Visions of Ancient Egypt
Art, Design and the Cultural Imagination
![A photograph of a neon sign, depicting Nefiriti (queen of Egypt)](https://d279tnhy9skgzk.cloudfront.net/ivZoDle_HHpEtSSvRC5BsCN8nzw=/0x0:0x0/720x0/filters:watermark(https://laingartgallery.org.uk/text-image-gen/%28c%29+-++Awol+Erizku+Courtesy+Ben+Brown+Fine+Arts,0,0,0)/https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/atwam-images-files/production/images/content/laingartgallery/2022-11/464451.jpg)
Dates
Until 29 April 2023 (historic exhibition)
About
Visions of Ancient Egypt: Art, Design and the Cultural Imagination
This exhibition examines the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt in art and design, exploring how ancient Egypt has been re-imagined across time to suit different ambitions and to construct changing identities. It uses two important historic events as a point of departure – Jean-François Champollion’s 1822 decipherment of hieroglyphs and Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Including paintings, sculpture, photography, fashion and jewellery, this wide-ranging exhibition traces how processes of re-invention, appropriation and subversion have generated multiple visions of Egypt since the Roman period. The Western fascination with ancient Egypt is explored side-by-side with Egypt’s own engagement with its ancient past.
The exhibition features art works from antiquity to the present day and by artists including Joshua Reynolds, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, David Hockney, Chant Avedissian, Chris Ofili and Sara Sallam.
This exhibition is organised by the Sainsbury Centre in association with the Laing Art Gallery.
Cover image: Nefertiti (Black Power), 2018, Awol Erizku © the Artist, Courtesy Ben Brown Fine Arts
If you have a particular interest in Egyptian history, we recommend that you visit the Ancient Egypt Gallery at the Great North Museum: Hancock where you can see many perfectly preserved Egyptian artefacts, including some on loan from the British Museum.