21 Jun – 14 Sep 2025
Ice Age Art Now
British Museum
Travel back in time at this British Museum Partnership Exhibition.
Travel back in time at this British Museum Partnership Exhibition and encounter works of art dating back thousands of years.
This visually stunning exhibition shows how artistic creativity existed thousands of years before traditional art histories suggest – as an essential part of human life.
Ice Age Art Now presents work by people living in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age, some as much as 32,000 years old. These astounding works reveal the deep roots of drawing, sculpture, realism, abstraction, signs, symbols and more – and the extraordinary skill and imagination of these early image makers find echoes in modern and contemporary art.
This family-friendly exhibition features a wealth of rare items from the British Museum and local treasures from the collections of Bradford District Museums & Galleries, arranged into such themes as decorating the body, drawing animals and abstracting the female form. The exhibition also features an installation reimagining cave art and other imagery from thousands of years ago for the 21st century.
The exhibition will be supplemented with a programme of talks, family activities and other special events.
Lead image: Mammoth spear thrower © 2024 The Trustees of the British Museum
