The New Acropolis Museum
21 October - 19 December 2009
As the world celebrates the recent opening of the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, Columbia University's Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery presents an exhibition on the building itself — its innovative architecture and the major role it plays at the nexus of Greco-Roman cultural and archeological history.
Sited to be in visual dialogue with the Acropolis, The new Acropolis Museum creates a direct association between the displayed objects and their original context. For the first time, all significant archaeological finds from the area are consolidated into one, state-of-the-art museum, highlighting the importance of the site in shaping artistic expression in Greco-Roman antiquity and its continuing influence on perceptions of Greek art. At the heart of the Wallach exhibition is an array of full-scale casts of prime examples of the sculpture that the museum was built to house, together with casts of pottery that was unearthed during excavations for its foundation. The casts, on loan from the museum in Athens, are complemented by color photographs of the building.
Introducing the exhibition are planning documents from Bernard Tschumi Architects, the firm that designed the museum. These materials include preparatory sketches, working drawings and architectural models. Tschumi, a New York-based Swiss architect, is a member of the faculty of Columbia's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he served as dean from 1988 to 2003.
Early archeological work on the Acropolis is illuminated by illustrated books from Columbia's Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library. Copies of archival documents from the American School of Classical Studies in Athens outline the pioneering studies of William Bell Dinsmoor, a Columbia faculty member from 1919 to 1963 and one of the few foreign scholars allowed to conduct excavations on the Sacred Rock. Ioannis Mylonopoulos, professor of Ancient Greek art and archaeology in Columbia's department of art history and archaeology, is serving as curator of this exhibition.
