Train your eye
The Gallery
Study pieces, each one echoing a movement in the archive. Read the caption, then try to catch the same cues in the next picture before you read it.
Cookout by the sea
echoes Kamasan Balinese Painting
Flat wayang-style figures, stacked narrative registers, dense foliate borders.
The quartet flag
echoes Fante Asafo Appliqué Flags
Cut-cloth figures on a saturated field, visible stitching, gold fringe.
Nine traditions, nine panels
echoes the whole archive
Relief, bronze, terracotta, carved wood, icon, cloth painting, formline, and appliqué side by side.
The golden hour wall
echoes the whole archive
A court plaque, a sculpted head, a sun-disk relief, a cedar formline panel, and a fringed banner.
Amarna Period Egyptian Relief
Akhetaten (Amarna), Egypt · c. 1350 BCE
- elongated, softly curved profile figures
- sun disk with rays ending in hands
- intimate family and domestic moments
Assyrian Palace Relief
Nimrud & Nineveh, Mesopotamia (northern Iraq) · c. 900–600 BCE
- winged guardian creatures
- low relief in pale stone
- horizontal narrative registers
Benin Bronze Court Reliefs
Benin City, Benin Kingdom (Nigeria) · 16th–17th century
- rectangular plaque in high relief
- stacked coral-bead collars and crowns
- punched four-petal background pattern
Ife Terracotta & Bronze Naturalism
Ile-Ife, Yoruba (Nigeria) · 12th–15th century
- calm idealised naturalistic face
- fine parallel linear striations
- heavy-lidded almond eyes
Dogon Wood Sculpture
Bandiagara Escarpment, Mali · 15th century onward
- elongated, angular figures
- raised arms and squared shoulders
- repeating rows of figures on a door
Gondarine Ethiopian Icon Painting
Gondar, Ethiopia · 17th century
- large almond eyes looking outward
- flat bold red, yellow, and green blocks
- ornate patterned halos
Kamasan Balinese Painting
Kamasan village, Klungkung, Bali (Indonesia) · 15th century onward
- flat wayang-puppet-style figures
- dense foliate and flame borders
- stacked narrative registers
Haida Formline Art
Haida Gwaii, Pacific Northwest Coast · 19th century onward
- ovoid and U-form shapes
- flowing lines that swell and taper
- strict mirror symmetry
Fante Asafo Appliqué Flags
Fante coast, Ghana · 19th century onward
- bold cut-cloth appliqué figures
- flat saturated color, no shading
- proverb-based picture