British Museum

A museum of the world, for the world.

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Artist profile: Gerard Sekoto

‘Art is the spark, the illumination which is socially significant for it brings about understanding’ – Gerard Sekoto (1913–1993)

Gerard Sekoto was born in Botshabelo, Mpumalanga province, in 1913, the year in which the Natives Land Act dispossessed many black South Africans of their ancestral lands. In 1938 Sekoto moved to Sophiatown, Johannesburg. He held his first solo exhibition the following year, and in 1940 the Johannesburg Art Gallery purchased his work Yellow Houses – A Street in Sophiatown (1939–1940). It was the first painting by a black South African artist to be acquired by a South African art institution, although Sekoto had to pose as a cleaner to see his own painting hanging in the gallery.

Sekoto based this painting, titled Song of the Pick (1946), on a photograph taken in the 1930s of black South African workers labouring under the watchful eye of a white foreman standing behind them. However, in his painting the dynamic has changed. Sekoto has enhanced the grace and power of the labourers, turning them to confront the small and puny figure of the overseer, who appears about to be impaled by their pickaxes.

Sekoto painted this work in the township of Eastwood in Pretoria, shortly before moving to Paris in what became a lifelong exile from South Africa. During the 1980s, postcard-sized reproductions of this iconic painting were widely distributed in South Africa, as both a badge of honour and a source of inspiration in the struggle against apartheid.

Explore a diverse range of art stretching back 100,000 years in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Song of the Pick, 1946. Image © Iziko Museums of South Africa, Art Collections, Cape Town. Photo by Carina Beyer.

Song of the Pick was based on this image, taken by photographer Andrew Goldie in the 1930s.

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Smoking and snorting tobacco in South Africa

The Portuguese introduced tobacco into southern Africa in the 1500s, and it rapidly became an important part of South African life. By the 1800s, tobacco was widely used and many objects were made for storing, snorting and smoking tobacco.

Whether smoked in a pipe or taken as snuff from a spoon, the consumption of tobacco became a social and spiritual act, celebrating the status and generosity of individuals within a larger group. It was also used as a means of transforming and transporting the body into the realm of the ancestors and communicating with them there.

People usually snorted snuff from a spoon, but some also smoked tobacco in a pipe. The earliest tobacco pipes were delicately carved by San|Bushmen from bone or stone. They had no ‘bowl’, but were simply wider at the smoking end, tapering towards a narrow mouthpiece. In some communities, the length of the pipe stem indicated the smoker’s seniority. Even within a single cultural group, artists produced a wide variety of styles using different materials.

This beaded pipe above was made by a Xhosa artist, and has a detachable stem. As smoking was a communal activity, this allowed the bowl to be passed around while the smoker kept his or her own stem.

Finely ground tobacco, or snuff, was stored in small boxes that were created in many forms. Although highly personal, they were often made to be worn in conspicuous ways, such as pushed into the hair or tucked into an armband or a head-ring, hung round the neck or waist, or even inserted into a pierced earlobe. In wearing a snuffbox so conspicuously, the owner communicated information such as his or her social rank, wealth, ethnicity or marital status.

Above is a snuff-spoon comb which was used to snort tobacco snuff, and also comb hair. These type of objects would have been worn in the hair so that a snuff-spoon was always easily accessible.

Tsonga artists often incorporated snuffboxes into double headrests as shown above. Snuff and headrests were seen as bridges to the spirit world, and the owner might rub snuff on the headrest for the ancestors before he or she lay down.

Discover the history of this fascinating nation in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Image captions from top:

Ox-shaped snuffbox, late 1800s.

Beaded pipe, recorded as Xhosa, 19th century.

Beaded snuff box, recorded as Xhosa, 19th century.

Snuff-spoon comb. Recorded as Zulu, c. 1800–1882.

Headrest snuff boxes, recorded as Tsonga, 1850–1899.

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Mapungubwe and the first kingdom of southern Africa

  800 years ago, the city of Mapungubwe was the capital of the first kingdom in southern Africa, which thrived as a sophisticated trading centre from around 1220 to 1290.

Gold ornaments, glass trade beads and other ancient objects discovered in the 1930s led to further investigation by the University of Pretoria. They unearthed a wealth of archaeological material that reflected the life and activities of an advanced society – one which flourished and declined within just 100 years.

The city traded with China, India and Egypt, had a thriving agricultural industry, and may have grown to a population of around 5,000. The city had access to the Limpopo River, which connected the region through trade to other sites along the Indian Ocean.

Mapungubwe is the earliest known site in southern Africa where evidence of a class-based society existed, as the leaders were spatially separated from the rest of the inhabitants. The homes, diet and elaborate burials of the wealthy elite are in stark contrast to those less well-off, who lived at the foot of Mapungubwe and the surrounding plateau.

 These gold sculptures, discovered in three royal graves, are among the most iconic in Africa today. They depict animals of high status – an ox, a wild cat and a rhinoceros – and artworks associated with power – a sceptre and a bowl or crown.

These artworks were discovered alongside hundreds of gold objects, including bracelets and beads, at Mapungubwe. Gold was mined in the surrounding regions and traded with the coast as part of a wider international network. The precious metal became a status symbol for the kingdom’s rulers.

Since their discovery, these works have had a fascinating history. Although many pieces of sculpture, including these magnificent examples, were known to exist, they were not included in official histories promoted by the South African state. From 1948 the government introduced laws that enforced a system of racial segregation known as apartheid, meaning ‘separateness’. During this period, the official version of history that was promoted stated that South Africa had been an ‘empty land’ before European settlement in 1652. In fact, these wonderful works are part of an ancient and ongoing  South African art tradition, showing that people existed in South Africa long before European settlement.

See these incredible sculptures in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

 Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Gold figurines. From Mapungubwe, capital of the first kingdom in southern Africa, c. AD 1250–1290. On loan from Department of UP Arts, University of Pretoria.

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Coldstream Stone

This stone, known as the Coldstream Stone after the place where it was found, is one of the earliest known pieces of two-dimensional figurative art from South Africa. The artist has used red and white ochre to depict three human figures which are amazingly well preserved.

The central figure is carrying what looks like hunting equipment, including a sheath of arrows over one shoulder. The figures are also shown with blood streaming from their noses. Based on San|Bushmen traditions, it is possible they are shamans involved in a ‘trance’ or ‘healing’ dance.

The Coldstream Stone was found placed on top of a 9,000-year-old human burial, which tells us that rock art had a ritual use at that time.

See some of the earliest examples of human creativity in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan  Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Coldstream Stone, about 9,000 years ago. On loan from Iziko Museums of South Africa, Social History Collections, Cape Town.

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Nelson Mandela: South African icon

‘Each of us is as intimately attached to the soil of this beautiful country as are the famous jacaranda trees of Pretoria and the mimosa trees of the bushveld... The time for the healing of wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.’ – Nelson Mandela, from his inaugural speech as President of South Africa in 1994.

The man who was once the South African government’s number one enemy, imprisoned for 27 years, was now its first democratically elected president, appearing on the ballot paper alongside 18 other candidates. He was the leader of the African National Congress party, the most influential of the opposition groups in bringing about the end of apartheid in South Africa.

During apartheid, many groups outside South Africa produced political art to raise awareness of apartheid and to promote the fight against it. Through badges, t-shirts and posters the outside world came to know the faces of political prisoners such as Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu.

The badges here represent the British-based Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), one of the most influential of the campaign groups. It was formed as the Boycott Movement in 1959 by a group of South African exiles and British opponents to apartheid and changed its name the following year. Other badges refer to SWAPO (South West African Peoples Organisation), an armed movement fighting for Namibian independence from South Africa.

See how Mandela’s inspirational story helped shape the history of his nation in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017). 

Nelson Mandela badge. UK, c. 1984.

Nelson Mandela badge. South Africa, 1994.

Anti-apartheid badges, 1984–1987. Mixed media.

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Origins of art and artistic thought

Our ability to think and act using symbols – and to make art as a result – is an integral part of being human.

In South Africa the development of artistic activity has left a visible trace of our evolution, establishing it as one of the places where our ancestors first became fully human.

The story begins around 3 million years ago, with objects that were collected and valued for their appearance. This continued in the deliberate shaping of objects to make them aesthetically pleasing, forerunners of true artistic traditions that began 100,000 years ago.

From at least 77,000 years ago, people began to decorate objects and their own bodies and, eventually, to produce two-dimensional paintings and engravings of humans and animals. This archaeological evidence identifies South Africa as one of the cradles of humankind, and is an important part of the country’s national identity.

The Makapansgat Pebble is an early piece of evidence for hominid curiosity. It was found in a cave with the remains of early human ancestors, Australopithecus africanus, which are 3 million years old. The stone is not from the cave but was brought there from a site many miles away.

It was not used as a tool but was perhaps valued and kept by its collector because the natural features on both sides look like faces, which were aesthetically pleasing. This could be called ‘found art’, a practice that many contemporary artists employ today.

The deep artistic past is important in contemporary South Africa because it identifies the country as one of the locations where modern human behaviour began. Archaeological evidence, such as the Makapansgat Pebble, also shows it as one of the places where the modern human body developed. This means that we are all descended from Africa, both in terms of our bodily structure and in the way that we act, think and feel.

Some contemporary artists have found inspiration in the celebration of southern Africa as one of the places where modern humans evolved.

This computer-generated image was created for a 1985 poster celebrating the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the skull of a child that’s 2.5 million years old, known as the Taung Child. This child was the same species of early human ancestor as the individual who collected the Makapansgat Pebble.

The discovery of the Taung Child provided evidence that humanity’s earliest ancestors evolved first in Africa and not in Europe as previously believed. Nel has a long-held interest in the interface between art and science and his image drew upon the most advanced computer technology of the time. It subtly links the skills of the palaeontologist, the artist and the computer software designer.

See cutting-edge contemporary works alongside some of the earliest examples of human creativity in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

The Makapansgat Pebble. Collected about 3 million years ago. On loan from Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Karel Nel (b. 1955), Taung, Early computer-generated image, 1985. Artist’s collection.  © Karel Nel. 

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Artist profile: Kara Walker

‘Everything that I do starts with an effort in recalling who I am. Crawling through the clutter of who I am supposed to be; who somebody else thinks I am. External constructions of race and gender and height. The more clutter gets added to the pile from outside, the harder it is for me to get to the core of myself.’ – Kara Walker, 2014

Kara Walker was born in 1969 in Stockton, California and grew up in the South where her father worked at Georgia State University. She is best known for her works which explore issues of race and gender, the American Civil War and slavery.

Like much of Kara Walker’s work, this print titled ‘Restraint’ explores the experience of black slaves in the southern states of America before the Civil War. The female figure wears an iron bridle of a type that was used to punish and humiliate slaves, preventing them from speaking, swallowing, lying down or escaping. The silhouette style is characteristic of Walker’s work. It recalls a style of ‘polite’ profile portraiture that was popular in popular in Europe and America during the era of slavery.

For many European settlers, the voyage to the ‘New World’ promised opportunity and freedom. For enslaved Africans, the journey meant the opposite. In this print a slave ship is carried to shore by other-worldly hands. A plantation owner and a slave on land offer a glimpse of the life to come. Beneath the waves, the silhouette of a black woman brings to mind the many people who perished on the dangerous voyage. The beauty of the aquatint is at odds with the shocking subject.

Slavery was a key issue in the American Civil War (1861–1865). The Confederacy of southern states fought to preserve the institution and the Union of free states fought to end it. The contemporary illustration reproduced in this print depicts the aftermath of the 1864 Battle of Jonesborough, Georgia, which facilitated the Union’s ultimate victory. It is superimposed with the head of a black slave whose freedom depended on the outcome of the conflict.

Trace changing ideas of American identity over the past six decades in our major exhibition The American Dream: pop to the present (9 March – 18 June 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Morgan Stanley. Supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art.

Restraint. Etching with sugar aquatint, 2009. © Kara Walker.

no world from An Unpeopled Land in Uncharted Waters. Aquatint with spit-bite and drypoint, 2010. © Kara Walker.

Confederate Prisoners Being Conducted from Jonesborough to Atlanta from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated).

Offset lithograph with screenprint, 2005. © Kara Walker.

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Processions on the Nile

The annual ancient Egyptian celebration of the Mysteries of Osiris took place in all major cities, including Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus. It was the most important religious event of the year. Osiris, lord of the underworld, was one of the most important and popular gods and all rulers were believed to descend from him. The Mysteries of Osiris were celebrated between the 12th and 30th of the month of Khoiak (mid-October to mid-November), when the Nile retreated, depositing fertile soil ready to be sown. They reenacted Osiris’ murder and rebirth, and culminated in two ritual processions.

The first procession took place on the tenth day of the Mysteries of Osiris (22nd day of Khoaik). Figures of 33 gods accompanied a soil and barley figure of Osiris. Each figure was placed in a papyrus barge measuring 67.5cm. Numerous offering models of these barges have been discovered at the bottom of canals surrounding the Temple of Amun-Gereb at Thonis-Heracleion, particularly the Grand Canal. They range in size from 6 to 67.5cm and are made of lead – a metal associated with Osiris. Their decoration imitates papyrus, mimicking the real boats involved in this ritual. The barges were accompanied by 365 oil lamps illuminating the fleet, one for each day of the year.

The second procession took place on the 29th day of Khoiak. A gilded wooden boat containing both Osiris figures left the Temple of Amun-Gereb for a two-mile journey. It travelled along the Grand Canal from Thonis-Heracleion to the figures’ final resting place in the Osiris temple in Canopus. Standards topped by emblems of a jackal-headed god, either Anubis or Wepwawet (‘he who opens the way’), and the falcon-headed god Horus led the way. The scene is depicted at Abydos, one of the main religious centres for Osiris. The recent underwater finds at Canopus are incredible physical evidence of these celebrations.

During the underwater excavations, numerous ladles, oil lamps, statuettes and other offerings have been found at the bottom of sacred canals. They illustrate the rituals and personal acts of devotion made by participants, including Greeks, along the course of the procession.

The sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion has revealed the largest quantity of bronze ritual equipment ever discovered in Egypt. Metal objects like these were normally melted down in the past, but because the city sank beneath the sea, a vast number of artefacts of unique importance have been astonishingly well preserved. The objects here – ladles, offering dishes and an incense burner – are evidence of the exceptional celebrations that took place.

See spectacular objects excavated from these cities that lay underwater for centuries in the BP exhibition Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds (closing 27 November 2016).

Lead votive barques. Thonis-Heracleion, 400–100 BC. On loan from Maritime Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Long-handled ladles. Thonis-Heracleion, 600–100 BC. On loan from Maritime Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Offering dishes. Thonis-Heracleion, 600–100 BC. On loan from Maritime Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Incense burner and shovel.  Thonis-Heracleion, 400–100 BC. On loan from Maritime Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

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Illuminating shadow puppets

Our free exhibition delves into the world of shadow puppet theatre from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Full of movement and mythology, shadow puppet performances have endured for a very long time – some of the puppets in the display date from the 18th century!

 Shadow theatre uses numerous stories, including the epics that originated in ancient India, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Puppeteers also create original stories based on characters from these epics or in response to current affairs, as well as dramatising local tales. The Ramayana story was once a favourite – it follows the story of Prince Rama and his wife Sita, the white monkey Hanuman and the demon-king Ravana. When Sita is kidnapped by Ravana, Hanuman assists Rama in rescuing her. These puppets below of Rama and Ravana are from Malaysia.

 To provide a balance in shadow theatre, ogres, ghosts, demons and zombies appear regularly alongside gods and humans in performance. Fearsome beings must be controlled within the stories in order to maintain spiritual harmony. These three below come from Bali, Java and Thailand. They date from the late 1700s to the 1960s – shadow puppets and the stories associated with the performances have endured and evolved for a very long time.

Animals play important roles in Southeast Asia and in shadow puppet theatre, from creatures essential to agriculture to being symbolic or relating to the spirit world. Animal puppets can be static or articulated, depending on their roles in performance. Below, a composite animal and Anila the monkey from Hanuman’s army show the differences between the two styles.

Shadow puppets from Southeast Asia include a huge range of characters. Clowns are popular in performances as they add humour and fun. They also speak in dialects, adding local relevance to the main story. These clowns from Java are made from animal hide with handles made from buffalo horn. They are decorated with paint and gold leaf. The different types of articulation can be seen in these two puppets of Semar (short and stout) and Petruk (tall and skinny but with a pot belly). In additon to moveable arms, Semar also has a moveable jaw.

You can see the free exhibition Shadow puppet theatre from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in Room 91 until 29 Jan 2017. 

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Artist Esther Mahlangu

‘I have been making art all my life because it is in my heart and in my blood. When I paint I am happy. I strived to show people from all over the world my work and to tell them my story as an artist, an Ndebele woman artist, who against all odds travelled the world … I know that long after I am gone, people will still go and see my paintings and they will remember there was an artist called Esther Mahlangu, and she came from South Africa.’ – Esther Mahlangu (born 1935)

In 1991, to mark the end of apartheid, BMW invited Esther Mahlangu to make a work of art in their Art Car project. Her work, with its brightly coloured geometric shapes, draws on the traditional house-painting designs of Ndebele people in South Africa.

Under apartheid the Ndebele were forced to live in ethnically defined rural reserves – their designs are an expression of cultural identity, and can be read as a form of protest against racial segregation and marginalisation.

Mahlangu’s Art Car combines tradition and history with contemporary art and politics, themes that are explored in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Artist Esther Mahlangu (b. 1935) with the BMW Art Car 12, 1991. 

Esther Mahlangu (b. 1935), BMW Art Car 12, 1991. © Esther Mahlangu. Photo © BMW Group Archives.

Flickr - Francisco Javier Garcia Orts.

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‘Reclamation’ by Lionel Davis

‘Being under house arrest is a very traumatic experience. You’re your own jailer. At the time, I was looking for a channel, for something to heal myself, although I never thought of it in that way. I had an urge to become creative.’ Lionel Davis (born 1936)

Lionel Davis was born in District Six, a once diverse area of Cape Town that was forcibly evacuated to make way for a ‘whites only’ settlement, and in 1964 he was imprisoned on Robben Island for sabotage. In this work, the artist’s face is partly covered by a map of District Six and one of Robben Island. The writing on his head is in an Afrikaans dialect spoken in Cape Town, and relates to black women trying to remove kinks in their hair to be less African and more European or American.

See cutting-edge contemporary works alongside some of the earliest examples of human creativity in our special exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Reclamation, 2004. Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge.

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The Mysteries of Osiris

The Mysteries of Osiris was the most important religious event of the year in ancient Egypt. It was celebrated in all major cities, including Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus, where even the Greeks who lived in those cities took part.

It reenacted the murder and revival of Osiris, Egyptian god of the underworld. Osiris was one of the most important and popular gods in ancient Egypt. All pharaohs were believed to descend from him, as living incarnations of Osiris’ son, Horus. Osiris presided over the tribunal of the underworld, offering the promise of life after death for the deceased who were ‘justified’ in the eyes of the gods. He was also associated with fertility and the annual regeneration of nature.

Osiris, his sister-wife Isis, and their son Horus formed a sacred family, worshipped across Egypt and beyond. They became increasingly popular during the first millennium BC. Annually, in every temple-city in Egypt, the god was celebrated in this most important religious festival.

The Mysteries of Osiris took place between the 12th and 30th of the month of Khoiak (mid-October to mid-November), when the Nile retreated, depositing fertile soil ready to be sown. Every year, two figures of Osiris were prepared by priests in the secrecy of the temple. One was made of soil and barley grains, and the other was made of expensive ingredients including ground semi-precious stones. These sacred figures were carried in procession to their final resting place at the end of the ritual celebrations.

For a long time, the Mysteries were known only from depictions in temples and ancient texts. However, recent astonishing underwater finds allow us to see ritual equipment and offerings associated with the Mysteries for the first time.

Discovered behind the shrine of Amun-Gereb in his temple at Thonis-Heracleion, this vat was used during the Mysteries of Osiris. On the first day of the Mysteries, the mummy-shaped figure of Osiris – made with a gold mould of two halves using soil, barley grains and water from the Nile – was deposited in a garden tank where it was carefully watered for eight days in a row, until it germinated.

This image shows a priest watering the germinating Osiris figure, in a depiction from the Temple of Philae. 

Find out more about the Mysteries of Osiris in the BP exhibition Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds (until 27 Nov 2016).

Experience the Festival of Osiris in our free late event on Friday 28 October. Enjoy themed food and drink, workshops and performances!

A statuette of Osiris and a model of a processional barge for the god, shown in their place of excavation at Thonis-Heracleion. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Standing statue of Osiris. Medinet Habu (modern Luxor), 664–610 BC. On loan from Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Pink granite garden vat. Thonis-Heracleion, Egypt, Ptolemaic Period, 4th–2nd century BC. Maritime Museum of Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Reproduced from George Bénédicte’s Temple de Philae, 1893.

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A Reversed Retrogress

‘Colour is important in South Africa – we make it important. Colour places you, colour tells where you are within the geography of South Africa. And when I thought of colour, I realised that I cannot ignore the incident that happened in 1989.’ – Mary Sibande (born 1982)

This 2013 work by Sibande is called A Reversed Retrogress: Scene 1 (The Purple Shall Govern). Sibande cast these figures from her body. The one in Victorian dress, called Sophie, refers to her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, who were maids in white South African households. The second figure, in purple, represents Sibande herself.

The Purple Shall Govern relates to the statement ‘the people shall govern’, from the 1955 Freedom Charter and post-apartheid constitution. It also refers to the Purple Rain Protests of 1989, when protesters captured the police water cannon being used to spray them with purple dye and turned it on their assailants. Over the following days the slogan ‘the purple shall govern’ was painted on walls around Cape Town. Although a tension remains, Sibande is saying goodbye to Sophie, her past, and confronting the ‘purple’ present and future.

See this incredible work in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

Sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan. Logistics partner IAG Cargo

Mary Sibande (b. 1982), A Reversed Retrogress: Scene 1 (The Purple Shall Govern), 2013. © Mary Sibande. Courtesy of the artist and Gallery MOMO.

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Schroda clay figurines

The small figurines here represent a rare opportunity to view the social concerns of people in southern Africa a thousand years ago. They come from a group of more than a hundred figures found at an archaeological site near Schroda Farm in South Africa. The find revealed that each home contained an abstract female figurine, perhaps to preserve household fertility, while other sculptures may have been used to communicate social information in a rite of passage ceremony. These animal sculptures suggest which animals were important to these people.   

 The animal figurines represent wild, domestic and mythological animals.

Explore a diverse range of art stretching back 100,000 years in our exhibition South Africa: the art of a nation (27 October 2016 – 26 February 2017).

 Exhibition sponsored by Betsy and Jack Ryan

Logistics partner IAG Cargo

 Schroda clay figurines. South Africa, about AD 900. Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria.

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Greek kings, Egyptian pharaohs

The general Ptolemy founded the Greco-Macedonian Ptolemaic dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years after Alexander the Great’s death. The Ptolemies tried to gain the support of Egyptian priests in order to be recognised as legitimate pharaohs. They renovated temples and also built magnificent new ones. 

These royal portraits illustrate the determination of the Ptolemaic rulers to present themselves to their Egyptian subjects as legitimate successors to the native pharaohs.

This skilfully executed head shows a Ptolemaic king depicted entirely in accordance with ancient Egyptian traditions. His head is adorned by the rearing cobra (uraeus) protruding from the traditional headcloth of Egyptian pharaohs (nemes).

This royal head originally belonged to the statue of a sphinx, a type of Egyptian sculpture usually seen flanking processional routes into temples. It is another example of the Ptolemies’ determination to draw from Egyptian art and iconography, making them seem less like outsiders.

Find out more about the deep connections between the ancient civilisations of Greece and Egypt in the BP exhibition Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds (19 May – 27 November 2016).

Ptolemaic king. Canopus, 300–200 BC. Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

Royal head from a sphinx. Canopus, 200–30 BC. Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

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Bust of Neilos

This 2,000-year-old bust depicts Neilos, the Nile river god. Neilos appealed to Egyptians and Greeks alike – he was the Greek version of Hapy, the Egyptian personification of the annual Nile flood that brought prosperity and fertility to the country. Neilos played a significant role in one of the most popular festivals in Egypt, when the beginning of the annual flood marked the Egyptian New Year.

This bust was once mounted into a large decorative shield and adorned a temple in the ancient Egyptian city of Canopus. It was discovered by underwater archaeologists at the base of the wall on which it once hung.

See more incredible objects that have been preserved and buried under the sea for over a thousand years in the BP exhibition Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds (19 May – 27 November 2016).

Bust of Neilos. Canopus, AD 100–200. Maritime Museum, Alexandria. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.

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Curator’s favourite object

The BP exhibition Sunken cities: Egypt’s lost worlds features incredible sculptures excavated from beneath the waves. Here, Exhibition Curator Aurélia Masson-Berghoff tells us about one of these magnificent works – her favourite object in the show:

‘This statue is a personal favourite, not only for the utmost quality of the carving of this very hard Egyptian stone, but also because of who it is and what it stands for. This is Arsinoe II, a deified queen who bridged Egyptian and Greek religious traditions. Like the famous Cleopatra VII, Arsinoe was a powerful royal woman of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Greco-Macedonian dynasty that ruled over Egypt for almost 300 years (305–30 BC).

‘Arsinoe was the eldest daughter of Ptolemy I, the founder of the Ptolemaic dynasty. In a third wedding, she married her brother Ptolemy II, who promoted the worship of his sister-wife after her death. She was sometimes recognised by Egyptians as Isis, mother goddess and patron of magic, and was worshipped extensively by Egyptians and Greeks alike. A royal decree proclaimed that a statue of the queen had to be placed in every temple in Egypt. There are many representations of Arsinoe II, most of them made after her death, with examples in pharaonic, Greek and Greco-Egyptian styles.

‘This supreme example discovered at Canopus is a perfect combination of Egyptian and Greek styles. While the choice of a local dark stone and the queen’s striding posture are typically Egyptian, the sensual rendering of her flesh, revealed through the play of the transparent garment, is reminiscent of Greek masterpieces. The slightly over-lifesize sculpture echoes the work of the Athenian sculptor Kallimachos (second half of the 5th century BC), such as his Venus Genetrix which shows a similar treatment of the fine, clinging drapery. The Ptolemaic queen here embodies Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of beauty, who was believed to bestow good fortune on sailors.

‘What I find truly remarkable with this statue is Arsinoe’s attitude. She has this modern flare about her. She exudes confidence. Her posture is poised, almost athletic, far from the more charming indolence usually displayed in marbles representing Aphrodite.’

Granodiorite statue of Arsinoe II. Canopus, 3rd century BC. Bibliotheca Alexandrina Antiquities Museum. Photo: Christoph Gerigk. © Franck Goddio/Hilti Foundation.