Stonehenge #1, Wiltshire, England (1985). Silver gelatin print. Photo by Marilyn Bridges.
Marilyn Bridges: The Sacred and the Secular April 24 through June 21, 2009
Aerial landscapes of sites in Peru, Mexico, Egypt, Greece, England, and 11 of the fifty United States—all photographed from a single engine Cessna by intrepid co-pilot, explorer and internationally-renowned photographer Marilyn Bridges, are the subject of this exhibition. The photographs, taken in the 1980s and presented in large-scale Silver gelatin print format, include scenes of ancient and more contemporary landscapes. Featured are images of famous ancient sites of Machu Picchu, Peru; Chichen Itza and Yaxchilan, Mexico; Giza, Egypt; and Corinth, Greece, seen alongside more contemporary landscapes: a baseball playing field in New York, an industrial scene in Houston, Texas, and oil refinery in Greece.
As Willis Hartshorn, Director, International Center for Photography, New York City, noted of her work, “Ancient or contemporary, Bridges’ landscapes serve the dual role of interpreting the power of extraordinary sites and creating visual records that may prove to be the only means of preserving these sites against the eroding elements of time and neglect.” The exhibition was organized by art2art Circulating Exhibitions. The Merle-Smith Gallery.
Around 700 C.E. Chamá and the other towns and villages along Guatemala’s Chixoy River were hubs of activity, crossroads of trade and pilgrimage, channeling the movement of people and ideas at the height of Maya civilization. This is the story of the ancient Maya as lived by these villagers and the rediscovery of their history by archaeologists today.
Penn Museum’s unique collection of brilliantly painted Chamá Polychromes opens a window into the lives of the ordinary Maya of 1300 years ago, and the way they dealt with the challenge of forced change. More than 150 objects -- figurines, jades, musical instruments, ritual objects, weaving implements, cooking pots and projectile points--convey vibrant evidence of ancient Maya life, as revealed by archaeological discovery and scientific analysis.
A Lenape fan made of beads, deerskin and feathers rests in the hands of Shelley DePaul, Director of the Language Program for the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and a co-curator of the new exhibition Fulfilling a Prophecy: the Past and Present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania. Photo by Lauren Hansen-Flaschen.
Conventional histories of Pennsylvania declare that all but a few elderly Lenape people left the state by the opening of the 19th century. Yet, many remained in secret. Children of the little known Lenape-European marriages of the 1700s stayed on the Lenape homelands, practicing their traditions covertly. Hiding their heritage, they avoided discovery by both the government and their neighbors for more than two hundred years. Now, the descendants of these people have come forward to tell their story.
Fulfilling a Prophecy, organized by Penn Museum together with the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania,* features never before displayed objects from the private collections of Lenape people in Pennsylvania, in addition to historic and contemporary photographs and archaeological objects from the collections of Penn Museum. Ancient masks, dolls, jewelry, and other traditional arts are featured, as well as a number of once-secret family heirlooms, rich with hidden Lenape symbolism, dating from the early 19th century.
*Like half of all Native American groups in the United States, the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania is not recognized by the federal or state authorities. Though there are many privileges to be gained through recognition, the process of gaining recognition remains both complex and expensive for many Native American groups.
The exhibit also addresses the activities and aspirations of the Lenape of Pennsylvania today, as members of the community speak out through a short video. Jacqueline and John C. Hover II Gallery.
The late 1920s excavation of royal tombs at Ur, in southern Iraq, provided one of the most renowned discoveries in the history of archaeology. Extravagant jewelry of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian, cups of gold and silver, and extraordinary objects of art and culture were among the Mesopotamian treasures uncovered by renowned British archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in a joint expedition by the British Museum and Penn Museum. The remarkable tombs opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture (2600-2500 B.C.) at its zenith. Penn Museum's display--the highlights of a 1990s exhibition which traveled around the country--features several objects, including a bull-headed lyre, one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; the famed, misnamed "Ram-Caught-in-the-Thicket" statuette (it is actually a goat); and the elaborate headdress of the Queen Puabi, as well as excavation photographs and text retelling the story of the famous expedition. Second floor foyer, by the grand staircase.
Tutankhamun, ancient Egypt's most famous pharaoh (ca. 1332 to 1322
BCE), grew up in the royal court at Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna).
This royal city, located in a previously uninhabited stretch of
desert, existed only a short time. It hardly survived the death
of its founder, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s probable father,
who introduced the belief in a single deity, the disk of the sun,
called the Aten. The Egyptians abandoned both the new religion and
the new city, and Tutankhamun led his people back to the traditional
beliefs.
The University of Pennsylvania Museum has a considerable collection
of artifacts from this significant period, including many from 1920s
excavations of Amarna. Now it has formed a special exhibition with
more than 100 artifacts, including elegant statues of King Tutankhamun;
a rare monumental stela proclaiming the universal power of the Aten;
reliefs, jewelry and other personal items owned by the royal family;
materials from Amarna craft workshops--even amulets of censored
gods and goddesses, undoubtedly still secretly revered by their
owners. These items serve to tell the story of the rise, and fall,
of this unique royal city, the role of heretic Pharaoh Akhenaten
in a generation of religious change, and the part that young Tutankhamun
played in its rapid reversal. Penn Museum Egyptologists Josef Wegner,
Associate Curator and Jennifer Houser Wegner, Research Scientist
co-curated the exhibition along with Eckley B. Coxe, Jr. Curator
David Silverman, national curator of the traveling exhibition from
Egypt, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.
In addition to the special exhibition, Penn Museum’s renowned Upper and Lower Egyptian galleries offer visitors
an opportunity to view a wide variety of ancient Egyptian artifacts,
from monumental architecture to sculptures, pottery, jewelry and
tomb goods, and mummies.
The
exhibition, which opened in 2006, originally scheduled to run through October 2007, has been given a long-term extension, as a complement to the Museum's refurbished Upper and Lower Egyptian galleries.
