Cave Painting Expert from Middletown Links Ice-Age Brain Function to Modern Artistry

What do Salvador Dali, Harry Houdini and cavemen have in common? A lot more than you might think, according to Middletown resident and artist Barbara Olins Alpert.

All three dabbled in the art of illusion, says Alpert, who recently spoke about her book and Ice Age art at the Portsmouth Arts Guild.

"They (prehistoric artists) knew exactly what they were doing," Alpert says. "They knew how one's eye could be tricked."

Entitled "The Artist's Mind: From the Ice Age to Now," the event at the Portsmouth Arts Guild drew a lively audience, according to the author. Alpert has penned "The Creative Ice Age Brain," which examines how art from the Ice Age art links with contemporary art.

Alpert's exploration into the art of these prehistoric drawings began more than 20 years ago, when she began visiting private caves in France and Spain.

One of the most exclusive cave's she visited was the Grotte de Lascaux in France, which features prehistoric drawings from about 17,000 years ago. The cave is closed to the public today.

"I was able to see a very important cave," she says. "All of the people on the guest book were extremely well known in the field of archeology. I vowed then and there that I would make a contribution to the field. That was the beginning to the impetus of the book."

Alpert argues that the approach of these earliest artists was not unique but forms part of a continuum, linking the distant past with the present.

Chuck Close, Salvador Dali, Escher, Robert Irwin - all of these contemporary artist have something in common with prehistoric art, says Alpert. That something is the art of illusion.

"These are contemporary artists," says the Middletown resident. "In the same context, they are relevant to 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. People like Escher and Dali use optical illusions in the same way Ice Age artists did."

The artists use handprints, dots, different types of lines to "trick" the eye, says Alpert.

There is also an aspect of playfulness in the artists' work, both contemporary and prehistoric.

"They are playing with perception in the serious sense of play, not in the child sense," Alpert says. "Anamorphosis – they play with that. They played with the fact there is confusion between convex and concaves, figure and ground. These are all things I discuss in my book."

Alpert, an artist and art historian who has lived in Middletown since 1963, will speak in September at the International Rock Art Congress in France. She will present a paper on a newly found Ice Age artifact.

The item, a fossilized bone dating back 13,000 years ago, was discovered in Florida near the Early Man site. The bone, believed to be either mammoth or mastodon, is covered in early caveman drawings.

"It's a pretty beautiful piece," Alpert says.

She is also scheduled to speak at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History in the fall.

Alpert uses information from psychology and discoveries in neuroscience to approach art found in the caves of Europe. Her techniques include computerized tomography scans and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

An instructor of prehistoric art at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1988-2000, Alpert has also published many articles on Ice Age art. Those articles have appeared in such publications as "Anthropologie," which is published by the Moravske Museum in the Czech Republic and "l'Anthropologie," published by the Musée de l'Homme in Paris.

She has shown work in not only the United States, but also in Russia, Malta, China and Japan.

A graduate of Brown University, Alpert is a life member of the Art Student's League and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is also listed in the United Nations' Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's publication "Who's Who in Rock Art."

Alpert divides her time between Middletown and Santa Fe, NM.