Grey Area (Brown version)
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Object Label
Ancient Egyptian women wore amulets of birth gods to protect them during and immediately after childbirth. One of these birth gods, a female deity often known as Taweret, was shown with the head and body of a hippopotamus, lion's paws, and a stylized crocodile hanging down her back. Her male counterpart, commonly called Bes, usually appeared frontally. In early Dynasty 18, artists depicted Bes with a human face and a lion's body and mane.
Caption
Fred Wilson American, born 1954. Grey Area (Brown version), 1993. Pigment, plaster, and wood, Overall: 20 x 84 in. (50.8 x 213.4 cm) Each bust: 18 3/4 x 9 x 13 in. (47.6 x 22.9 x 33 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of William K. Jacobs, Jr. and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange, 2008.6a-j. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.6a-j_profile_PS4.jpg)
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Grey Area (Brown version)
Date
1993
Medium
Pigment, plaster, and wood
Classification
Dimensions
Overall: 20 x 84 in. (50.8 x 213.4 cm) Each bust: 18 3/4 x 9 x 13 in. (47.6 x 22.9 x 33 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of William K. Jacobs, Jr. and bequest of Richard J. Kempe, by exchange
Accession Number
2008.6a-j
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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Frequent Art Questions
What are these Egyptian heads about? Why is it controversial? Is it because the heads are different colors?
That piece is by a contemporary artist named Fred Wilson who deals with issues of race and representations of race within museum collections. You may have read this on the label, but it is a commentary on how Ancient Egyptians are often conceived of/represented as White, when the population was actually very metropolitan made up of many races/ethnicities.History often whitewashed the fact that Egypt is in Africa, so there were Nubian people living there, and it was close to the Ancient Middle East, so there were populations of Persian people, Jewish people, travelers from Rome and more.In fact one of the very first historians to write "history books," Herodotus talked about the African aspects of Egyptian civilization when he visited the Nile Valley in the fifth century B.C.E. It wasn't until the 1840s that a group of American authors, writing to justify the Atlantic slave trade, argued that the Egyptians were a separate population with no relation to other Africans. Historians today are now trying to undo that racism.What is the message behind this piece?
Like a lot of contemporary art, the artist is presenting us with that exact question for us to consider. In this piece, Fred Wilson raises controversial questions about the racial identity of ancient Egyptians. Referring to one of the most copied works of ancient civilization, Wilson illustrates a value scale ranging in color from oatmeal to dark chocolate.Who is the model for these?
Those pieces are all modeled after a famous sculpture of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti that belongs to the Egyptian Museum of Berlin collection (currently on display in the Neues Museum). The original sculpture is over 3000 years old -- Nefertiti's estimated life/death dates are ca. 1370 – ca. 1330 BC.Tell me more.
This work of contemporary art is a new addition to our Egyptian galleries! The artist, Fred Wilson, reproduced the famous bust of Nefertiti in 5 skin tones. This work is a comment on how ancient Egyptians are often conceived of as White when the actual kingdom would have been made up of people of many ethnicities.I've never seen Nefertiti in those tones.Most of the ancient depictions we have of her have either lost their color or were painted red, which was a convention of Egyptian art and not reflective of actual skin tones. Wilson produced this work in 1993. In Western history (and art history), Egypt, which is in Africa, was often whitewashed. The skin tones represented in Wilson's work reference the back and forth over Egyptian racial identity and the ambiguity of such discussions.Would it be fair to call this an accurate depiction of Nefertiti?
Not necessarily. This is a work of contemporary art (1993) that is based on an ancient Egyptian sculpture of Nefertiti. In ancient Egypt, artistic trends affected the way humans in general were depicted which sometimes translated into idealized or hyper-stylized depictions of people. There is probably some level of "truth" in this depiction of Nefertiti but to say how much would be difficult.Why are there queens of Egypt?
There are queens in ancient Egypt because they, along with their husbands, were the rulers! This queen is called Nefertiti. She was married to the king Akhenaten and together they ruled over ancient Egypt.Tell me more.
"Grey Area (Brown Version)" by Fred Wilson uses museums as the medium, reflecting on what art means in the context of history and display. For this work, Wilson shows us five portrait busts of Queen Nefertiti, based on the famous sculpture currently in Berlin. They are identical except for their range of colors, referencing skin colors from very light to dark. The work is meant to recall the debates among western scholars about the race and identity of ancient Egyptians. Historically, western egyptologists have had a habit of divorcing Egypt from the rest of Africa in their scholarship, despite the reality.
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