Ice Age Art Now

This article is from Current Archaeology issue 426

Subscribe now for full access and no adverts

REVIEW BY HANNA MCNULTY

What if Ice Age art was not confined to glass cases or academic articles, but displayed in galleries alongside contemporary artists? In Ice Age Art Now, Jill Cook curates just that experience.

Spanning the final 20,000 years of the Ice Age, this beautifully illustrated book is structured into seven thematic sections. Each section invites thoughtful engagement with individual pieces of Palaeolithic art.

While the archaeological context is present, it is never overwhelming. Notably, Cook avoids framing the works as stages of artistic ‘progress’. Whether it’s the Swimming Reindeer from Montastruc or schematic females from Courbet, each piece is treated as a valid expression of its maker’s intent. Comparisons with Rembrandt, Matisse, and Maggi Hambling elevate the discussion into a celebration of human creativity from prehistory to the modern day.

Ice Age Art Now does not read like academic literature. It feels like wandering through a gallery, coffee in hand, invited to simply look, to feel, and to admire.

Ice Age Art Now
Jill Cook 
British Museum Press, £14.99
ISBN 978-0714123516

Just Out and Coming Soon

The Landscapes of Common Land: history and ecology in Norfolk and beyond
Tom Williamson
Windgather Press, £39.95
ISBN 978-1914427336

Thomas More: a life and death in Tudor England
Joanne Paul
Michael Joseph, £30
ISBN 978-1405953603

Tudor Palaces of London
Hazel Baker
Pen & Sword, £20
ISBN 978-1399064958

From Farm to Viking-age Trading Centre
Mark Redknap
Oxbow, £60
ISBN 979-8888571972

The Parish Churches of Medieval Norwich
Brian Ayers, Clare Haynes, Sandy Heslop, and Helen Lunnon
Oxbow, £35
ISBN 979-8888571828

Norfolk’s Pilgrim Routes
Andy Bull
Amberley Publishing, £15.99
ISBN 978-1398124219

The Celtic World: a history
John Waddell
Four Courts Press, £24.95
ISBN 978-1801512008