Selections from Brooklyn Museum's Holdings Reinstalled in Kevorkian Gallery

Written by Victor Considine Thursday, 03 February 2011 21:27

BROOKLYN, NY.- Selections from the Brooklyn Museum's holdings of Ancient Near East art have been reinstalled in the third-floor Kevorkian Gallery, renovated with a sloped floor to improve wheelchair access. The centerpiece of the installation continues to be twelve massive carved alabaster reliefs completed in 859 B. C. that once adorned the vast palace in Nimrud of the Assyrian King Ashur-nasir-pal II. The reliefs are now complemented by some fifty objects reflecting the diverse cultures of the region that is present-day Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey. Several of the works on view date to 5000 B. C., and were created during a time when there were no national or political boundaries, but geographic barriers that led to the development of separate cultures-the Sumerian, Assyrian, Achaemenid Persian, and Sabean-each with its own distinctive artistic tradition.

Included is a female figure from the Halaf culture that flourished in Iraq and Syria during the fifth millennium B. C. as well as female statuettes made several millennia later. Like the majority of ancient Near Eastern female figures, they emphasize fertility.

The Sumerian civilization of the third millennium B C., one of the world's earliest, is represented by several pieces of superbly crafted jewelry, including two finger rings and two pairs of gold earrings, along with beads fashioned in gold and semiprecious stones. Objects such as a lifelike figure of a monkey from the Susa area in Iran demonstrate the skills of other early Near Eastern cultures. Other highlights include a relief depicting a palace guard and a fragment of a colossal lion head that once decorated a palace in Persepolis in what is now Iran represents the large and powerful empire of the Achaemenid Persian dynasty of the sixth- and fifth-centuries, along with elements of gold jewelry depicting animal figures.

The newly sloped floors of the Kevorkian Gallery were installed to facilitate wheelchair access to the gallery, the Beaux-Arts Court, and the East Wing galleries. The original room design, with stairs on both the east and west ends, was previously modified with mechanized lifts that did not meet the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which seeks to empower people with disabilities to unassisted access to public spaces. With funding from the State of New York, given to improve access to the third floor, particularly the Beaux Arts Court, the Museum created two sloped floors, both less than 8 percent, that are less than the required minimum slope for wheelchair accessible ramps.

The floors are constructed of concrete and covered with terrazzo, a material original to the 1904 construction of this wing and other sections of the Museum. The project necessitated the moving of only two of the Assyrian reliefs at the west end of the gallery, raising them to the levels of the others. The Kevorkian Gallery now also now features new railings, signage, and lighting.

The Museum's collections were initially developed, in the early decades of the twentieth century, by such outstanding curators as Stewart Culin, Herbert Spinden, and William Henry Goodyear, with the generous support of collectors and donors from Brooklyn and around the country. Continuing to build upon their pioneering work, the Brooklyn Museum has amassed one of the largest and most diverse collections in the United States. Its vast holdings range from the ancient to the contemporary and encompass virtually all the world's principal cultures, reflecting the institution's long history of acquiring Western and non-Western art.

Visit the Brooklyn Museum at :  http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

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