The fighting woolly rhinos at Chauvet Cave. Charcoal from these drawings
has yielded radiocarbon dates of 31,000-32,000 years BP #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 5 February 2017
The Předmostí mammoth is 22,000 years old. It was retrieved from the loess deposits of Moravia in 1895 #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 5 December 2016
A delightful Great Auk in Cosquer Cave on the French Mediterranean - painted in the last glacial period about 21,000 years ago #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 5 February 2017
#IceAgeArt: The beautiful #mammoth from Arcy-sur-Cure, Burgundy: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_ Woodward, 24 November 2014
Ice age cave art reveals mystery hybrid species that gave rise to modern European bison #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 23 October 2016
Ice age cave art reveals mystery hybrid species that gave rise to modern European bison #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 23 October 2016
A bear or a lion? This mammoth ivory carving from Vogelherd Cave in SW Germany was crafted 40,000 years ago in the last glacial #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 5 February 2017
The panel of four #IceAge horses in Chauvet Cave - skillfully drawn in charcoal ~30,000 years ago #IceAgeArt #France: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 25 January 2017
#IceAgeArt in SW France: Fighting bull #mammoths drawn on the wall of Rouffignac Cave: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 21 December 2014
Beautiful reindeer engraving in the Cave of Altxerri in northern Spain. Can you see the fox on its neck? #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 3 February 2015
Mammoth tusk - human hands - a walking bison - extraordinary #IceAgeArt - the Zaraysk bison 20,000 years old: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 19 December 2014
#IceAgeArt Two small deer carved on a reindeer bone discovered in 1852 in the Cave of Chaffaud, western France: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 12 December 2014
A miniature masterpiece - #mammoth ivory horse from the Grotte des Espélugues, Lourdes #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 2 January 2015
The galleries of Rouffignac Cave in the Dordogne were decorated with c. 150 mammoths towards the end of the last glacial period #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 24 January 2017
The panel of four #IceAge horses in Chauvet Cave - skillfully drawn in charcoal ~30,000 years ago #IceAgeArt #France: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 25 January 2017
#IceAgeArt in SW France: Fighting bull #mammoths drawn on the wall of Rouffignac Cave: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 21 December 2014
Beautiful reindeer engraving in the Cave of Altxerri in northern Spain. Can you see the fox on its neck? #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 3 February 2015
Mammoth tusk - human hands - a walking bison - extraordinary #IceAgeArt - the Zaraysk bison 20,000 years old: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 19 December 2014
#IceAgeArt Two small deer carved on a reindeer bone discovered in 1852 in the Cave of Chaffaud, western France: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 12 December 2014
A miniature masterpiece - #mammoth ivory horse from the Grotte des Espélugues, Lourdes #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 2 January 2015
The galleries of Rouffignac Cave in the Dordogne were decorated with c. 150 mammoths towards the end of the last glacial period #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 24 January 2017
Dame
à la Capuche (Lady with the Hood) - one of the earliest images of the
human face sculpted in mammoth ivory 25,000 years ago #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 22 January 2017
Horses and the head of a bull at #Lascaux in 1947 when @TIME magazine took the first good photographs of this remarkable site #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 12 January 2017
#IceAgeReindeer - the panel of swimming deer at Lascaux dating to the Magdalenian - about 17,500 years ago #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 21 December 2016
The Licking Bison of La Madeleine rockshelter was very carefully observed and exquisitely crafted in last glacial Dordogne #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 8 November 2016
#IceAgeArt appreciation - a beautiful miniature mammoth carved in ivory and decorated with crosses 35,000 years ago in southern Germany: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 8 November 2016
This tiny yet beautifully proportioned feline head was sculpted in marl in the last glacial at Kostienki in Russia
Only a very lucky few get to enter the remarkable Chauvet Cave #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 29 October 2016
#OnThisDay in 1940 Upper Palaeolithic cave paintings are discovered at Lascaux in the Dordogne #IceAgeArt #UNESCO: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 23 October 2016
And then there were three - a delightful frieze of woolly rhinos in Rouffignac Cave in southwest France #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 11 September 2016
Very exciting! Upper Palaeolithic figurine discovered in French cave #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 1 August 2016
#IceAgeArt Ibex beautifully carved in relief on a baton of antler from Grotte Duruthy in SW France #Magdalenian: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 29 January 2015
The elegant sculpted frieze of horses at La Chaire à Calvin, SW France #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 29 January 2015
The elegant sculpted frieze of horses at La Chaire à Calvin, SW France #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 29 January 2015
In the foothills of the Pyrenees, at the very end of the last glacial, humans painted these pebbles at the Grotte du Mas d'Azil #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 11 September 2016
In the foothills of the Pyrenees, at the very end of the last glacial, humans painted these pebbles at the Grotte du Mas d'Azil #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 11 September 2016
The remarkable clay bison reliefs of the Tuc d’Audoubert in SW France - Magdalenian c. 16,000-12,000 BP #IceAgeArt: image via The Ice Age @Jamie_Woodward, 23 June 2015
We'll Leave a Light On in the Cave for You
Drawing of the Incandescent Light Bulb (page 2 of 2): Thomas Edison, 27 January 1880 (Records of the Patent and Trademark Office, US National Archives)
Without it, what savage unsocial nights
Our ancestors must have spent! All those deadly
Winter nocturnes in caves and unillumined icy
Fastnesses: they must have laid around and
Grumbled at one another in the dark like the blind,
Fumbling each other's features for the wrinkle of a smile.
What tedious repartee must have passed! Perhaps
This accounts for the dullness of much archaic
Poetry, whose somber cast is notorious and must
Have derived from the traditions of those
Long unlanterned nights. Jokes came in with candles.
How did they see to pick up a pin, if they
Had any? How did they get dinner down? Think of
The mélange of chance carving that must have
Ensanguined dining after dusk! Lights out,
Not even love's what it's cracked up to be.
The senses absolutely give and take
Reciprocally. One wants to know whether that's
An elbow, a knee, or the night table
Before one returns the favor of a friendly nudge.
Wasn't it by the midnight taper all writers once digested
Their meditations? By that same light we ought
To approach them, if we ever expect to catch
The tiger-moth of inspiration that dances
In the word incandescent.
Our ancestors must have spent! All those deadly
Winter nocturnes in caves and unillumined icy
Fastnesses: they must have laid around and
Grumbled at one another in the dark like the blind,
Fumbling each other's features for the wrinkle of a smile.
What tedious repartee must have passed! Perhaps
This accounts for the dullness of much archaic
Poetry, whose somber cast is notorious and must
Have derived from the traditions of those
Long unlanterned nights. Jokes came in with candles.
How did they see to pick up a pin, if they
Had any? How did they get dinner down? Think of
The mélange of chance carving that must have
Ensanguined dining after dusk! Lights out,
Not even love's what it's cracked up to be.
The senses absolutely give and take
Reciprocally. One wants to know whether that's
An elbow, a knee, or the night table
Before one returns the favor of a friendly nudge.
Wasn't it by the midnight taper all writers once digested
Their meditations? By that same light we ought
To approach them, if we ever expect to catch
The tiger-moth of inspiration that dances
In the word incandescent.
Drawing of the Incandescent Light Bulb (page 1 of 2): Thomas Edison, 27 January 1880 (Records of the Patent and Trademark Office, US National Archives)
Chrome table lamp: S. van Ravesteyn, 1925-1927 (NAI Collection / Het Nieuwe Institut)
E.R. Squibb and Sons advertisement for Squibb Pharmaceuticals: Good Housekeeping, 12 January 1934 (Gallery of Graphic Design)
General Electric advertisement for Edison Mazda Lamps: Better Homes and Gardens, 4 January 1931 (Gallery of Graphic Design)
Alison Adcock: Sometime after the Last Glaciation
Battersea Park, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 23 April 2016
The Strand, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 22 May 2016
Western Gateway, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 8 May 2016
Bangkok, Thailand: photo by Alison Adcock, 21 March 2015
Kolkata, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 6 November 2015
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 25 October 2014
Margate, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 19 June 2016
Margate, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 19 June 2016
Margate, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 19 June 2016
Tokyo, Japan: photo by Alison Adcock, 21 December 2014
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 23 October 2014
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 20 October 2014
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 20 October 2014
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 24 October 2014
Varanasi, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 26 October 2014
Yangon, Myanmar: photo by Alison Adcock, 27 March 2015
Kolkata, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 7 November 2015
Battersea Park, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 23 April 2016
Battersea Park, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 23 April 2016
Regent's Park, London, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 5 December 2015
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Piraeus, Greece: photo by Alison Adcock, 9 October 2016
Margate, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 19 June 2016
Margate, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 29 May 2016
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 14 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 14 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 14 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 6 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 6 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 6 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 4 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 4 March 2017
Felixstowe, England: photo by Alison Adcock, 4 March 2017
Kolkata, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 31 October 2015
Osaka, Japan: photo by Alison Adcock, 30 December 2014
Kolkata, India: photo by Alison Adcock, 4 November 2015
Thanks, Tom! My favorite type of art since early childhood. Cave art and petroglyphs never fail to evoke something ineffable, often times conjuring an awe in me that's both joyful and fearful. It was there before I found out about Charles Knight, Zdenek Burian and Ray Harryhausen, whose work unseated those original artists with a wholly different (less religious perhaps) kind of awe for me. Knight, et al, would eventually get replaced by further sophistications, but nothing can replace the sway over me those early impressions still have.As I get older they begin to resonate in my life even more and take on new life and meaning. I rarely comment on blogs, but this is very poignant for me and I truly enjoy your work, both in print and here.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much for that, Robert.
ReplyDeleteI do love a conversation!
My pleasure. After writing this last night I learned of Jimmy Breslin's passing. I not only enjoyed reading him, but i also had the opportunity to meet him on occasion. He used to spend a chunk of his Sunday reading and drinking coffee at DeRobertis caffe on 1st Ave.and I stumbled upon him there one morning before I was to start my brunch shift cooking at Phebe's over on the bowery (corner of 4th). His vibe was usually pretty private, but after running into him there over the next few months I'd chat with him occasionally, nothing deep or noteworthy, but usually with a wink or humor. He could be both trenchant and affable at the same time, but not always. He knew what a shit heel Trump was out the gate, but he really despised the people who enabled him; the press and the bankers.
ReplyDeleteWhen I awoke this morning it was to news of Bernie Wrightson's passing. He was one of those guys whose art I'd guess as furthering my sophistication (lol). His work in Creepy and Eerie zines was my Sistine Chapel. I love a conversation , too! Now I'll start the new installment. Thanks
ReplyDeleteSaw that BW's widow is trying to keep his website up, touching.
Breslin's got a pretty close eye on Drumpf in a lot of those late Eighties columns.
"Trump, in the crinkling of an eye, senses better than anyone the insecurity of people, that nobody knows whether anything is good or bad until they are told, and he is quite willing to tell them immediately. His instinct appears to tell him that people crumble quickly at the first show of bravado, particularly members of the media, which is the plural of mediocre."
Jimmy Breslin, Newsday, 13 October 1988
What a wonderful dreamscape from cave walls to lightbulbs to dogs and more. I'm particularly grateful NOT to see Trump's face. There is a world of wonder beyond his hateful smirk. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks very much, Hilton. Pretty much my sentiments exactly, re Donnie Deathspiral's ugly mug. Eradicate NOW. Ice Age folk would have dumped him in a pit, covered it over with wolfbane sprinkles, and re-thought the whole either/or concept of a 2-party system, which finally gave the actual participants in this (fake) democracy absolutely Zero choice. (Though maybe the choice between Goldman and Goldman...?)
ReplyDeleteDrumpf's approval rating now down in the mid-thirties and dipping bigly by the minute, by the by. But at least he's brought on some "fresh" blood. Kellyanne's hubby to Justice, Ivanka to have her very own special office in the Casa Blanca (all the better to "move the units" of her trash merch, yay USA!). Are we having fun yet?