KIMBELL ART MUSEUM
Statue of the Goddess Mut
Unknown provenance
New Kingdom, early 19th dynasty (ca. 1292-1250 B.C.E.)
Limestone
Cat. 769
Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
Statuette of Ahmose-Nefertari
Deir el-Medina
New Kingdom, 18th dynasty (ca. 1539-1292 B.C.E.)
Wood
Cat. 1389
Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy
Kimbell Art Museum - Queen Nefertari's Egypt
Exhibition on Display: November 15, 2020 - March 14, 2021
Queen Nefertari's Egypt celebrates the wives of pharaohs during the New
Kingdom period (1550-1070 BC), when Egyptian civilization was at its height.
These women-not just great royal wives, but also sisters, daughters, and mothers
of pharaohs, and sometimes even pharaohs themselves—are brought to life through
some 230 exceptional objects, including statues, jewelry, vases, papyrus, steles,
mummies, wooden coffins, and stone sarcophagi, as well as tools and various items
of daily life from the artisan village of Deir-el-Medina, home to the craftsmen
who made the royal tombs. These astonishing treasures showcase the legacy of
these amazing women—whose status often verged on divine. All of the selected
masterpieces come from the Museo Egizio in Turin, the second-most-important
permanent Egyptian collection in the world after Cairo and one of the most
prestigious museums in Italy.
Nefertari, whose name means "the most beautiful of them all," was the beloved
royal wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. Linked to some of the most magnificent
monuments of ancient Egypt, she not only appears in statues, images, and
inscriptions on the buildings of Ramesses II, but a complete temple was
consecrated to her in Abu Simbel, beside the one dedicated to her husband.
Her tomb is the largest and most richly decorated in the Valley of the Queens.
It was discovered in the early twentieth century by a team of Italian
archaeologists led by Ernesto Schiaparelli, then director of the Museo Egizio,
and the team's journey of discovery on the banks of the ancient Nile is also
chronicled through the stunning artifacts on view.
-- Courtesy of The Kimbell Art Museum
About the Collection
The Kimbell's permanent collection is small in size, comprising fewer than 350
works of art, and is distinguished by an extraordinary level of artistic quality
and importance. The idea of building a choice collection of representative
masterpieces was established by the Board of Directors of the Kimbell Art
Foundation in consultation with Museum's first director, Richard F. (Ric)
Brown, in a Policy Statement of June 1, 1966:
The dominating principle involved in the acquisition process is that the
stature of the Museum depends more upon the quality of the definitive objects
that it contains than on the historical completeness of its collections. A
prospective addition to the collections, therefore, is to be judged from the
standpoint of aesthetic quality and typicality, and whether it defines a master,
period, school, style, or area. The goal shall be definitive excellence, not
size of collection.
Leaving to older and larger institutions the role of collecting broadly and in
depth, the Kimbell has continued to pursue quality over quantity. Its holdings
range from the third millennium B.C. to the mid-20th century and include major
works by Duccio, Fra Angelico, Caravaggio, Poussin, Velázquez, Bernini, Rembrandt,
Goya, Monet, Cézanne, Picasso, Mondrian, and Matisse. The collection comprises
Asian and non-Western as well as European art, and extends only to the mid-20th
century in recognition that this is where the collection of the Modern Art Museum
of Fort Worth begins, and omits American art since this is the focus of another
neighboring institution, the Amon Carter Museum.
Antiquities
The Kimbell's select holdings of antiquities range from the Egyptian Old Kingdom of the third millennium B.C. through ancient Assyria, Greece, and Rome, and to the Early Christian Church in the fifth century.
European Art
The collection of European paintings and sculpture is remarkably rich in works of the Italian Renaissance, although its fullest and most celebrated holdings are in Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Flemish works of the 17th century.
Asian Art
The Asian collection comprises sculptures, paintings, bronzes, ceramics, and works of decorative art from China, Korea, Japan, India, Nepal, Tibet, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Precolumbian Art
Precolumbian art is represented by Maya works in ceramic, stone, shell, and jade; Olmec, Zapotec, and Aztec sculpture; and pieces from the Conte and Wari cultures.
African and Oceanic Art
The African collection consists primarily of bronze, wood, and terracotta sculpture from West and Central Africa, including examples from Nigeria, Angola, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Oceanic art is represented by a Maori figure.
About The Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum, owned and operated by the Kimbell Art Foundation, is
internationally renowned for both its collections and for its architecture.
The Kimbell's collections range in period from antiquity to the 20th century
and include European masterpieces by artists such as Fra Angelico, Michelangelo,
Caravaggio, Poussin, Velázquez, Monet, Picasso and Matisse; important
collections of Egyptian and classical antiquities; and Asian, Mesoamerican
and African art.
The Museum's building, designed by the American architect Louis I. Kahn, is
widely regarded as one of the outstanding architectural achievements of the
modern era. A second building, designed by world-renowned Italian architect
Renzo Piano, is scheduled to open November 27, 2013, and will provide space
for special exhibitions, allowing the Kahn building to showcase the permanent collection.
For additional information please contact:
Jessica Brandrup, Head of Marketing and Public Relations
jbrandrup@kimbellmuseum.org or
Barbara Smith, Public Relations Coordinator
bsmith@kimbellmuseum.org or
call: (817-332-8451) ext. 248 or
log on to http://www.kimbellart.org
Kimbell Art Museum hours
Tuesdays through Thursdays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.;
Fridays, noon - 8 p.m.; Sundays, noon - 5 p.m.; closed Mondays.
For general information, call 817 - 332-8451. Web site:
www.kimbellart.org
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