Art 101—Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures
- Thu, Dec 12, 2024
- 7 pm - 8 pm PT
- Online
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LACMA members only. Invitations sent via email.
This event will take place online via Zoom.
Join us for an exclusive members-only lecture on Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures with Stephen Little, Florence and Harry Sloan Curator of Chinese Art and Department Head, Chinese, Korean, and South & Southeast Asian Art.
Mapping the Infinite: Cosmologies Across Cultures, created in collaboration with scientists at the Carnegie Observatories and the Griffith Observatory, presents a group of rare and visually stunning artworks from different cultures and time periods to explore the variety of human attempts to explain the universe’s origins, mechanics, and meaning. Nearly every ancient culture has seen the heavens as a mirror of cosmic structure and process, and ancient measurements of time were directly influenced by the movements of heavenly bodies. Mapping the Infinite reveals how, as religions evolved, cultures conceived of and depicted cosmic deities and concepts of time and space through works of art and sacred architecture.
The exhibition illuminates this history of cosmologies around the globe from the Stone Age to the present, from Neolithic Europe to the present day and including Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, South and Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Islamic Middle East, the Indigenous Americas, Northern Europe, and the United States.
Guests will have an opportunity to participate during the conversation’s question and answer period via Zoom’s Q&A function.
Image credit: Johannes Sadeler I, Mercurius from The Seven Planets, 1585, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mary Stansbury Ruiz Bequest, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA
Image credit: Johannes Sadeler I, Mercurius from The Seven Planets, 1585, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mary Stansbury Ruiz Bequest, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA