Arts
King Tut at the AGO
King Tut has returned to the AGO.
30 years ago, when I was eight, my parents attended the Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario without me, figuring I was too young and that their evening tickets to the very popular show were past my bedtime. Thankfully they brought home a copy of the catalog, which I read and re-read, again and again. How awesome then, to learn of another chance to see the Tut in person!
Three years in the making, this new show is twice the size of the 1979 one with over 100 antiquities on display. The AGO stop is the only Canadian visit for the tour. I attended a preview of the show on Friday morning and was simply blown away.
The tour is being mounted by the Egyptian government, quite blatantly to raise money for the creation of a new museum of antiquities, as well as to fund the preservation of finds from the over 1,000 archaeological digs throughout Egypt. Dr. Mohammed Abdel Maksoud, head of the Central Department of Lower Egyptian Antiquities, added that for him, the show is "a message of peace from Egypt to the World."
There was some debate in Egypt's parliament over whether to "send the pharaohs out for gold," but the detractors were outnumbered. Egypt is clearly very concerned about the show's public relations potential, with Cairo having suffered terrorist attacks in recent years which dealt a heavy blow to tourism. Things have settled down a bit, and Egypt is eager for the return of sweaty Westerners to rediscover that very, very old country.
Egypt is also rightly concerned about the security of its treasures -- the Egyptian government has promised that this is the last time they will allow Tut's treasures to travel beyond their borders. Never say never of course, but for the time being it's a good marketing hook, and I'm not willing to wait another 30 years!
While the original exhibit featured the actual gold sarcophagus and funeral mask in which Tut was laid to rest, this time around we get to see a miniature version of the coffin, minutely detailed and inscribed with hieroglyphs inside, meant to hold one of his internal organs. A different death mask is on display, as well as gold slippers and finger and toe covers that were found on Tut's body. My previous experience of Tut was almost entirely based on the photos from the 1979 show, so it is a real treat to see a wider variety of pharaonic goodies.
There's nothing quite like witnessing over 3,000 years of history right before your eyes (staring back at you, in fact). Many of the objects are statues and masks, each intricately carved and decorated to represent the visage of either the boy king Tutankhamun or one of several other ancient Egyptian rulers or their gods. The exhibit is laid out in a series of themed rooms, some inspired by the arrangement of items in Tutankhamun's tomb as it was discovered in 1923, others devoted to the variety of lesser-known pharaohs as well as stunning jewelry and other art pieces.
Make no mistake, however, this is not the show that I missed as a boy. Only three items from the original show are included in this one; the rest are all here for the first and, quite possibly, last time. I'll be attending the show again in a couple of weeks, with my parents and my own son and daughter.
The show runs Nov. 24 to April 18, 2010.
Admission is $16.50-$32.50, depending on one's age and the time of visit.
Writing and photography by Hamish Grant. To see more photos of the exhibit, check out the slide show below.
Discussion
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Who is this guest contributor? Martin, is that you?
My wife and I attended the show in 1979, and were both blown away by everything about it. The only down side being, and I'm not complaining, ticket sales were through the roof, the lines were enormous, and visitors were prodded by over zealous staff to hurry on to the next display. I would have liked to have spent another couple of minutes at each exhibit to absorb the enormity of it. We'll most definitely be attending this one and looking forward to it.
I find it confusing that the AGO is hosting this and the ROM hosting a photographic exhibit, seems backwards to me.
Does anyone know if this show is free to OCAD students like most of their special exhibits are?
I agree with you Martin...it does seem backwards to me. This hsould be at the ROM and the Vanity Fair exhibit should be at the AGO.
I asked a friend of mine who works at the ROM why they arent hosting this. The answer is because the AGO hosted to first exhibit and so already had ties in place with the Egyptian Government. Also, with the ROM hosting the Dead Sea Scrolls right now there just isn't room for the King Tut exhibit too.
Either way, consider yourself lucky to be able to attend both the Tut and DSS exibits Im out of the country until next year and am sad to miss both completely.
No The show is not free for OCAD students, members of the AGO etc. THe King TUT exhibition is a touring exhibition that is separate from the AGO.
As far as I know once you pay to get into the exhibition there is certain time slots of viewing!
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AGO members can get free tickets online, but I don't think this applies to students. I went earlier today and it was brilliant, except for the crowds.
Check out the following link to see if you qualify for free tickets:
http://www.ago.net/kingtut-members-tickets
I saw the members preview on Sunday, I didn't get to see the 1979 show so I don't have a basis for comparison. I'm of mixed feelings, it is a really excellent collection of quality materials and they've done a very good job of explaining the context and the ancient Egyptian religion. If it had been described as an exhibit of the Egyptian middle kingdom I would have been blown away, especially by the more recent materials from Dr, Hawas's discoveries. But as it is supposed to be specifically about Tut I was a little let down that there isn't more specifically from his tomb, in particular from the actual burial chamber none of the sarcophagi from the mummy appear for example, the sarcophagus in all the ads is one of 4 that contained the preserved organs, it's beautiful and intricate but it's only about 18 inches tall. I guess if you want to see the big stuff one has to make the trek to the museum in Cairo.
Just wondering if your allowed cameras in there?
just wondering if your allowed cameras in there?
I don't find it confusing. Photographs are in their own right historical artefacts, not to mention documents, which have places at the ROM. AGO doesn't only display 2D works -- paintings and photos -- but archaeological artefacts that are also works of art in their own right. Works for me.
No cameras allowed, if you believe the signs.
free wednesday evenings AGO include King Tut?
Went there and was thoroughly disappointed. It is a money making sales show without the main items.
Why do they show or advertise with the sarcophagus and the gold statute with hand crossed when they are not even in the exhibit since they are NOT allowed to leave Egypt?
What was on display was a tiny fraction. Because i had been fortunate to have spent time in Cairo and been to Cairo Museum. The fees is outrageous to say the least.
I pointed out to one of the exhibitors that this was truly false advertisement.
The sarcophagus in the ads is in fact in the exhibit - it is one of the miniature coffins used to enclose Tut's internal organs. You can see my photo(s) of it above.
Did you attend the show in 1979? I did.
>>> It was amazing!!!
This time around - well it's very educational, if you listen to the tape tour and read all the description cards - but by the time you reach the end of this lengthy and 98% not about Tut exhibit, you will be exhausted and probably a touch bored.
This time around - NOT AMAZING. It barely merits the description impressive. It's interesting, not much more.
Yeah, but what about that fantastic gold mask pictured in the blog article above. NOT TUTANKHAMUN (18th Dynasty 1333 BC to 1323 BC). It's the pharaoh Psusennes 1 (21st Dynasty 1047 BC to 1001 BC). Created almost 300 years after Tut died and most certainly not found in his tomb. How many school children have seen this artifact and gone home to tell their friends that they saw King Tut's famous gold mask? How may adults look at this and think to themselves "Wow, that covered King Tut's face in his multi coffined burial tomb!"?
OK, so what about that beautiful Gold Mask of Tut (also shown above) with the crossed scepters? It's a gold canopic jar people. It's 15 inches high. Beautiful and marvelously detailed - but hardly impressive. And this is the image the AGO is using to promote this show!
I'm afraid that I have to agree with the comments above that suggest that the public is fraudulently being sold a bill of goods. It's interesting. It's educational. Some of the items on display are gorgeous and a very few are, in fact, solid gold (i.e. the last photograph above of a solid gold breast-plate - one of the few items on show which were in fact found in Tut's tomb).
OK - maybe the AGO did not intend to defraud anyone, they just wanted to induce people to attend the show and create big line-ups. After all "It's for their own good to see something like this".
Thanks but I'd rather know what I'm getting when I buy something.
R.S
p.s. I'm writing this comment because a young friend of mine went to see the show yesterday and came home bragging that he saw something at the show that was really amazing, Tut's gold burial mask. Humpf!
Absolutely gorgeous. After seeing the beautiful slideshow I have an excuse not to brave the cold and the crowd in order to see the exhibit. But I think I will!!
Thoroughly disappointed! I pre purchased the tickets online for a specific time slot thinking that we would not be queued in a long line-up. When we got there we had to wait an hour in a huge line and then when we got in we were herded like cattle. What was the purpose of the pre purchase?
I found the show had very little to do with King Tut as there were very few of the kings artefacts.
The objects were fascinating, but the massive amounts of people that were allowed in at once ruined the exhibit, especially for the ticket price! I, too, am confused as to why there were timed pre purchase tickets when people were continuously being let in outside of the time slots.
Attended the exhibit today and felt ripped off- too many people at once-where was the one thing about King Tut that everyone knows HIS sarcophagus and death mask. Totally a bull sh rip off. Felt like asking for my money back. The whole family went and were very disappointed and from listening to others coming out they were too. Don't waste your money with this skimpy exhibit. Took about less than 40 minutes to see, even with all those useless people who stand listening to the recording.