Preview our SPRING 2026 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
NYEHAUS/FOUNDATION 20 21
The Creative Ice Age Brain
Cave Art in the Light of Neuroscience
By Barbara Olins Alpert. Foreword by Dr. Adam Zeman.
A haunting mystery surrounds the magnificent Ice Age art that is found mainly in the caves of Western Europe. In this substantial new study, scholar Barbara Alpert approaches this art using information from psychology and discoveries in neuroscience. Techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) scans and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have demonstrated an enormous amount about the working of the brain. By examining the oldest-known human-made images in the light of this new information, Alpert reveals many of the impulses that underlie their creation. In a detailed comparison of Ice Age images with similar examples found throughout art history, Alpert argues that the approach of these earliest artists was not unique, but forms part of a continuum linking the distant past with the present. She shows how the art is based on a visual language found worldwide--one that appears to be universal for our species.
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 247 pgs / 35 color / 200 b&w / 10 duotone / 2 tritone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $90 ISBN: 9781934171103 PUBLISHER: nyehaus/foundation 20 21 AVAILABLE: 2/1/2009 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: WORLD
The Creative Ice Age Brain Cave Art in the Light of Neuroscience
Published by nyehaus/foundation 20 21. By Barbara Olins Alpert. Foreword by Dr. Adam Zeman.
A haunting mystery surrounds the magnificent Ice Age art that is found mainly in the caves of Western Europe. In this substantial new study, scholar Barbara Alpert approaches this art using information from psychology and discoveries in neuroscience. Techniques such as computerized tomography (CT) scans and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have demonstrated an enormous amount about the working of the brain. By examining the oldest-known human-made images in the light of this new information, Alpert reveals many of the impulses that underlie their creation. In a detailed comparison of Ice Age images with similar examples found throughout art history, Alpert argues that the approach of these earliest artists was not unique, but forms part of a continuum linking the distant past with the present. She shows how the art is based on a visual language found worldwide--one that appears to be universal for our species.
