Sketches of Rock Paintings to be shown at Anthropology Museum in Mexico

A sample of the first artistic manifestations depicted in caves and rocks in remote areas of Africa, Europe and Oceania will open on July 26 at the National Museum of Anthropology (NMA) .

These artistic representations – reproduced by artists and collaborators of German ethnologist Leo Frobenius during his expeditions to Africa, Australia, France, Spain and many other European countries – will come to Mexico through the Frobenius Institute, within the framework of the Mexico-Germany Dual Year. The exhibitions is a collection of 100 watercolors that will allow the public to see up close some of the most ancient pictorial expressions that were gathered by this German explorer and archeologist, who a the beginning of the 20th Century, began to travel Africa to gain a deeper understanding of the native cultures of this continent – so little understood and explored at the time.

Born in Berlin in 1873, Leo Frobenius had, since he was a small child, a huge interest in the culture of this continent. He executed several ethnologic projects, such as the compilation of these ancient artistic manifestations, and was considered “the voice of Africa.”

These rock paintings are part of his lifetime work recording the artistic expressions of this continent and of other parts of the world.

According to the Institute that now safeguards his legacy, his work as a scholar of rock paintings left five thousand copies created by his students or collaborators. A selection of these pieces will arrive for the first time in Mexico in the exhibition Art of Prehistoric Times. Rock Paintings from the Frobenius Collection , after being shown at the Berliner Martin-Gropius-Bau.

The exhibition is organized by the Frobenius Institute, founded in 1925 in Frankfurt, in collaboration with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) .

The exhibition will open on July 26 at 19:00 hrs. at the National Museum of Anthropology, located in Avenida Reforma, and can be visited until November 26.