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

Forty Years in the Andes

40 ans dans les Andes. L’itinéraire oublié de Théodore Ber (Forty Years in the Andes: The Lost Itinerary of Théodore Ber), an installation now on view at the Musée Champollion de Figeac, highlights the life and exploits of one of the first Andean archaeologists. The important collection Ber assembled in the nineteenth century  –  now divided between the Musée du Quai Branly, the Musée de l'Homme, and the Musée d'Archéologie National de Saint-Germain-en-Laye  –  has been partially reuinted for this special exhibition.

View the exhibition's official website.

Théodore Ber at the site of Tiahuanaco, Bolivia 

Cephalomorphic vessel  -  Tiahuanaco, Bolivia

Pre-Columbian Art - Binoche et Giquello

Binoche et Giquello will present a sale of fine pre-Columbian antiquities in Paris on March 28. Over 150 lots will be put before the bidders, ranging from ancient Mexican masks to South American ceramics.  

View the online catalogue.

Standing figure  -  Olmec, Mexico  -  1150–550 BC

Phallic urn  -  Brazil  -  400–1400 AD

Funerary mask  -  Teotihuacan, Mexico  -  450–650 AD

Seated figure of Macuilxochitl  -  Mixtec, Mexico  -  1300–1521 AD

Figure  -  Aztec, Mexico  -  1400–1521 AD

Mask  -  Teotihuacan, Mexico  -  300 BC–200 AD

Images courtesy of Binoche et Giquello

For I am the Black Jaguar: Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art

This month the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta will open “For I Am the Black Jaguar”: Shamanic Visionary Experience in Ancient American Art, an exhibition exploring the influence of shamanic traditions on the art of ancient Mesoamerican and Andean cultures. On view through January 5, 2013, the installation will highlight visionary art objects from Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, and elsewhere, all of which predate the European invasions of the sixteenth century.

View the exhibition's official website.

 Information and images courtesy of the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University