Cycladic Heads: What the Nose Knows

Cycladic Head, Mindy Shapiro at Armory 2011

Is the title referring to the the Bronze Age civilization on the Cyclades islands in the southern Aegean Sea, or the present day inhabitants? The painted acrylic scales covering the wood statue were hand cut and performs marvels of gently undulating texture.

Detail, Cycladic Head

 The Metropolitan has its own Clycadic head, most definitely of the Bronze age- 2700 BC to be precise.

Head from the figure of a woman, Metropolitan Museum of Art

There are traces of pigment on the sculpture that suggest the surface was originally colored in with more facial features. Typically the nose the only individual feature sculpted, lending it a noticable prominence today.