How White Elites Drained Ancient Art of Its Color

"In the autumn of 2022, Max and I walked up the iconic steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City to visit Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color. As the young son of a professional classicist, and a burgeoning one himself, my museum partner already knew about the ancient history of painted statues when we began to explore the galleries. Max's knowledge seemed the exception rather than the rule."

"During our tour of the exhibition, as we wove between ancient works and their modern polychromatic restorations, we came across parents and children transfixed in front of these colorful re-imaginings - and, by the look of it, the parents' reactions ranged from disbelief to intrigue to disgust. 'It looks so, well, tacky,' stammered one woman. 'They could not possibly have been this gauche,' commented a man in a suit and tie."

Chroma: Ancient Sculpture in Color at the Metropolitan Museum of Art presented polychromatic reconstructions that revealed vivid painted surfaces originally applied to classical sculpture. Visitors displayed mixed reactions: many adults expressed disbelief or discomfort while children responded with curiosity and acceptance. The reconstructions used materials such as polymethyl metacrylate, natural pigments in egg tempera, gold foil, and copper to recreate ancient coloration. The exhibition prompted museums to reconsider longstanding whitewashed presentations of antiquity and to examine how classical whiteness connects to histories of racial ideology and white supremacy. Many adult visitors appeared to grieve previous understandings of the past when confronted with painted reconstructions.

Read at Hyperallergic