The Oldest Drawing of a Face
Sunday June 11, 2006
The oldest known drawing of a human face, estimated to be some 27, 000 years old, has been discovered in Angoulême, France. An unnamed writer at The Guardian Online provides a photograph and offers some comments on the drawing, raising interesting points about its significance, which goes far beyond art history. It is what they tell us about our humanity, a precious glimpse into the creative minds of our forebears, that makes it so so essential to preserve these images.
These news stories caught my interest, as earlier in the week I'd been talking with some friends about the great primacy of mark-making that charcoal drawing offers. When so much of our modern life is artificial and sterile, the direct and tactile experience of charcoal drawing lets our primitive selves out of the box for a few moments.
Lascaux Cave Paintings at Risk
Cave Drawings at Niaux
The Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc Cave
Cave of Lascaux official site
Mongolian Blue Caves
Comments
This shows you how intimately art is about of the human experience.
One more evidence of the superiority of homo sapiens over other species. Not all of us think or are artists but enough are to separate us from the ungulates.