‘A tremendously exciting book that succeeds in building bridges between the fields of human endeavour’ – The Lecturer

‘A very relevant, revealing and thought-provoking book, and an easy and enjoyable read’ – British Archaeology

‘...written with flair, and above all, richly illustrated’ – Association of Art Historians

Now in paperback

'Figuring It Out' takes sculpture off the plinth and archaeology out of the trench, and situates the contemporary artist and archaeologist together at the
centre of the active endeavour to re-evaluate what it is to be human.

'Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?' These questions were posed by Paul Gauguin in a famous canvas that heralded the beginning of the modernist era. But they are also the questions asked by modern prehistorians in their quest to reconstruct the human story.

Figuring It Out sets out to investigate the profound convergence between art and archaeology, drawing illuminating parallels between the way the modern artist seeks to understand the world by acting upon it, and the way the archaeologist seeks to understand the world through the material traces of such actions. Central to his exploration is a group of leading contemporary artists, including Richard Long, Mark Dion, Barry Flanagan, Antony Gormley, Eduardo Paolozzi and David Mach, whose works are notable for an engagement with our world.

Colin Renfrew is Disney Professor of Archaeology Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. Among his many previous books is Archaeology: Theories, Methods and Practice (with Paul Bahn), the standard textbook on the subject.

Also of interest
Archaeology by Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn

New Art from London
Modern Times, Modern Places