The Lowe Art Museum's permanent collection spans some 5,000 years of world art, from ancient to contemporary, encompassing both Western and non-Western cultures in nine distinct collecting areas. All bear witness to the recurring interest in figuration as a vehicle of artistic expression. For the first time, an exhibition at the Lowe explores and addresses stylistic and iconographic relationships between its multicultural holdings, linking them by the connective thread of figuration. Four thematic sections ideality, spirituality, identity, and narrative serve to demonstrate striking similitudes and dramatic distinctions between objects, which are traditionally housed in separate galleries within the museum.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

The Idealized Figure

The Spiritual Figure

The Narrative Figure

Issues of Identity

Bibliography