Thutmose, a Sculptor
I painted this after one of my typical ventures down the documentary rabbit hole on History or the Discovery channel, when I was heavily focused on Ancient Egypt. Studying abroad in England, SOAS University of London itself was an amazing resource for African history, and also happened to placed conveniently near the British Museum.
Back in 2004- before the repatriation of some important artifacts back to their respective homelands- one of the major exhibitions running during my semester was one on based Ancient Egypt. For all of the wonder and attention modern day humans pay to the art forms and structures from early times, it dawned on me (perhaps as an aspiring artist myself), that we didn’t have nearly as much information on the craftspeople as we did on the Pharaohs and royal families themselves. For every sarcophagus and bust, or turquoise and lapis lazuli stone inset in gold, there were pairs of hands that sculpted them.
Dimensions //
24" x 18" x 1.375"Date //
2018Work Type //
PaintingMaterials + Medium //
Acrylic, CanvasCollection Status //
The Nunery Family CollectionAdditional Views //
Who were those artisans? What were their names? Without them and their talents, we technically wouldn’t have any visual reference of the times; we wouldn’t have any well-structured hieroglyphs to tell the story. When the language itself was an art form, the respect needed to be paid to the artists, in my humble opinion. The History Channel documentary taught me that one of the artists was named Thutmose, as they managed to uncover what may have been his working space, or studio. This was my attempt at displaying the beauty that may have existed as one entered his working area, many centuries ago.