Paris, France — These were the copyists. But they weren’t sitting comfortably in a museum copying works of art on a building wall.  They braved deserts and caves often hanging from a ladder. They ate around a camp fire and slept in traveling tents. They left behind marvels. These were the men and women who copied pre-historic art wherever it was found. And in some cases their works, veritable works of art,  is all that remains of pre-historic sites. The Musée de l’Homme, France’s Anthropological Museum, in partnership with Germany’s Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology, is presenting an exhibition devoted to rock art and its pioneers. The two institutions  possess extensive collections of these copies of art found in prehistoric sites of art works. Splendid paintings and engravings were found in grottoes, rock shelters and outside rock walls during daring 20th century expeditions. This is how the medium of the copy emerged, copies which enabled these works to be studied and made known to the world at large. 

Leo Frobenius, the German ethnologist and archaeologist, would travel the world with accomplished artists, both men and women, to the wilder shores of the world to make a record of these masterpieces of the past. Meanwhile his French counterparts Henri Lhote, the explorer and ethnographer, and  Gérard Bailloud, one of the founders of French Neolithic Studies, were also pioneers in the discoveries of prehistoric cave and rock art. The exhibition presents an array of these copies of prehistoric art revealing the detail and beauty of what pre-historic man was capable of. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century scientific expeditions were launched to seek out the origins of humanity. And those origins proved to be fascinating.  Elaborated by researchers, scientists and artists all working in the field, the works were instantly exhibited in the most prestigious of the world’s museums, including the Museum of Modern Art of New York (the MOMA) which exhibited them in 1937 juxtaposed with modern works. The public was immediately won over.

The exhibition, entitled Prehistomania brings together some 200 documents and objects, including 60 original copies, offers a panorama of rock art from all over the world all the while telling the tale of the expeditions that were outright risky adventures and underscores how these works of prehistory would influence 20th century artists. The exhibition also takes a look at the French priest, archeologist, ethnologist and anthropologist Henri Breuil, an emblematic figure in the study of prehistory and discovery of sites in Europe, China and Africa. Like the MOMA exhibition some of the copies are juxtaposed with modern works, notably by Jackson Pollack and Paul Klee.

A pre-historic world of giraffes and mammouths and a number of anthropomorphic critters unfolds alongside the photographs of the men and women who painstakingly reproduced them in the 20th century. And today their works live on with the copyists, photographers and scientists of today. While camp conditions have improved somewhat, these modern day explorers do not hesitate to haul themselves up onto the top of a very high rock wall as the exhibition points out in a section devoted to them. These copies, past and present, offer a precious record of mankind especially today when so many of the sites are threatened with destruction or erosion from nature or by humans. Conferences, workshops and guided visits are all on the agenda. The Musée de l’Homme is part of the Natural History Museum of France and it possesses one of the most extensive collections of pre-historic and anthropological art and objects in the world. Its permanent collections alone are worth a visit. The Prehistomania exhibition is running through May 20th. ©Trish Valicenti for The Gourmet Gazette. 17 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre, 75116 Paris, France. Tel: + 33 (0)1 44 05 72 72. https://www.museedelhomme.fr/en