British Museum Lectures: Ice Age Art Now

Please join us as we pair once more with the British Museum to bring to life an evening that celebrates humankind's connection and drive towards artmaking. Curator Jill Cook takes us through Ice Age Art Now - a beautifully illustrated book that demonstrates how artistic creativity existed thousands of years before traditional art histories suggest, as an essential part of human life.

Ice Age art now presents extraordinary drawn and sculpted images from the final 20,000 years of the last Ice Age in the British Museum's collection. These astounding works, some dating back to around 23,000 years ago, reveal the deep roots of drawing, sculpture and modelling in the era of the great painted caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Seven thematic sections explore specific artworks, highlighting the skill and vision of artists through objects. The extraordinary skill and imagination of these early image makers find echoes in modern and contemporary art, with works by Goya, Rembrandt, Henri Matisse, David Hockney and Maggi Hambling also illustrated

Jill Cook is the Keeper of the Britain, Europe and Prehistory Department at the British Museum. She curated the exhibition Ice Age Art: the arrival of the modern mind in 2013 and is the curator of the exhibition Ice Age Art Now at Cliffe Castle, Keighley, part of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture celebrations.

Ice Age Art Now is a British Museum partnership project with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture and Bradford District Museums & Galleries opening at Cliffe Castle Museum, Keighley in the Bradford district, on 21 June.