Kapa and the Hawaiian Renaissance

Kapa Loincloth, Photo: Oliver Koning

Hana Hou: The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines

Vol. 14, no.2 April/May 2011

For centuries, from the day of they they were born until they were wrapped in their shrouds, native Hawaiians wrapped themselves in kapa, a cloth made from pounding the white inner bark of the wauke (mulberry) plant in a labor intensive felting process. Not a native plant of the Hawaiian islands wauke is thought to be a "canoe plant" brought to the islands sometime between 300 and 600 A.D. when the islands were first settled. Having no nutritional or medicinal value it seems clear that the value of the wauke plant lay in its use as a fiber source used in everything from clothing and bedding to ritual adornment.

 I'e kuku ho'oki - flat-sided hardwood beaters, Photo: Dana Edmunds

Hana Hou: The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines

Vol. 14, no.6 Dec 2011/Jan 2012

Over time the art of making and decorating kapa in Hawaii became a highly refined art and yet, as culturally significant as kapa was it very nearly was lost forever. Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau proclaimed in 1870, "All are dead who knew how to make coverings and loincloths and skirts and adornments and all that made the wearers look dignified and proud and distinguished." When the era of sailing ships turned Hawaii into a global trade center almost overnight Hawaiians were introduced to cotton from Europe and America and silk from China and Japan. Missionaries exerted their influence and taught Hawaiian women how to sew in the western style. Making kapa is incredibly laborious, that fact plus the pressure to assimilate put the fate of Hawaiian kapa into extreme peril.

Malia Solomon at Ulu Mau Village

It was not until the 1960s and 70s that Hawaiians finally were able to begin reclaiming some nearly lost parts of their rich cultural heritage. Pioneers in the Hawaiian cultural renaissance like Malia Solomon were able to retrace the original development of the art of kapa by learning from women in Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa where the traditions were still being passed down mother to daughter. Then they took their microscopes to Hawaii's Bishop Museum to examine historic Hawaiian kapa pieces until they were finally able to reconstruct the processes used by their ancestors. Using uniquely Hawaiian methods of soaking and fermenting wauke fibers, Hawaii's kapa makers achieved finer textures and more sophisticated patterning than their South Pacific predecessors.

 Contemporary Kapa

resources:
Kapa Hawaii: The Art of Native Hawaiian Kapa
Hana Hou: The Magazine of Hawaiian Airlines

Protest Posters: Art with a Message

This poster created by the Art Department 

of Adbusters Magazine was published as a pull-out poster 

in the September/October issue. It was on newsstands in July.

It set the date for the occupation of Wall Street.

The question, "What is our one demand?" rests above a graceful ballerina alight the raging bull of Wall Street. Behind them cops in riot gear approach through the haze, a foreshadowing of tear gas?  It's an effective poster. Not all political posters work so well. Check out the Occupy Wall Street: Poster smackdown on Salon.com, a slide show and review of some of the posters newly fostered by the burgeoning Occupy Wall Street movement. 

Just a few posters from the Occupy Wall Street: Poster smackdown on Salon.com

The two posters below rely on giving familiar imagery a new twist. As Londoners occupy St. Paul's, the familiar, recently re-popularized, "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster that admonished the Brits to keep a stiff upper lip during the dark days of World War II has been adapted to the current crisis with "Keep Calm and Occupy London". The Occupy Wall Street poster by Lalo Alcaraz topples a statue of the tycoon from the popular American game of Monopoly in a scene strikingly reminiscent of the toppling of that statue of Saddam Hussein when U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

Kelburn Castle Fights to Keep Brazilian Graffiti

 

Kelburn Castle, Scotland, Graffiti Mural, OS Gemeos, Nina and Nunca, 2007

photo: Minted Stereo

Long term plans to restore and maintain a 13th century castle in Scotland took a lively turn when Lord Kelburn, Earl of Glasgow, whose family has maintained the castle for 800 years, brought world class graffiti artists from Brazil to work alongside local talent creating a brilliant, psychedelic mural on a concrete sheathed section of the castle scheduled to be restored. Given temporary permission by historic preservation authorities to so lavishly adorn their castle, the residents of Kelburn Castle are currently seeking an extension. A popular venue for music concerts and festivals the mural at Kelburn Castle has itself become an premier attraction.

Support the Graffiti Project: "Like" on Facebook

Time Lapse Video - Creation of Kelburn Castle Mural

Summer Painting at Thornbush

I arrived for a week at Thornbush with three pale yellow panels. My assignment: to attend the chickens and Suzie the poodle while Anita and Roger were on vacation. My goal: to work on the triptych that Anita commissioned from me over a year ago inspired by a small Moon Mandala painting I’d done. It’s been taking me a very long time. My first efforts ended with sandpaper and gesso. But this week at Thornbush, with a little time off from The Whale Museum, it finally came together. A triptych is a different sort of beast than a lone painting. Painting a triptych is like juggling with three balls in the air.

Painting at Thornbush

I stuck pretty close to the Moon Mandala inspiration but unlike the original Moon Mandala, three moons imply the passage of time. I wanted the circular shapes to generate movement. Another inspiration for this project was the medieval illuminated manuscript, a Book of Hours called Très Riches Heures (Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry), where a blue arc divides the sky, again suggesting the passage of time. That is why I call the Triptych, The Very Rich Hours of Anita Barreca.

Work in Progress

One more inspiration is something Anita said, I think from a poem, about beautiful days, one after the other, strung together like a string of pearls. Day after day, moon after pearly moon these Mandalas are meant as an affirmation of the beauty of the seasons of Anita Barreca and her life at Thornbush.

 The Very Rich Hours of Anita Barreca, Oil on Board, 2011

Walking Mammoth: America's Earliest Known Art

Experts in the field assumed it was fake but after passing through a barrage of tests University of Florida forensic scientists believe that the etched image of a walking mammoth carved into fossilized bone is America’s oldest known piece of artwork.

Walking Mammoth, Fossilized bone, 11,000 BCE

photo: National Geographic

Fossil hunter James Kennedy had the 15-inch fossil in a box under his sink for a few years before, when cleaning it up, he noticed an image carved into the bone. Some 13,000 years ago when gigantic beasts roamed what is now Florida a nomadic ice age hunter carved this image of a walking mammoth. What is remarkable is that no other such artifacts have been found. With this discovery no doubt some very old bones will garner a closer look.

 Movie Still, 10,000 BC, 2008

read more...

National Geographic

NPR

Starting a New Painting

Sandpaper and Gesso: A Fresh Start

Sometimes gesso and sandpaper are the best solution for a stalled painting. I just prepared the ground to begin this painting with a fresh start. To help get me into a centered and holy painting attitude I Googled "Tibetan Sacred Painting" and on Oregon Art Beat I found this short inspiring video about Thangka Painter, Sanje Elliot.

Thangka Painter, Sanje Elliot

A Very Brief History of Tempra Painting

 Judgement Before Osiris, Tempera on Papyus, 1285 B.C.

Ever since I noticed the sweet $152.00 egg tempera set in the nice wood case in the Daniel Smith catalog I think I need it. I like to think that in a past life I was a medieval manuscript illuminator. 

 Primavera, Sandro Botticelle, Tempera on panel, 1482

Why start painting with a new medium at this point?

Russian Icon, Tempera on panel

Because I love the light clean quality of the medium of the medieval manuscript painters, early Renaissance painters, Russian icon painters, Egyptians and Pre-Raphaelites… and Andrew Wyeth.

 Crown of Flowers, Andrew Wyeth, Tempera on paper, 1973

Ai Weiwei: Middle Finger, Tiananmen Square.

Thanks at least in part to global pressure, not only from ambassadors and human rights activists, but from leaders in the art world and people like New York City's Mayor Bloomberg, Chinese authorities agreed to release the artist Ai Weiwei. But why would the Chinese arrest their most famous artist? Take a look at Ai Weiwei's work and its a pretty easy guess. Ai Weiwei uses contemporary art as a vehicle to express singularly bold social criticism.

Middle Finger Tiananmen Square, photo: Ai Weiwei

One piece that put Ai Weiwei on the wrong side of Chinese authorities was his installation, Remembering, at the Haus der Kundst museum in Munich. The piece commemorated the tragic deaths of school children during the Sichuan, China earthquake of 2008. 

 Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

It is widely believed that the reason so many school children were killed was because the schools that collapsed on top of them during the earthquake were poorly constructed due to corruption. Ai Weiwei visited Sichuan after the earthquake where he observed debris littered with children's school things. That inspired him to create a message using 9,000 colorful children's backpacks to spell out, "She lived happily for seven years in this world", a quote from the mother of one of the lost children.

Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

Like memories developing over time the message, placed on an outdoor wall behind trees was slowly revealed as the season changed and the trees lost their leaves.

Remembering, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2009

Another Quick Look at Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry TEASER from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry on Vimeo.

Ai Weiwei: "I'm Home, I'm Fine, I Can't Talk."

 Ai Weiwei Returns to Studio After Release, photo: David Gray/Reuters

World renowned Chinese artist and dissident Ai Weiwei who was detained in April by Chinese authorities has just been released on bail after being held for 81 days. 

China's state media claims that Ai Weiwei confessed to "economic crimes" and has agreed to pay the back taxes they say he owes. His family denies the charges. When asked if his probation will allow him to use twitter, (Ai Weiwei's was known for his popular tweets) Ai laughed gently and apologized for not being able to speak.

 Public Enjoying 100 Million Porcelain Sunflowers at The Tate 

photo Tony Kyriacou/Rex Features

Well known outside of China and perhaps especially in Britain for his recent show Sunflower Seeds at the Tate in London, Ai Weiwei received worldwide popular support while under arrest.

Ai Weiwei Not Talking To British Reporter

Morris Graves and Machine Age Noise

Spring with Machine Age Noise No. 4, Morris Graves, Tempra on Paper, 1957

Days getting long, sun shining, windows open and by the deafening assault on the senses you might  well believe the Apocalypse is at hand. Power mowers roar against the high piercing scream of weed eaters only pausing for the rare moment to remind you that a bird can still sing before they rev up again... ah, the sounds of the machine age. Here in this tourist town even the screaming massacre of the grass is regularly overwhelmed by the constant traffic of small aircraft overhead. Is there no peace? In my last post I wrote about David Hockney's embrace of the latest technology in his art. But to critique the darker side of the machine age we turn to the one and only Morris Graves.

 Machine Age Noise No. 2, Morris Graves, Ink on Paper, 1957

Morris Graves, renowned Northwest artist and the original Northwest Mystic appreciated peace and quiet to a high degree. Here are his responses to machine age noise. In the Sumi painting Machine Age Noise No. 2 Graves used a broom for a brush giving it an energetic thwack.

David Hockney's iPad illuminations

David Hockney© , Digital image, iPad 2011

David Hockney, the British artist known for his mid-century paintings of Southern California's swimming pools and sprinklers emerged last year with artwork created on his iphone and ipad. He began by drawing fresh flowers on an iphone, using mainly the edge of his thumb, and sending them to his friends. He now uses an iPad, more fingers or a stylus. Last year his exhibit, Fleurs Fraiches, in Paris at the Foundation Pierre Berge featured his iphone and iPad art with the work displayed on iphones, ipads, and as animations. Digital art has the advantage of being easy to transport and copy without loosing any quality in fact the duplicates will be exactly the same as the original.  Possibilities of drawing with an iPad include duplicating the process with a finger tap and the Brushes app can generate animations of the actual drawing process. Plus, the medium when viewed on-screen has the luminosity of a Cathedral stained-glass window on a brilliant day. Hockney, whose early paintings explored qualities of water and light continues to pursue luminous subject matter like the sunny windows and cut flowers in glass pictured here.

Link to show: Paris Fleurs Fraiches exhibition 

At 73 Hockney resides at his family home in Bridlington on the English coast. He still paints large canvases in his enormous studio but keeps his iPad with him like a sketchbook. He says, "What fascinates me is not just technology but the technology of picture-making. I spend more time painting of course, but I treat the iPad as a serious tool. The iPad is influencing the paintings now with its boldness and speed."

David Hockney© , Digital image, iPad 2011

Sex, Flowers and American Abstraction: O'Keeffe

Today is May Day and in the spirit of celebrating fertility, flowers and Spring I bring you Georgia O'Keeffe, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz with her painting, Flower Abstraction, 1924.

"When I make a photograph I make love." Alfred Stieglitz

 Photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz

Flower Abstraction, Oil on Canvas, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1924

"I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, 
you could not ignore its beauty." 
Georgia O'Keeffe

Painter Georgia O'Keeffe was ahead of her time in many ways including her exploration of abstraction in early twentieth century art. Sadly, the sensuality of her over-sized floral abstractions only gave her male critics ammunition to attack her. They could not see past the sex (expressions of sexuality belonged to men!). If she pointed out that it was their projection and really, she was just painting flowers, they called her prissy. If she didn't they accused her of sexual obsession. She could not win. Considering the chauvinism of the New York art world in the twentieth century it is no wonder she preferred her desert oasis in New Mexico.

Sign Petition to Release Ai Weiwei

Members of the international arts community are petitioning the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China to release artist, Ai Weiwei. You can sign the petition, started by the Guggenheim Foundation, here. 

Link to: Petition for the Release of Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei

Change.org, host of the petition, has been under cyber attack from China in an effort to shut down the site and stop the petition. Change.org engineers are working around the clock to keep the site up.

Protests for Ai Weiwei

 "What can they do to me? 

Nothing more than to banish, kidnap, to imprison me. 

Perhaps they could fabricate my disappearance into thin air, 

but they don't have any creativity or imagination. 

And they lack both joy and the ability to fly."

Ai Weiwei's last blog entry before his April 3 detention.

 Photo: Elisa Haberer

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei has still not been seen by his friends and family. Officials claim that he is under investigation for "economic crimes" but the police have still not informed his family regarding his detention from the Beijing airport two weeks ago. Colleagues of Ai also remain missing.

 Artists and activists protest the detention of Ai Weiwei in Hong Kong.

Photograph: Tyrone Siu/Reuters The Guardian

According to the British newspaper The Guardian a Canadian curator organized artists around the world to protest Ai Weiwei's detention by taking chairs into the streets and sitting in silent protest. This idea stemmed from the 2007 installation, Fairytale, of Ai Weiwei's where he took 1,001 Qing Dynasty wooden chairs and 1,001 Chinese citizens to Germany. The German curator of that show, Roger Brugel, sat in protest outside of the Chinese Embassy in Berlin. Said Brugel, "It's crucial to exert pressure now, before they come up with a verdict."

Fairytale, Installation, Ai Weiwei 2007

photo: Galerie Urs Meile

 

Censored in China, Ai Weiwei's Blog: Writings, Interviews, and Digital Rants, has just been made available through MIT Press.

Free Ai Weiwei!

 Chinese artist Ai Weiwei

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is still missing following his detainment Sunday morning at the Beijing airport (see previous post). According to Aljazeera Amnesty International, The United States, Britain and Germany have called for his release. You can sign a "twitition" (online petition) here: Free Ai Weiwei.

Meanwhile please take a few moments to appreciate the art of Ai Weiwei. Currently, exhibiting at the Tate Modern in London is Ai Weiwei's The Unilever Series: Ai Weiwei Sunflower Seeds featuring 100 million porcelain sunflower seeds. Or watch the Ai Weiwei slideshow currently up on Slate.com.

Ai Weiwei, Sunflower Seeds 2010

Photocredit: BBC

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Detained.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei was detained Sunday at the Beijing airport and is still missing. Even his outstanding international reputation, he has a sculpture exhibition scheduled in Manhattan next month, was not enough to stop the Chinese from arresting him.

Ai Weiwei in his Bejing Studio March 7, 2011

Photograph by Andrew Jacobs, published April 3, 2011, New York Times

Human rights advocates believe that Weiwei's arrest is part of the Chinese government's latest crackdown on human rights with arrests of lawyers, bloggers and dissidents. Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch describes this as China's "attempt to redefine the limits of what kind of criticism is tolerable." Apparently Ai Weiwei's freedom of expression is intolerable to Chinese authorities and this is far from his first brush with the law.

Weiwei was raised in a labor camp in China's cold western deserts when his father, the poet Ai Qing, was exiled for being the "wrong kind" of intellectual. In 2009 Weiwei was seriously beaten by police the night before he was scheduled to testify on behalf of a fellow dissident. Larry Warsh, the founder of AW Asia, the contemporary Chinese art organization instrumental in organizing Weiwei's show next month in New York, said after the current arrest, "Weiwei is among the greatest living artists and thinkers, and a globally respected champion of human rights." which seems to be just what is getting him into so much trouble.


Ai Weiwei on TED Talks

Criticism is one of the primary roles of an artist in society but living in a police state makes this critique a particular challenge. Considering Ai Weiwei's success he could keep quiet and easily live in comfort like China's burgeoning nouveaux-riche class and yet he says, "as a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility … it is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here. I don't have a choice, it's the way I live."

Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, Ai Weiwei, 1994

source: New York Times,  The Age, TED Talks 

The Giant Wave

Recent disastrous events in Japan, a major earthquake followed by devastating tsunamis, a volcano and then finally the terror of exploding nuclear power plants brought the whole world's focus to the island nation. Here in Katsushika Hokusai's The Great Wave at Kanagawa, we see a quintessential image of Japan that seems to foreshadow the coming deadly wave. 

The Great Wave at Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai 

Color woodblock print, 1830 - Edo Period

Japan is no stranger to the real danger of tsunami waves but the wave Hokusai may have sensed approaching was the inevitable entry of a reluctant Japan into a world of global trade. In Hokusai's time Japan was still a closed system. People were forbidden to travel on pain of death and only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed in to trade, and only in Nagasaki. Yet here it comes, the irrepressible wave of modern global trade. 

Culturally the change had already begun. Hokusai painted his Great Wave using Prussian blue, a European color (possibly produced in China) and his take on perspective, Mount Fuji in the distance, was influenced by Dutch copperplate prints that he'd seen. The influence was then returned when Edo period prints, ubiquitous and inexpensive when they were produced in Japan, became popular in the west. Artists Monet, Whistler, Cassatt and Van Gogh are among those profoundly influenced by these Japanese woodblock prints.

It is a small world. Please help if you can.

Link to: Japan Red Cross

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Henry Street Pub - Helena Korpela

Someone asked yesterday, "What do you do on Saint Patrick's Day?" Without giving it a second thought I answered, "Drink and pinch." The pinching of course refers to what you get for not wearing green. At least that's the custom I grew up with here in the Northwestern corner of the United States. As for the drinking, I could fore go the American custom of drinking green beer! 

Surfing the Internet for a piece of contemporary Irish Art to feature for Saint Patrick's Day led me to the work of Finnish born artist Helena Korpela. I fell instantly in love with her work. Kopela studied in Boston and emigrated to Ireland in 1996. She says in her online bio, that much of her current work "is commentary on Ireland's vanishing heritage - natural and built." Celebrate Ireland today by enjoying her work. (Then go out and drink, and pinch.)

Link to: Helena Korpela

Happy New Year of the Female Iron Rabbit

Happy Iron Female Rabbit Year

by Bhutanese Artist Phurba Namgay

Today is the Tibetan New Year, called Losar. The year of the Tiger comes to an end as we welcome in the year of the Rabbit. Bhutanese painter Phurba Namgay's painting, Happy Iron Female Rabbit Year, is painted in the traditional Thanka (Buddhist sacred art) style. It is currently up for auction with the book, Married to Bhutan: How One Woman Got Lost, Said 'I Do' and Found Bliss, by Namgay's wife Linda Leaming at Writers for the Red Cross, a month-long fundraiser for the Red Cross.

Trained in the the tradition of Thanka painting Phurba Namgay's keen attention to detail is evident in his explorations of contemporary styles including superrealism. To explore his work further (and see how he makes his own cat hair brushes) please visit his blog.

Link to: Bhutanese Artist Phurba Namgay

Link to:  Married to Bhutan

Link to: Writers for the Red Cross

Banksy at the Oscars: Anonymity and Fame Collide

“The last time there was a naked man covered in gold paint in my house it was me.” Banksy

Britain’s enigmatic street artist Bansky is up for an academy award for the film, Exit Through The Gift Shop, a documentary featuring among others, street art stars Banksy and Shepard Fairey.

If we are to accept the premise of the film (and with a prankster like Banksy we are not  entirely certain that we can) it came about when the obsessive filming of street artists by eccentric Frenchman Thierry Guetta looked destined to remain in the form of stockpiled unlabeled video in unmarked tubs.

Banksy as he appears in the film concealing his identity with a dark hoodie.

Banksy took over the film project encouraging Guetta to have his own art show. Changing his name to “Mr. Brainwash” Guette then attempts to mimic Banksy’s successful crossover into the highly lucrative art world of Los Angeles. Guette becomes an overnight sensation with a wildly successful massive show featuring dubious Warhol/Banksy style works. Says Banksy, the resulting film documents “the story of how one man set out to film the unfilmable - and failed”. The Los Angeles Times calls the film, "subversive, provocative and unexpected... a hall of mirrors as unsettling as anything Lewis Carroll's Alice ever experienced".

Girl Shooting Crayons, Banksy, Los Angeles, 2011

How does Bansky, an artist who insists on anonymity even attend the Academy Awards, the epitome of glitz and celebrity? The Academy has refused his request to attend in disguise. Says the Academy’s executive director Bruce Davis, “The fun but disquieting scenario is that if the film wins and five guys in monkey masks come to the stage all saying, ‘I’m Banksy,’ who the hell do we give it to?” None the less Banksy seems to be lobbying for his film by doing what he does best, paying nighttime visitations to the blank walls and billboards of Hollywood.

References: The Guardian UK, New York Times

Previous posts featuring Banksy and Shepard Fairey:

Shepard Fairey: Political Art and the Politics of Appropriation

Banksy: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Portraits of Egypt's Martyred Activists

 They Died To See Egpyt Soar:

A Cairo Artist's Portraits of the Revolution's Martyred Activists 

The Cairo artist known as Ganzeer contributed to the uprising by designing anti- Mubarak signs, stickers and stencils. In the aftermath he has turned to creating portraits of the fallen. These portraits strike a distinctly Egyptian tone in a powerful medium that shares a linage with the political portraits of Shepard Fairey and has roots in street art. About the portraits Gazneer says, "Dirty politics and power struggles aside, there are innocent people who died over the course of Egypt's current revolution. These people died because they could see something most of us could not see. They died because they could see Egypt soaring high in a place of dignity and respect. They could see Egypt become something none of us thought possible. They died for me, they died for you, for our grandparents and for our children. True heroes, ready to fight a corrupt regime with all its soldiers, guns, and ammo with nothing more than their voices and willpower."

"These heroes are the Golden Eagles of the Egyptian Revolution."

 

Amhed Basiouny, Ganzeer

Christine, Ganzeer

Islam Bakir, Ganzeer

To see more work by this artist link to: Blog Ganzeer

Art of the Revolution

Tahrir Square ~ Cairo

Heart of the Revolution ~ Heart of Egypt

 Egypt's Heart

If the Egyptian Museum in Cairo houses the legacy of Egypt's thousands of years old past, in the last two weeks the Egyptian people have actively begun creating their future. The artwork above was created by anti-government protesters in Tahrir Square, who with their passion and creativity non-violently defeated a regime that has silenced and brutalized them for thirty years. Egypt's Heart was created out of the same paving stones that protesters used to defend themselves when brutally attacked by the the regime's henchmen.

The Heart of the Revolution, Tahrir Square, Cairo, 2011

The Egyptian Museum Cairo is the pink building in the upper right.

Antiquities at the Heart of the Revolution.

As the battle for the soul of Egypt continues in a tense standoff in Tahrir Square, Cairo, here at the very heart of the revolution the Egyptian Museum remains intact. 

The Egyptian Museum, Cairo

"The most important thing everyone needs to know is that the people in the streets defended the museums, monuments, and sites. When I came into work today, I had to pass through a checkpoint. When the men in the Popular Committees running the checkpoint saw me, they asked, “Sir, how is the museum?” These men may not know how to read or write, but they are worried about their cultural heritage."

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Minister of Antiquities

Dr. Hawass also said, "The monuments of Egypt are the heritage of everyone around the world." Here are just a few artifacts from the museum's collections representing various periods in Egypt's long past.

 Necklace, Faience and schist, 

Pre-Dynastic Period (Late 4th Millennium BC)

Receptacle in the Form of a Shell, Gold, 

Third Dynasty, Reign of Sekhemkhet, (2611-2603 BC) Old Kingdom

Necklace of Neferuptah, Gold, carnelian, feldspar, glass paste,

12th Dynasty, Reign of Amenemhet III (1844-1797 BC) Middle Kingdom

Bracelets of Ramesses II, Gold, lapis lazuli,

Nineteenth Dynasty, Reign of Ramesses II (1290-1224 BC) New Kingdom

Scarab, Glass and gold,

Ptolemaic era (Greek 332-30 BC)