From New Zealand to Leeds...
Opening night at the Leeds exhibition
Widely exhibited in New Zealand 2008-12, the exhibition launched in the UK in early 2015 at Leeds City Museum (23 January-15 March 2015).
Here Marian’s prints were displayed alongside a selection of coins and other antiquities from the Leeds collection, putting them into the context of a 2,500-year-old tradition of reinterpretations of the hero. In addition, The museum's New Worlds collection supplied Maori artefacts, including a pounami (jade) axe-head and examples of the distinctive tewhhatewha (fighting staff) held by Maori leaders in several of the prints.
Leeds City Council's item
Viewing the Etchings at Leeds
The Leeds City Museum exhibition was accompanied by a series of talks by Dr Emma Stafford (University of Leeds), who discussed the prints and the images from which they take their inspiration: 'Introducing Herakles', 'Herakles the Coloniser', and 'Herakles the Politician'. The first two of these talks are available in our Resources area, under Art.
Hercules Project Art Resources
To Cambridge...
Three of Maguire's lithographs juxtaposed with casts of the pedimental sculpture from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia
The next stop on the tour was the Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology (17 April-15 August 2015). Here the prints were set against the atmospheric backdrop of the museum's casts of classical Greek sculpture. These include a number featuring our hero, notably the massive Farnese Herakles and some of the metopes from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia (c.460 BCE), which was the first building in ancient Greece to depict Herakles performing the canonical Twelve Labours.
Cambridge Museum of Classical Archaeology's item
Maguire's Herakles Goes Hunting (lithograph 2006), with Myron's Diskobolos (original c.460-50 BC) and other casts in the background.
In May Dr Emma Stafford delivered the talk 'Herakles the New Zealand Pioneer: an ancient Greek hero reflects on colonialism'. From May to August a series of children's workshops engaged younger viewers with the exhibition.
To Munich...
Banner for Herakles in Neuseeland against the Antikensammlungen's Neoclassical façade.
Next the prints went to Munich's Antikensammlungen (16 September-13 December 2015), where they were juxtaposed with the museum's particularly fine collection of Greek vases, including many which feature Herakles.
Antikensammlungen's item
Four of Maguire's etchings seen beyond the Andokides Painter's red-figure version of Herakles reclining on Olympos (c.530 BCE)
In addition to the Labours of Herakles prints, there were several from Marian Maguire's earlier series The Odyssey of Captain Cook, which again combine Greek myth and references to Greek art with a colonial theme.
Prof. Elizabeth Rankin speaking at the Munich exhibition
Just after the opening there were talks on the prints by Prof. Elizabeth Rankin (Auckland) and Marian Maguire herself. A new edition of the catalogue The Labours of Herakles accompanies the exhibition, including an introduction by Prof. Rolf Schneider (Munich) and Prof. Elizabeth Rankin's essay 'Marian Maguire's Mythology: imag(in)ing antiquity in Aotearoa New Zealand'.
Marian Maguire's website
To Würzburg...
The prints displayed with Greek vases and eighteenth-century paintings in the Graphische Sammlung.
The prints were on show at Würzburg's Martin von Wagner Museum (22 January-May 2016). Here they were exhibited in the Graphische Sammlung, alongside some of the Art Gallery's collection of eighteenth-century paintings as well as a selection of beautiful vases from the Antikensammlung. All of the vases shown here are Attic black-figure amphoras, from the sixth century BCE, featuring Herakles performing one or another of his famous Labours.
Martin von Wagner Museum's item
The paintings above echo the verdant scene imagined in 'Herakles dreams of Arcadia' (bottom right).
At the opening, there were talks by Dr Jochen Griesbach (Director of the Antikensammlung) on 'Herakles and the ancient roots of western values', by Dr Eckhard Leuschner (from the University of Würzburg's Institut für Kunstgeschichte) on 'Transcultural Hercules: the art-historical perspective', and by Dr Emma Stafford on the prints themselves.
Hercules Project Art Resources
In the foreground, Herakles wrestles the Nemean Lion on an Attic black-figure amphora by the Towry Whyte Painter, c.575-25 BCE
Once again, in addition to the Labours of Herakles prints, there were several from Maguire's earlier series The Odyssey of Captain Cook.
For an interview with Emma Stafford about Marian Maguire's work - and a vase by the Berlin Painter - see Manchester Museum's Thematic Collecting blog (April 2015) for a print summary of the interview and this page for the video interviews.
Manchester Museum's Thematic Collecting blog
And to Mariemont...
Dr Annie Verbanck (curator of antiquities) shows His Excellence Gregory Andrews, New Zealand Ambassador to Belgium, around the exhibition.
The tour concluded at the Musée Royal de Mariemont in southwest Belgium (24 September-20 November 2016). Héraclès chez les Maoris displayed the prints in the museum’s Mediterranean World rooms, alongside the Greek sculpture and vases of the permanent collection. In October Emma Stafford attended a private viewing of the exhibition for the New Zealand Ambassador to Belgium, who was intrigued to find his own country featuring amidst the museum’s displays of other cultures.
Herakles surprised by Maoris who were driven off with Heavy Losses seen behind a bronze statuette from classical Greece
There were some nice juxtapositions throughout the exhibition, making thematic and visual links between the ancient and modern artworks.
Herakles fighting the Amazons: Attic black-figure amphora, c.520 BCE
The museum’s collection includes a fine late archaic Greek vase depicting the same sort of image of Herakles as the prints.