CLARA Review: Tiphaine Annabelle Besnard, L’odyssée de l’art néo-néo. Quand l’Antiquité grecque et romaine inspire l’art contemporain. Pessac-Pau: un@ l’édition en libre accès, 2024, pp. 306.

From around 1970 to the present day, numerous artists have looked back to ancient art to create new art from old. The well-known statues of Venus, Nike, Zeus, Poseidon and Apollo have turned up in different guises, fashioned in concrete and soap or made from crushed beer cans. As the Belgian scholar Tiphaine Annabelle Besnard shows in her comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon, which she designates ‘neo-neo art’, some extraordinary and surprising reinterpretations of the ancient masterpieces have appeared. Bridging the gap between the disciplines of Classical archaeology and art history, the contemporary works based on, or inspired by, antique sculptures are relevant to both camps.