Asen Kirin with Katherine Marsengill. Modernism Foretold: The Nadler Collection of Late Antique Art from Egypt. Exhibition catalogue. Georgia Museum of Art, 2020.

From Georgia Museum of Art 

“Modernism Foretold” accompanies the exhibition of the same name, on view at the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia from November 5, 2020, through September 26, 2021. Its extraordinary assembly of objects dating from the 3rd to the 8th century CE belongs to Emanuel and Anna Nadler of New York City and Palm Beach. The Nadler family has long been one of the most important collectors of Coptic art. Emanuel’s father, Maurice Nadler (1885–1941), a prominent industrialist from Alexandria who made art acquisitions in Egypt and Germany, originally put this collection together between 1920 and 1941.

Coptic art was made by and for native Egyptians, Greeks and Romans who favored both classical pagan and Christian themes. The exhibition includes more than 50 objects in marble, tapestry, bronze, bone, ivory, pottery and stone, which have not been seen by the public in nearly 40 years. Both it and the catalogue focus on the history of the collection and on changing perceptions of late antique art from Egypt.