“Artistic Explosion: Landesmuseum Darmstadt’s Big Bang Exhibit”

With a virtual trip through the winding corridors of the Lascaux Cave, the exhibition “Big Bang of Art – Modern Meets Prehistory” in the Hessian State Museum is just right Darmstadt introduce their visitors to prehistoric rock paintings. And makes them aware: Ice Age art is initially firmly linked to the place of its creation because it is scratched into rock faces or painted in caves.

We still have the ethnologist Leo Frobenius (1873 –1938) to thank for the fact that prehistoric images, some of which have now been destroyed in the original, can still be admired in the museum. On his expeditions to Africa from 1904 to 1935 he became more and more interested in rock art. In order to make the prehistoric images known in their importance as primeval works of art, he had to ensure that they could leave their caves, which were difficult to access. Documentation that was as true to the original as possible was necessary.