On View

What’s it like seeing Gustav Klimt’s iconic Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer in person? For many, the answer exists only in their imagination. However, from November 11, 2022, through February 13, 2023, philanthropist Ronald Lauder is giving the public that very opportunity with a showing of his personal collection as it appears in his home—that is, an exact reproduction of his private residence within the Neue Galerie New York.
The show, in honor of the 20th anniversary of the museum’s founding, is the first time in a decade that a comprehensive look at the Ronald S. Lauder Collection has been publicly available. Comprising Greco-Roman sculptures from the third century B.C.E. through German and Austrian art from the 20th century, it is one of the world’s greatest private art holdings.
It’s also, apparently, caused something of a stir because the Gilded Age mansion where it resides was not built with a freight elevator. The Neue Galerie had to hoist numerous larger pieces through its windows. Suffice it to say, onlookers have been rapt the past few weeks watching Renaissance gold-ground paintings, medieval suits of armor, and other remarkable treasures pass into the museum’s upper stories.
And yet more startling, when viewed in person, is how so many of these stunning works have been arranged to create a home. More than museum curation, the show—with its astute attention to detail—imposes none of the stuffiness one might expect from having so many classic works under one roof. Instead, it feels relaxed, like visiting a friend whose life has been dedicated to celebrating the arts. In this way, it sheds the pretensions of displaying art in favor of experiencing it. It’s a feeling Lauder enjoys, we must imagine, on a daily basis—and one we hope the following collection highlights convey.
Monumental Head of a Goddess, Greek, Hellenistic, ca. mid-second century B.C.E., marble. Private Collection. Photo: Hulya Kolabas.
This Hellenistic, marble head (ca. 150 B.C.E.) is intriguing both for its mute, piercing gaze and its position on Lauder’s desk. “This is the one time that he decided to make his private rooms available to the public—and given the scope of the project, it will likely never happen again,” Neue Galerie Director Renée Price told Artnet News. “The works selected for the exhibition were chosen by Mr. Lauder himself, and arranged at the Neue Galerie in a manner that reflects how they are displayed in his home. The presentation demonstrates a unique, private taste—a vision.”
Installation view of “The Ronald S. Lauder Collection” on view at Neue Galerie New York. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.
Containing the world’s premier assembly of works by Gustav Klimt, Lauder’s collection of early 20th-century Austrian art is replete with works visitors will recognize instantly. In a video produced to introduce the show, Lauder says he has three classifications of art: “Oh,” “Oh my,” and “Oh my God!”—and he only collects the last of these. As a result, he says, “It is impossible for me to choose a favorite work from my collection. When I love an artwork and decide to acquire it, I don’t fall out of love with it. I just get to know it better.”
Jug, Italian (ca. 1600). Rock crystal, gold, enamel. Private Collection. Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.
Central to the Neue’s reproduction of Lauder’s private office is his impressive white-marble statue of Hermes (second century C.E.), Roman messenger of the gods, as well as his magnificent collection of exotic and exceptional objects, dating from the 15th through the 18th centuries. To properly display the precious decorative objects, Lauder thoughtfully designed a Kunstkammer (art cabinet) for his residence, which is replicated at the show. In discussing how the museum faithfully reconstructed the interiors, Price commented, “The process of developing the exhibition was a collaborative effort between Mr. Lauder, his curatorial team led by Elizabeth Szancer, and the Neue Galerie team. Discussions began long ago, with many Zoom calls, discussing and rearranging floor plans. Then the heavy lifting, which involved getting permits to hoist large-scale works into our historic building, and install the works on-site. The final result is a testament to the dedication of a great team of people.”
Installation view of “The Ronald S. Lauder Collection” on view at Neue Galerie New York. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.
Numerous works in the Neue exhibition exemplify how Lauder’s personal taste goes into the selection of everything he collects, such as this painting by lesser-known German expressionist Conrad Felixmüller, My Brother–Mining Engineer (1922). Commenting on his process, Lauder told Artnet News, “Art collecting for me is a passion. It’s about what speaks to me on a personal level. It never has been about the market, or the need to collect (or to avoid collecting) what others do. It doesn’t take great connoisseurship to buy a world-famous Picasso. It only takes money.”
Erich Heckel (1883–1970), Bathers in a Pond (1908). Oil on canvas. Private Collection. Photo courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.
Commenting on a reproduction of the mantelpiece—over which hangs one of the first works Lauder acquired, Erich Heckel’s Bathers in a Pond (1908)—Price said, “At the Neue Galerie, we are always thinking about the Gesamtkunstwerk—or total work of art. The experience of visiting our museum is all-encompassing for the senses: a view of the galleries that present fine art and design at an intimate scale, a taste of the Austrian cuisine in Café Sabarsky, a tactile moment in the design shop and bookstore. While our mission is focused on Austrian and German art from the early 20th century, this exhibition is placing what we do here in a much broader context. The underlying principle is the Gesamtkunstwerk, everything together, of the highest quality. That is the philosophy of the Neue Galerie, and the Lauder Collection is so exemplary of that philosophy.”
Bernardo Daddi (Italian, active ca. 1312/20), Madonna and Child with Four Angels (1348), Florence. Tempera and gold on panel. Private Collection.
In a wider sense, the Neue’s exhibition presents a unique accretion of histories, not only of Lauder’s as a collector and of what the works depict, but of each piece’s provenance—many were stolen by Nazi authorities and recovered after World War II—and art history itself. According to Lauder, “The exhibition reflects the evolution of my collecting interests over the course of the past decade, as highlights from my collection were first presented at the Neue Galerie for the museum’s 10th anniversary. Over the past ten years, I became interested in new areas, including antiquities and gold ground paintings, rekindled my interests in Old Masters, and deepened existing areas of my collection.”
Installation view of “The Ronald S. Lauder Collection” on view at Neue Galerie New York. Photo: Hulya Kolabas, courtesy of Neue Galerie New York.
In addition to magnificent works of art, the show also features a room dedicated to Lauder’s remarkable collection of medieval armor and weapons. “In every era, there are great artists,” Lauder explained to Artnet News. “The thread of excellence of the great masters runs through the centuries, from ancient Greek and Roman art to Medieval Art, from gold-ground paintings of the early Renaissance to Old Master paintings and Kunstkammer objects of the 15th to the 18th century, through to the early 20th century Austrian and German art and decorations. Most early works do not have the artist’s identity but even without their names, they are of great quality. I have always been fascinated by masterworks throughout the centuries.”
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For the first time ever, an entire exhibition dedicated to the late artist Jack Whitten’s landmark “Greek Alphabet” series is on view at Dia Beacon, expanding the public’s understanding of Whitten’s experimental practice. In the series, Whitten departs from his earlier Abstract Expressionist style of painting and instead adopts the Greek alphabet as the starting point for black and white compositions, created with handmade tools and unique applications.
Whitten continued to experiment with the physicality of paint on canvas throughout his career, switching from oil to acrylic in the 1960s and moving toward more conceptual ideas, in contrast to the Surrealist and Figurative Expressionist styles that first captivated him.
In an exclusive interview with Art21 filmed just before his death in 2018, Whitten explained how his art was informed by his experiences as a young Black man in the segregated South, and how it changed over the course of his career. “The young artist has to have something to react to,” he said, noting his involvement in the political protests during the Civil Rights era.
He also discussed his impressions upon arriving in New York’s art world in 1960. “I met Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Jacob Lawrence,” he said. “The scene was open. Bill de Kooning would talk to you!”
Unlike his contemporaries, Whitten’s work was not explicitly figurative, though he did reference important Black figures like Count Basie and James Baldwin in his Black Monolith abstractions. “I’m not a narrative painter. I don’t do the idea, or the painting being the illustration of an idea, I don’t do that,” he said. “It’s all about the materiality of the paint.”

Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Extended Play, below. “Jack Whitten: The Greek Alphabet Paintings” is on view at Dia, Beacon through July 10, 2023.
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This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of news-making artists. A new season of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series, like New York Close Up and Extended Play, and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

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For the dissident theater director and visual artist Robert Wilson, a chair exists in space, not simply in its relationship to function or its beauty as an object—but also in how it’s experienced throughout memory and time.
While visiting his uncle in the New Mexican desert, eight-year-old Wilson took notice of the only chair in the house amid the spare surroundings and proclaimed, “That’s a beautiful chair.” His uncle later sent him the chair as a Christmas present. This simple wooden chair held great significance for the young Wilson, who was otherwise besieged by the ordinary presents of his Texas childhood: shotguns and cowboy boots. When he was 17 his uncle’s son wrote to him, “My father sent you this chair, and it’s mine, and I’d like it back.” He sent it back, yet there began a lifetime fascination with collecting chairs.
By the time Wilson was making plays at 27, the collector, playwright, choreographer, painter and sculptor took the opportunity to create his own chairs for his productions. He saw these chairs as having their own personalities—becoming characters on the stage along with the performers.
“Robert Wilson: Chairs, 1969–2011,” opening November 17 and running through January 14 at MDFG in Brooklyn, collects many of these characters in a career-spanning exhibit, showcasing the breadth of the 81-year-old’s poetic imagination and use of materials.
Some of Wilson’s characters as chairs embody real figures interpreted and transformed through his personal lens, like his Einstein Chairs (1976) of elongated metal pipes created for his 1976 collaboration with Philip Glass, “Einstein on the Beach,” or his heavy Queen Victoria Chairs (1974), made of wood, metal, odd angles, and adorned with car headlights for his opera in four acts, “A Letter to Queen Victoria.”
These works are beyond mere props, not only as characters within the performance, but also as sculptural objects that invite interpretation and contemplation—especially outside of their original context, presented on their own as they are here, now.
Robert Wilson. Hanging Chair (Freud), 1969/1991. Metal wire mesh.
Robert Wilson. Gilgamesh Chair (Pair), 1988. Wood, painted bandages.
Robert Wilson. The Meek Girl Chair, 1994. Wood, veneers, fur.

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What does a 19th-century weaving loom have to do with computer programming? In the eyes—and practice—of artist Beryl Korot, the answer is: a lot. In fact, the pioneering video artist makes the case for the Jacquard loom, invented in 1804, as the earliest computer because of its ability to program patterns using punch cards. A show on view now at Manhattan’s Bitforms Gallery titled “Rethinking Threads” charts the artist’s artistic journey in making the connections between art and technology.
The exhibition also references Korot’s earlier works, including her 2007 piece Babel: The Seven Minute Scroll. In an exclusive interview with Art21 filmed back in 2010, the artist discussed the work, which references the ancient text using contemporary technology.
“I guess I always had the attitude towards technology that the more intimate you are with the tools that you get, the more you can tell your story,” Korot explained. “And so I decided to make a scroll, in a sense, on the computer based on the Tower of Babel story.” Using letters of the alphabet, pictograms, and her own visual language, the artist creates her own narrative while probing the history of communication.
“For me as an artist, I’m interested, in a sense, in going beyond my personal expression to things that I’m personally drawn towards, that also tell my story,” the artist told Art21. “Which is my connectedness to other points in time. Past. Present. Old tools. New tools.”

Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Extended Play, below. “Beryl Korot: Rethinking Threads” is on view at Bitforms Gallery through November 26, 2022.

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This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of news-making artists. A new season of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series, like New York Close Up and Extended Play, and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

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This weekend, 96 artist-designed globes will be installed at the heart of London in Trafalgar Square, to raise awareness about the history of the transatlantic slave trade in the U.K., as part of the nationwide project, The World Reimagined.
The public will be able to view the globes—designed by creatives including the project’s founding artist, Yinka Shonibare—from November 19–20, and then bid on them in an online auction held by Bonhams online only now from November 17 through November 25. Proceeds are going to The World Reimagined’s learning program, the artists, and the establishment of a grant-making program for racial justice projects and organization.
“The core mission of The World Reimagined is to engage the public to learn about the impact of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans,” Ashley Shaw Scott Adjaye, artistic director of The World Reimagined, told Artnet News. “To have a public exhibition in Trafalgar Square, in the heart of the capital where so many people can interact with these glorious works, is incredibly exciting.”
More than 100 globes were commissioned via an open call judged by Shaw Scott Adjaye, who is also head of global research at her husband’s architecture firm Adjaye Associates; artist Chris Ofili; Zoé Whitley, director of the Chisenhale Gallery; Matthew Smith, director of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL; and Renée Mussai, senior curator and head of curatorial and collections at Autograph, a London-based arts charity.
A selection of globes which are going on view in Trafalgar Square. Photo: courtesy the World Reimagined.
The sculptures were decorated by African diaspora artists from across the U.K., as well as a number from the Caribbean. Among those who contributed designs include Julianknxx, who has an exhibition at the Barbican Curve in 2023, Godfried Donkor, Phoebe Boswell, and Alison Turner. All of them have drawn on their personal experience with Britain’s history with slavery, and how it has impacted people of all backgrounds and races living in the U.K. today.
“The World Reimagined is an important opportunity to reflect on the importance of our diversity and to shine a light on our collective stories that too often remain untold,” said the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. “We must remember the millions who suffered due to the Transatlantic slave trade and the impact this has had on generations of Black communities.”
Godfried Donkor, Race. Photo: courtesy the World Reimagined.
Many of the globes have already been shown in cities around the U.K. since August. Each has a QR code on its base that takes visitors to a website, where they can learn more about the issues and histories raised in the artwork.
“This is a deeply powerful moment. We believe in an idea of patriotism that says we are strong and courageous enough to look at our shared past and present honestly, so we can create a better future—together,” said the project’s co-founder Michelle Gayle. “It’s not Black history—it’s all of our history.”
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Visitors to “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” at the Tate Modern in London will find themselves dwarfed as they move between vast, free-hanging structures that challenge our traditional notions of sculpture and textile art. 
Their warmly colored, ragged surfaces have been achieved by weaving together organic materials like sisal plant, horsehair, and hemp rope into complex and ambiguous 3D fiber installations known as “Abakans.”
“It is from fiber that all living organisms are built, the tissue of plants, leaves and ourselves,” Abakanowicz once said. “Our nerves, our genetic code, the canals of our veins, our muscles. We are fibrous structures.” 
Audiences will learn how Abakanowicz started out making painted textiles in the 1950s and watch as her practice evolved over the 1960s and ’70s, when she transitioned to building suspended forms on a monumental scale.
Their radical nature is all the more striking for the artist’s distance from many of the major hubs of the art world. Born in 1930, she grew up in the rural Polish countryside and later, during the war, her family became part of the resistance while she worked as a nurse’s aid at the remarkably young age of 14. Afterward, Abakanowicz became an artist under an oppressive Communist regime and struggled against the odds to build an internationally recognized career. 
Abakanowicz is also known today for Agora, a crowded group of headless figures permanently installed in Chicago’s Grant Park, and War Games, large structures made from trees in the style of military equipment. One of the works from this latter series, Anasta (1989), is displayed in the exhibition alongside the Abakans.
“Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. See works in the show below.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Installation view of “Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every Tangle of Thread and Rope” is on show at Tate Modern until May 21, 2023. Photo courtesy of Tate Modern.
Magdalena Abakanowicz, Brown Textile 21 (1963). Photo courtesy of Tate Modern; © Fundacja Marty Magdaleny Abakanowicz Kosmowskiej iJana Kosmowskiego, Warsaw.
Photograph of Magdalena Abakanowicz at work in 1966. Photo: © Estate of Marek Holzman.

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The boom in immersive art shows has seen some of the world’s best-loved masterpieces reimagined on the largest scale, and toured to audiences worldwide. The focus so far has been on historical works, with artists such as Vincent Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt and Frida Kahlo among the most popular subjects. 
David Hockney may now be one of the first living artists to get the same treatment for a new show, “Bigger & Closer (not smaller and further away)” opening early next year in London. 
Installation of David Hockney’s Gregory Swimming Los Angeles March 31st 1982 at “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away),” an immersive art experience at Lightroom in King’s Cross, London. Photo: courtesy of Lightroom, ©David Hockney.
Hockney has been able to take the reins and direct this new immersive journey, inviting visitors into some of his most renowned paintings, from the swimming pools he painted during his years in California to the vast canyons he captured in the American West.
Photographs and polaroid collages will also be used to tell visitors about the artist’s life, transporting audiences between Yorkshire, where Hockney is from, to Los Angeles, where he moved to in the 1960s, and Normandy in southern France, where he now lives. 
These insights and many more will stretch across six themed chapters, which are set against commentary from Hockney and a custom score by the American composer Nico Muhly.
Installation of The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twentyeleven) (1998) at “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away),” an immersive art experience at Lightroom in King’s Cross, London. Photo: courtesy of Lightroom; © David Hockney.
“The world is very, very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don’t look very much,” Hockney muses in one voice-over. “They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, they don’t really look at things incredibly well, with an intensity. I do.”
Three years in the making, this mega production won’t be the first time Hockney has kept an eye on tech trends and adapted his painting practice to new media. He began using computer software to draw as early as the 1980s and, since 2009, he has regularly exhibited portraits, landscapes and still-lifes that were made on an iPad.
David Hockney viewing the model box containing an immersive view of his work August 2021, Landscape with Shadows. Photo: Mark Grimmer, © David Hockney.
The show will open in Lightroom, a new four-story exhibition space for immersive experiences in the creative district of Kings Cross, organized by the London Theatre Company and 59 Productions. “David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller and further away)” runs from January 25 to April 23, 2023 and tickets are now on sale at £25 ($30) for adults and £15 ($18) for students.
London is also home to Frameless, another venue for experiential art forms that opened in Marble Arch in September. The arrival of Lightroom suggests that the immersive art craze shows no sign of disappearing, following major investment in this fast growing sector.
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She lived more than 4,000 years ago, she was a Sumerian priestess and, worth mentioning, she was the first recorded author in the world. Her name is Enheduanna, and her place in history is finally being recognized in a new show at New York’s Morgan Library and Museum.
It’s an exhibition that tells an extraordinary story of not just one individual, but of the role of women as a whole in the ancient society of the Fertile Crescent. Not only did the Mesopotamians worship the goddess Ishtar (in Akkadian) or Inanna (in Sumerian), but they also respected women and their important societal contributions, whether as mothers or wet nurses, as skilled agriculture or textile workers, or as religious priestesses with cultic responsibilities.
In the most famous of three poems attributed to Enheduanna, The Exaltation of Inanna, she writes about a usurper named Lugalanne exiling her from her post—and the goddess coming to her aid and restoring her to the temple. The first 60 lines start off as a simple prayer. But then, something unprecedented happens, and the author identifies herself: “I am Enheduanna, let me speak to you my prayer.”
“For the first time in world literature, the writer steps forward and uses the first persons singular and introduces autobiography,” curator Sidney Babcock, head of the Morgan’s department for ancient Western Asian seals and tablets, told Artnet News during a tour of the show. “And what does she write about? Abuse, sexual harassment, defilement, exile, the destructive forces of nature, things that are with us to this very day. And it’s profound and it’s personal. A very strong voice comes through.”
While the exhibition takes its starting point from Enheduanna, most of the artifacts on view are stone carvings depicting women, and the material is in and of itself significant for a culture located on a flood plain where most buildings were made from mud, the most common natural resource.
“Stones represent imported, rare, raw materials,” Babcock said. “That they should immortalize women’s roles is extraordinary. We have women tending animals, women making pottery, and women at a loom weaving. This one shows a priestess in front of a temple, and they’re bringing her offerings.”
Cylinder seal (and modern impression) with two female figures presenting offerings Mesopotamia, Sumerian, possibly Umma (modern Tell Jokha) Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2,500 B.C.E.) Photo by Olaf M. Teßmer, ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Vorderasiatisches Museum.
The artworks to which he was pointing are tiny carvings on round cylinder seals, which the Mesopotamians would have rolled onto clay tablets, using them to prove the authenticity of these written documents. (The show features impressions made with contemporary reproductions of each seal, to better visualize the imagery.)
“Many institutions have these early seals where the role of women has been commemorated and preserved, but they’re mostly overlooked,” Babcock said. “I thought we should celebrate them.”
That these cylinders record the activities of women may seem unusual to modern viewers. That they depict women of all classes, not just the elite, carrying out daily activities—even a scene of childbirth, rarely seen throughout art history—seems almost unbelievable.
Cylinder seal (and modern impression) with birth scene Mesopotamia, Sumerian Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2,600–2,350 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Other sculptures on view are diminutive figures of women that at first glance may seem unremarkable. But unlike many ancient statues of women, these delicately carved artworks aren’t fertility figures, and these aren’t ancient royalty.
“These are individuals. This is sort of the beginning of portraiture,” Babcock said, pointing to the subtle modeling and fine carving in the sculptures. “These are so sophisticated. To combine stylized details to a natural whole, that is a sign of a great thinking artist.”
The curator first considered staging an Enheduanna exhibition a decade ago, and it was delayed three times due to the pandemic. But despite the logistical challenges that caused, the Morgan secured loans from museums around the world, making sure to install the sculptures to be seen in the round, for viewers to be able to appreciate the details such as the women’s flowing hair from all sides.
Kneeling female figure Iran, proto-Elamite, Susa (modern Shush) Late Uruk period (ca. 3300 B.C.E.) Photo by Les frères Chuzeville, ©Musée de l’Armée, Dist., RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York.
The curator stopped before a statue of a female worshipper kneeling in prayer, on loan from the Louvre in Paris. “At her home institution, she’s on a glass shelf with about 20 other things, and here she just fills the case,” he said. “She embodies this sense of humility before the divine or the unknown, whatever you want to call it.”
Another highlight, a heavily damaged bust of a woman borrowed from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin, isn’t even on regular view back in Germany.
“She’s so magnificent, but she’s so battered,” Babcock said. “The reason why she looks like that is that she survived the bombings of the World War II in Berlin. And here she is. She survived.”
Cylinder seal (and modern impression) of Queen Puabi Mesopotamia, Sumerian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), PG 800, Puabi’s Tomb Chamber, against Puabi’s upper right arm Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2,500 B.C.E.) Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
The show also includes the first depiction of a named woman in recorded history, a stone scraper that shows a woman raising her hands in front of her mouth. Inscriptions on the object and an accompanying chisel, both dated to around 3,000 B.C.E., identify her as KA-GÍR-gal, and suggest that she was a co-seller in some kind of land deal.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a stunning golden headdress archaeologists found in the tomb of Queen Puabi of Ur, identified only by her own name, not in relation to a male relative or husband. Babcock believes that Puabi may have worn the gorgeous ensemble, on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, during nighttime rituals celebrating the moon god, the chief god of Ur.
“Imagine the total darkness of Southern Mesopotamia, and the bright light of the moon on the flood plain, and how this gold headdress, which just reflects the moon and glistens,” he said. “The whole thing would be absolutely dazzling.”
Queen Puabi’s funerary ensemble Mesopotamia, Sumerian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), PG 800, Puabi’s Tomb Chamber, on Puabi’s body Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2,500 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
But the star of the show is still Enheduanna. The daughter of the Akkadian king Sargon, the author took her name, which means “high priestess, ornament of heaven,” when he appointed her priestess of the temple of the moon god.
“We don’t have any texts from her own time, but Enheduanna’s work was considered so important that it was one of the 10 works that were taught in all scribal schools for hundreds of years after her lifetime,” Babcock said. “So her writings survived in copies.”
But Babcock believes that Enheduanna wasn’t unique, and that there is evidence of a more widespread female literacy in Mesopotamia. He’s especially excited about a small kneeling statue of a woman, also on loan from the Vorderasiatisches.
“When this was published by the German scholar, a hundred and something years ago, he said ‘Woman with tablet in her lap, meaning unclear.’ It’s been forgotten until this exhibition, and we have resurrected it as the visual proof of women in literacy,” Babcock said. “It is from slightly later than Edheduanna’s time, but if it’s not her image, then it’s an image of what she meant for successive generations.”
See more works from the exhibition below.
Disk of Enheduanna, daughter of Sargon Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), gipar Akkadian period (ca. 2,300 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
Seated female figure with tablet on lap Mesopotamia, Neo-Sumerian Ur III period (ca. 2,112–2,004 B.C.E.). Photo by Olaf M. Teßmer, ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Vorderasiatisches Museum.

Tablets inscribed with “The Exaltation of Inanna” in three parts Mesopotamia, possibly Larsa (modern Tell Senkereh) Old Babylonian period (ca. 1,750 B.C.E.). Photo by Klaus Wagensonner, courtesy of the Yale Babylonian Collection.

Vessel with faces of female deities Mesopotamia, Sumerian Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2500 B.C.E.). Photo by Art Resource, New York, ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Vessel with faces of female deities Mesopotamia, Sumerian Early Dynastic IIIa period (ca. 2500 B.C.E.). Photo by Art Resource, New York, ©The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Fragment of a vessel with frontal image of goddess Mesopotamia, Sumerian Early Dynastic IIIb period (ca. 2400 B.C.E.). Photo by Olaf M. Teßmer, ©Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Vorderasiatisches Museum.
Cylinder seal (and modern impression) with sheep and stylized plants Mesopotamia, Sumerian Late Uruk–Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3300–2900 B.C.E.). Photo by Klaus Wagensonner (seal) and Graham S. Haber (impression).
Stele of Shara-igizi-Abzu Mesopotamia, Sumerian, possibly Umma (modern Tell Jokha) Early Dynastic I–II period (ca. 2900–2600 B.C.E.). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, funds from various donors, 1958.
Seated female figure with vessel in hands Mesopotamia, Neo-Sumerian, Girsu (modern Tello) Ur III period (ca. 2,112–2,004 B.C.E.). Photo by Franck Raux, ©RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, New York.
Cylinder seal (and modern impression) with goddesses Ninishkun and Ishtar Mesopotamia, Akkadian Akkadian period (ca. 2,334–2,154 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.
Cylinder seal with mother and child attended by women Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), PG 871 Akkadian period (ca. 2,334–2,154 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
Modern impression with mother and child attended by women Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), PG 871 Akkadian period (ca. 2,334–2,154 B.C.E.). Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
Head of a high priestess (?) with inlaid eyes Mesopotamia, Akkadian, Ur (modern Tell el-Muqayyar), area EH, south of gipar Akkadian period (ca. 2334–2154 BC). Photo courtesy of the Penn Museum.
Fragment of a standing female figure with clasped hands Mesopotamia, Neo-Sumerian, Girsu (modern Tello) Possibly the reign of Gudea, ruler of Lagash (ca. 2,150 B.C.E.). Photo by Thierry Olivier, ©Musée du Louvre, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais/Thierry Olivier/Art Resource, New York.
“Enheduanna and Women of Mesopotamia” is on view at the Morgan Library and Museum, 225 Madison Avenue, New York, October 14, 2022–February 19, 2023.
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