From Chaos to Order is the first exhibition to focus on the aesthetics of Greek Geometric art, and the first to demonstrate how stylistic principles in visual art during the Geometric period reflect a characteristically Greek idea of “the beautiful” (kallos). From 900-700 BC, Greek art was reborn after a two-centuries-long Dark Age. During this period one can trace the development of a new visual vocabulary that stressed clarity, balance, and symmetry. These design principles appear surprisingly contemporary, yet constituted the structural DNA of all subsequent Greek art, the essential and irreducible foundation that would give it its special character throughout classical antiquity.
This exhibition brings long overdue attention to this formative period of Greek art, a period that also witnessed the invention of the Greek alphabet, the rise of the panHellenic sanctuaries (e.g. Olympia and Delphi), and the development of the organizational structure of the Greek city-state (polis). The exhibition is entirely drawn from the collection of Sol Rabin. His is the most important private collection of Greek Geometric art.
Made possible by Colleen and Sol Rabin
Image: Greek (Olympia?), Dancing Bull, Eighth century BC, Bronze, The Sol Rabin Collection