NEWS: Visions of Ancient Egypt: Art, Design and the Cultural Imagination @ Laing Art Gallery

Image: Nefertiti (Black Power), 2018, Awol Erizku © the Artist, Courtesy Ben Brown Fine Arts

With the Lindisfarne Gospels now returned to the British Library after an all-too-brief stint in their region of origin and spiritual home, the Laing is following up their popular showcase of this spectacular manuscript with an exhibition examining the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt.

Back in the 19^th Century, Napoleon’s Egyptian Campaign caused a boom in interest in ancient Egypt, a cultural fascination that has seldom waned over the years, continuing to fire up the imaginations of children and adults alike.

Using Jean-François Champollion’s 1822 decipherment of hieroglyphs and Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb as twin launch points, the new exhibition boasts a slew of artworks ranging from antiquity to the present day. Visitors can enjoy paintings, sculpture, photography, fashion and jewellery from artists Joshua Reynolds, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, David Hockney, Chant Avedissian, Chris Ofili, Sara Sallam and more.

An exploration of how ancient Egypt has been re-imagined across time, the exhibition is a window into the re-invention, appropriation and subversion that have generated many visions of Egypt over the centuries, exploring Western fascination alongside Egypt’s own engagement with its ancient past.

Visions of Ancient Egypt: Art, Design and the Cultural Imagination runs at Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle from Saturday 28^th January until Saturday 29^th April.