African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art at Bonhams

On November 12 Bonhams will present a large sale of tribal art, comprising a wide array of ancient Mexican stone and ceramic works and a multitude of items from Africa and the South Pacific. Highlighting the sale is a rare Aztec image of the deity Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl, pictured below.

For more information, view the online catalogue.

Image of Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl  -  Aztec, Mexico  -  Postclassic, ca AD 1450–1521

Image courtesy of Bonhams

Mayas, révélation d'un temps sans fin

Set to open on October 7 at the Musée du Quai Branly is Mayas, révélation d'un temps sans fin (Maya: Revelation of an Endless Time), presenting objects from the majority of Maya territories and from the different periods that mark the extraordinary longevity of this civilisation, from the first archaeological remains (first millennium B.C.) until the present day. The Maya have left to posterity cities with spectacular architecture, sculpture of great aesthetic development, remarkable frescoes, refined ceramic vases… The exhibition presents nearly 400 works of art – including bas-relief and high relief sculptures, ceramic containers, lapidary art in jade, grave figurines and artefacts, jewellery, colonial documents, textiles, and more.  

More information at the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the Musée du Quai Branly

Threads of Identity: Contemporary Maya Textiles

Maya peoples of Guatemala and southeastern Mexico are renowned for their time-honored tradition of magnificent attire. Today’s repertoire of Maya traditional clothing, called traje, developed primarily during the Colonial Period (1521-1821 C.E.) as a forced adoption of European dress. Today’s fashions, as adaptations of imposed, foreign modes to indigenous couture, are testimony to Maya perseverance in spite of hundreds of years of colonization, enslavement and genocide. [i]Threads of Identity: Contemporary Maya Textiles[/i], now on view at The Mint Museum, is dedicated to these historically rich and visually stunning garments. This exhibition features fashions of the Kaqchikel, Ixil, K’iche’, Mam, Tz’utujil, Chuj, Awakatek, Jakaltek and Poqomchi’ from Guatemala, and Tzotzil and Tzeltal from Chiapas, Mexico.

View the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of The Mint Museum

Maya 2012 at the National Museum of Korea

Through October 28, the National Museum of Korea presents Maya 2012, a special showcase of art and artifacts illustrating the creative history of the Mayan civilization. Marking the fiftieth anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korea and both Mexico and Guatemala, the exhibition offers an opportunity to display about 200 pieces of Mayan art on loan from a variety of Mexican and Guatemalan institutions. 

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Figural ornament  -  Guatemala  -  7th–8th century

Figural pair depicting the goddess Ixchel  -  Mexico  -  7th–8th century

Information and images courtesy of the National Museum of Korea

Jade Masks of the Maya

The Pinacothèque in Paris is currently presenting Les Masques de Jade Mayas, an exhibition highlighting an astounding and highly important collection of jade mosaic masks which represent one of the most momentous archaeological discoveries in Mexico during the last decade. These exceptional masks, entirely restored by the most eminent specialists in Maya archaeology, represent the faces of deities. Created for the elite rulers of Maya cities, their primary purpose was to guarantee them their bearers eternal life after death.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of Pinacothèque