Tempus Fugit: Time Flies

Marking the true end of the second millennium, Tempus Fugit: Time Flies was a three-part exhibition examining time as both natural phenomenon and cultural idea in works of art dating from 900 BCE to the present.

Divided among 20th-century Time, World Times and Conservation Time, the exhibition allowed visitors to experience the movement of time and discover the different ways time is viewed around the world.

• Part I: 20th-century Time
  Focusing on European and American art, beginning with Cubism and ending with video and interactive media art, modern and contemporary artists greatly enriched our understanding of time and history through the questions they posed and the answers they provided in their art.
• Part II: World Times
  A journey through the centuries and across the globe explores cultural perceptions and definitions of time from Assyrian notions of eternal time to 19th-century American concepts of progressive time.
• Part III: Conservation Time
  Peer into the conservator’s lab to see how works of art can change over time, during the artist’s creative process and through the effects of natural aging.

The exhibition was organized by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. This Project was supported, in part, by a Presidential Millennium Projects grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Financial assistance was provided by the Campbell-Calvin Fund. Additional funding was provided by Taste for Art 2000, the Missouri Arts Council and H&R Block, Inc