a geological map of England created 200 years ago by William Smith. In revealing the relative ages of layers of rocks, it laid the foundation for Darwin’s work a few decades later and came to be called “the map that changed the world.”

Technology Components
The Walters will continue its successful integration of information technologies into its exhibitions during Maps. To help visitors make the leap to mapping in the 21st century, the museum will install a new onsite interactive technology lab titled Find It, Map It, Make It, where visitors of all ages can explore contemporary maps and mapping in a “hi-tech” way. Computers and web connections will offer a variety of interactive mapping activities, and visitors will be able to print out copies of their own maps to take home. Wireless internet service will also allow visitors to play along on their own laptops.

Related Exhibitions
The Walters will present two smaller in-house exhibitions as companion shows to Maps. On view Feb. 2-July 27, 2008, Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope, will present images of the universe taken by the Hubble telescope. Hubble images have been instrumental in discovering new facts about the cosmos and in tracking its evolutionary history over billions of years. These panoramas of time and space are “maps” of scientific data, but they are also aesthetic objects of striking power and beauty. Organized in collaboration with the Space Telescope Science Institute, this exhibition is the first joint venture with The Johns Hopkins University’s Program in Museums and Society. Contributing support has been provided by Constellation Energy.

Art on Purpose-a community arts-based organization that uses art to bring people together around issues and ideas-will conduct a Maps on Purpose project in partnership with the Walters Art Museum. Working with numerous Baltimore communities, organizations, schools and artists, Art on Purpose will use a selection of maps from the Walters’ Maps exhibition to inspire mapping projects in Baltimore city neighborhoods. These projects will address specific needs and wants of the neighborhoods, reflecting their issues and identities. The product will be an exhibition that will rotate every week from March 1-June 8, 2008.

Baltimore Festival of Maps
This exhibition is part of Baltimore’s Festival of Maps, a citywide event from March-June 2008, featuring unique exhibitions and public programs that celebrate maps throughout history-from the artistic to the scientific, from the ancient to the contemporary. To learn more about festival events at Baltimore’s cultural, civic and scientific institutions, visit www.baltimorefestivalofmaps.com.

Admission
Maps is a special ticketed exhibition. General admission to the Walters’ permanent collection is free. Purchase tickets at www.ticketmaster.com, 800-551-SEAT or by calling 410-547-9000, ext. 265.
Special Exhibition Admission:
Adults: $12
Seniors: $8
College students/young adults (18-25): $6
Age 17 & under    /Walters Members: FREE

Hours
Museum hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Fridays from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, Memorial Day and Independence Day. The Walters will be open on the President’s Day.

The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum is located in Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre streets and is one of only a few museums worldwide to present a comprehensive history of art from the third millennium B.C. to the early 20th century. Among its thousands of treasures, the Walters holds the finest collection of ivories, jewelry, enamels and bronzes in America and a spectacular reserve of illuminated manuscripts and rare books. The Walters’ Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Byzantine, Ethiopian and western medieval art collections are among the best in the nation, as are the museum’s holdings of Renaissance and Asian art. Every major trend in French painting during the 19th century is represented by one or more works in the Walters’ collection.

Peabody Court is the official hotel of the Walters Art Museum. This historic property is just around the corner from the museum and features George’s, a full-service restaurant. For hotel reservations, call 1-800-292-5500 and ask for the special Walters discounted rate.

Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square

When: 
Sunday, March 16-Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Where:  
Mount Vernon Place, 600 block of Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21201

Who: 
Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square is organized by MICA faculty members George Ciscle and Jann Rosen-Queralt and the students in two MICA classes-the Exhibition Development Seminar and Conversation As Muse; MICA and the Walters Art Museum.

Exhibition Overview:
Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square, an exhibition installed in Mount Vernon Place, was conceived and curated by students in MICA’s Exhibition Development Seminar. Inspired by and exploring themes of the Walters Art Museum’s Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, it is a component of Baltimore’s city-wide Festival of Maps. Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square features contemporary art by 10 emerging MICA artists that is interactive, explores new and abstract ways of understanding historical mapping concepts, and reflects myriad approaches to mapping and way-finding. Tours, lectures, activities, and educational programs for all ages enhance the exhibition experience.

About the Art and Artists:
Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square showcases work produced by students in MICA’s Interdisciplinary Sculpture course, Conversations As Muse. During this semester-long course, students were encouraged by faculty member Jann Rosen-Queralt to explore ideas about mapping, site-specificity and how those ideas could relate to the artists’ creative process. The exhibition reflects the unique artistic conversation and the diverse ways that each artist interpreted a fixed theme. The art was developed over the course of the fall 2007 semester, with student artists presenting proposals to students in the Exhibition Development Seminar, faculty members, mentors, and representatives of MICA and the Walters Art Museum.

A Unique Exhibition Development Process:
Under the guidance of George Ciscle, MICA’s Curator-in-Residence, the Exhibition Development Seminar is a hands-on learning experience for students interested in all aspects of museum administration, community arts, and gallery work. In addition to producing and curating this exhibition of work by their peers, the students in the class serve as educators; website, graphic, and exhibition designers; and project administrators. Their goal is to explore new ways to engage artists, students, museums, galleries, and the Baltimore community. Development of exhibition programming, design, curatorial focus, and all collateral and communication materials took place in the fall 2007 semester, with teams of students planning every aspect of the exhibition and presenting their ideas to their peers in the Conversations As Muse class, as well as mentors, faculty, and representatives from MICA and the Walters Art Museum. In the spring semester, students in this two-semester class will execute all public and educational programs.

Support: 
Beyond the Compass, Beyond the Square is sponsored by the Baltimore Community Foundation and the Friends of the Exhibition Development Seminar. MICA’s exhibitions and public programs receive generous support from the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Special Programs Endowment; The Nuckolls Fund for Lighting Education, Inc.; the Amalie Rothschild ’34 Residency Program Endowment; The Rouse Company Endowment; the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency dedicated to cultivating a vibrant cultural community where the arts thrive; and the generous contributors to MICA’s Annual Fund.

Maps on Purpose

March 1-June 8, 2008

Art on Purpose-a community arts-based organization that uses art to bring people together around issues and ideas-will conduct a Maps on Purpose project in partnership with the Walters Art Museum. Working with numerous Baltimore communities, organizations, schools and artists, Art on Purpose will use a selection of maps from the Walters’ special exhibition, Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, to inspire mapping projects in Baltimore city neighborhoods. These projects will address specific needs and wants of the neighborhoods, reflecting their issues and identities. The product will be an exhibition, Maps on Purpose, which will be on view in the museum’s fourth-floor drawing gallery and run concurrently with Maps: Finding Our Place in the World.

Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope

February 2-July 27, 2008

Scheduled to coincide with Maps: Finding Our Place in the World, this focus show will present images of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble images have been instrumental in discovering new facts about the cosmos and in tracking its evolutionary history over billions of years. These panoramas of time and space are “maps” of scientific data, but they are also aesthetic objects of striking power and beauty. Mapping the Cosmos: Images from the Hubble Space Telescope is organized by the Walters Art Museum, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences of The Johns Hopkins University. This exhibition is the first joint venture with The Johns Hopkins University’s Program in Museums and Society. Contributing support has been provided by Constellation Energy.

Salviati and the Antique: Ancient Inspiration for Modern Glassmaking

Ancient Focus Show

Salviati and the Antique: Ancient Inspiration for Modern Glassmaking

December 1, 2007-December 7, 2008

Salviati and the Antique: Ancient Inspiration for Modern Glassmaking is the Walters’ upcoming ancient focus show, a display that rotates annually as part of the museum’s ancient art collection.

Late 19th-century glassmakers were inspired by ancient art-especially ancient glass-that was found in excavations during this time period. Drawing on various qualities of ancient glass, such as techniques, motifs, shapes, colors and deterioration, Salviati & Co. in Venice produced stunning new creations. By juxtaposing ancient glass with its 19th-century counterparts, this exhibition of approximately 20 objects highlights the ancient sources for Salviati & Co. and its creative responses to earlier glassmaking techniques and aesthetics.