On November 5, 2020, the Georgia Museum of Art opened the exhibition “Modernism Foretold: The Nadler Collection of Late Antique Art from Egypt,” which will be on view through September 26, 2021, and includes 56 objects from the Nadler collection of Coptic art dating from the 3rd to the early 8th century CE. Among the objects are works of textiles and ceramics as well as carvings in marble, wood, ivory, bone and limestone.
The museum is pleased to present this display, as the project follows a 34-year period in which the collection was unavailable for public viewing. Preparator Elizabeth Howe Marable, who designed the exhibition, says she has been working on the project since April, and the collection’s rareness and historical significance warrant a grand gallery design: “The colors are dark and muted, the lighting is dramatic, and the objects induce a deep sense of reverence within the viewer.”
Together, the objects form a representative assemblage of pieces that illustrate the culture of late antique Egypt, and their installation helps audiences contextualize the works on view.
“We’re using our arrangement to tell the story of how these objects were used at the time, and pieces can be found in one of two sections separated by large Corinthian capitals,” said Marable. Works associated with funerary art can be found opposite objects pertaining to everyday life, their function in late antique Egyptian society better defined by a division of space.
Such an arrangement is critical to the collection’s first display in over three decades. Past exhibitions represented the notion that Coptic art presaged modernism through its rejection of illusionistic art standards originating in the Hellenistic and Roman eras. Since then, however, new scholarship has emerged, and we better understand how late antique Egyptian art represents the culture in which it was created. Such changing perceptions require the collection to be shown anew, and “Modernism Foretold” highlights late antique culture while still acknowledging the art as a historical precedent for modernism.
Curator Dr. Asen Kirin elaborates on what the evolving perceptions of the art means for its new display, stating that the most important aspect of the exhibition is reflected in its title. “Coptic art typically refers to Christian art, but the term Coptic is now viewed as somewhat misleading and limiting if applied to the arts created in Egypt between the 3rd and 8th centuries. This is because the Copts were only one of many ethnic groups living in Egypt at the time. It was a multicultural and multilingual society with many religions present, and while Christianity was the religion connecting different ethnic groups, there was still a great deal of diversity. The art functioned in a way that provided social and cultural bonds between the groups, and it’s important to use a term that captures that cosmopolitan nature. We find that in the use of late antique art from Egypt.”
Each piece in the exhibition is indicative of the cultural fusion experienced by these groups, but Dr. Kirin notes the sculpture of a boy holding a dove, which dates from the 3rd century CE, as an outstanding object. The marble statue depicts a boy in classical contrapposto, combining distinct elements of classical Greco-Roman art and traditional Egyptian pharaonic art.
“It is an example of how cultures merged in late antique Egypt, and it’s evidence for the multicultural environment in which the art was created,” said Kirin.
Visitors can view this object and the rest of the exhibition with a free timed ticket during the museum’s regular hours. All displays are arranged to accommodate social distancing guidelines.
By Anna Morelock
