num_pages: 240
description: Where is the worlds very first art located? When and why did people begin experimenting with different materials forms and colors? Prehistorians have long been asking these questions but only recently have they been able to piece together the first chapter in the story of art.Overturning the traditional Eurocentric vision of our artistic origins Paul Bahn and Michel Lorblanchet seek out the earliest art across the whole world. There are clues that even three million years ago distant human ancestors were drawn to natural curiosities that appeared representational such as the face-like Makapansgat cobble from South Africa not carved but naturally weathered to resemble a human face. In the last hundred thousand years people all over the world began to create art: the oldest known paint palettes in South Africas Blombos Cave the famous Venus figures across Europe all the way to Siberia and magnificent murals on cave walls in every continent except Antarctica.This book is the first to assess the discovery history and significance of these varied forms of art: the artistic impulse developed in the human mind wherever it traveled.
language: English
title: The First Artists: In Search of the World's Oldest Art
publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd