Radiance from the Rainforest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru, By Heidi King. Tribal Art, no. 48 (spring 2008), p. 64-67.
Available in print in the Goldwater Library (A W97 No. 48 (Spring 2008)) or Online via WilsonWeb.
Crown
Chimú 14th–15th century
Fiber, hide, reeds, copper, feathers; H. 10 1/4 in. (26 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Jane Costello Goldberg, from the Collection of Arnold I. Goldberg, 1986 (1987.394.655)
In a nice display of publishing synergy, Museum Anthropology (the blog) has just reproduced color images to accompany an article recently published in Museum Anthropology (the journal), Crests on Cotton: “Souvenir” T-shirts and the Materiality of Remembrance among the Kwakwaka’wakw of British Columbia by Aaron Glass (vol. 31, no. 1 (spring 2008), p. 1-16).
Note to our readers: You can access the article online (via Anthrosource) or consult our print copy (A C854).
While in this instance the blog is meant to supplement the print and online journal, the journal will no doubt benefit from visits by blog readers wanting to know more behind the images appearing in the blog post.
Originally spotted on ARLiSNAP:
An visually exciting and comprehensive web site on four Maya archaeological sites has just been posted by Charles Rhyne, professor emeritus of art history, and his colleagues at Reed College. [Kudos to Prof. Rhyne, who was my academic advisor at Reed.]
Architecture, Restoration and Imaging of the Maya Cities of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil and Labná "includes over 1000 photographs ... taken on site, with descriptive captions, including architectural and sculptural details, paint remains, and interior spaces, not previously published. In addition, there are over 250 19th century drawings, prints and photographs and another 300 by early 20th century scholars, many previously unpublished, showing the appearance of these four cities before the extensive restoration campaigns of the twentieth century." While the site was produced by Reed College primarily for the use of its faculty and students, the site will certainly be of interest to a wider audience of specialists and non-specialists alike.
Of particular note to the library research-minded are the extensive scans culled from published works including Waldeck's Voyage pittoresque et archéologique dan la province d'Yucatan (1838), the several works by Stephens and Catherwood from the 1840s, as well as Charnay's Cités et Ruines Américaines (1862-63) and Anciennes Villes du Nouveau Monde (1885), photographs by Le Plongeon, and Seler's monograph on the ruins at Uxmal.
An extensive bibliography is included, sorted into four separate pdf files by subject, author, title and date.
another reblog from BibliOdyssey, 4/1/08:
These illustrations are presumably © the estate of Homer H Boelter.
In
1969 Boelter published an album of lithographs of Hopi Indians -
'Portfolio of Hopi Kachinas' - limited to one thousand copies. The
first illustration above comes from PBA galleries. The paired image and the balance of the sixteen plates in the series - and background - can be found at Native American Links.
See the originals at the Goldwater Library!
Portfolio of Hopi kachinas by Homer H. Boelter
Hollywood, Calif. : H. H. Boelter Lithography, [1969]
RGL call number: R8E H7B66 Quarto
The Shreyas and Mina Ajmera Gallery of Africa, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific, opening on April 5, 2008, will be the first permanent home for the Royal Ontario Museum's collections from these regions in over 30 years.
From ROM's site:
This gallery reflects the ROM’s vast and diverse collections that represent the artistic and cultural traditions of indigenous peoples from Africa, the American continents, the Asia-Pacific region and Oceania. This is the first permanent home for these collections in over 30 years, with many of the 1,400 artifacts on display for the first time.
Ranging from large and dramatic ceremonial masks and colourful robes to archaeological objects such as ceramics and basketry, the collections were gathered from the late 19th century to the present and represent some of the Museum’s founding collections. The artifacts reveal aspects of everyday life, clothing, commerce, ceremony and art of indigenous cultures from around the world. Divided into four geographic areas, this gallery is rich with symbols of heritage and identity that continue to have meaning today.
ROM's site also features a number of behind-the-scenes photographs of the installation.
Pictured above: Diablada dance mask (papier-mâché), Bolivia, c. 1955. [source]
Reblogged from the NY Times, 3/5/2008:
Exhibition Review
Two New Shows Cast Light and Darkness on Early Cultures in the Americas
by Edward Rothstein
So an attitude of promotional banality clouds the considerable virtues of [the Field Museum] show, which is rich in example and description, if not in analysis; this is a problem shared by many exhibitions about native peoples. The Field even boasts that it brought in indigenous descendants to advise and approve — something that has become perversely obligatory for museums, even if it is a little like consulting today’s residents of Tuscany when mounting an exhibition about ancient Rome.
Rothstein compares the temporary exhibition “Exploring the Early Americas” at the Library of Congress and the permanent installation “The Ancient Americas” at the Field Museum in Chicago. The article includes a slideshow.
Above: Moche sculptures at the Field Museum. Photo: Joshua Lott for the New York Times
Eliane Karp-Toledo, former first lady of Peru and currently a visiting lecturer at Stanford University, contributes an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times. In it she questions Yale University's commitment to the 'memorandum of understanding' signed by the government of Peru and the university to repatriate archaeological objects from Machu Picchu collected by Hiram Bingham III (Yale '98) and housed at Yale. Her objection hinges on Yale's request to retain some artifacts for 99 years for research purposes.
Karp-Toledo's objection to the memorandum has been previously noted, in Yale Daily News, as early as last September.
King Island Shaman's Mask at the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum. Photo: Laura Samuelson / AP file. The King Island Shaman's Mask, which was returned to Alaska by Marilyn Lewis of Port Townsend, Wash. A Lewis relative took the ancient mask from Alaska more than a century ago and she wanted to get it back to its rightful owners.
via msnbc.com [thanks Nicole!]:
Ancient mask returned to Alaska ghost village
Four decades after it was abandoned, King Island gets sacred surprise
By Rachel D'Oro, Associated Press
Fri., Jan. 18, 2008ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Four decades after it was abandoned, King Island holds an almost mystical pull for former inhabitants and their descendants, its crumbling homes still perched on stilts, clinging to the steep, rocky terrain.
Until recently, little else remained of the island, an Inupiat Eskimo village, except for traditions, memories and artifacts scattered at museums around the nation. Then came word from a stranger nearly 2,000 miles away who said she possessed an ancient mask a relative brought back from Alaska more than a century ago.
On the back of the relic was a faint inscription: "Taken from a medicine man's grave on King Island."
The woman from northwest Washington e-mailed Charlene Saclamana, tribal coordinator with the King Island Native Community based in Nome, a city 80 miles southeast of the tiny Bering Sea island where many of its residents relocated.
Marilyn Lewis said she wanted to return the wooden mask to its rightful owners. Two weeks later, she traveled to Alaska to deliver the artifact, which is now on display at the Carrie M. McLain Memorial Museum in Nome, named after the museum's late founder, a gold rush pioneer.
"It gives me and my family something tangible from our past. We've lost so much of the culture," said Saclamana, whose parents lived on King Island. "We were eager to have the mask back in our possession. We never had anything that well preserved from the island."
The island, home to about 200 people a century ago, was abandoned for various reasons. [read on...]
Photo: Capt. Budd Christman / NOAA Corps via AP. The deserted stilt village of King Island, Alaska, about 625 miles northwest of Anchorage, is shown in 1978. Four decades after it was abandoned, King Island holds an almost mystical pull for former residents and their offspring, its crumbling homes still perched eerily on stilts across the steep, rocky face of an unforgiving terrain.
Photo: Andrew Councill for The New York Times. “This isn’t my first rodeo,” says Kevin Gover, director of the Museum of the American Indian, with Kiowa battle dress.
via NYTimes:
Undaunted Director at Indian Museum
By ROBIN POGREBIN
Published: January 21, 2008WASHINGTON — It was not exactly a welcome mat that greeted the new museum director. When Kevin Gover left his quiet life teaching American Indian law among the cactuses of Arizona to lead the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian here, he arrived during a storm of publicity about spending by his predecessor, W. Richard West Jr.
But in his first in-depth interview since settling into his new office, Mr. Gover, 52, seemed unconcerned about the scrutiny he might now encounter about his own spending habits, or about the long-term effects on the museum.
“This isn’t my first rodeo,” he said last week. “I took a few poundings in the past.”
Spending by Mr. West, the institution’s founding director, who retired last month after 17 years, has provoked two senators to call for independent investigations. Mr. West spent more than $250,000 on travel and hotels during his final four years in office and paid $48,500 to a New York artist to paint his museum portrait.
“I felt bad for Rick,” said Mr. Gover, who practiced in two of the same law firms as Mr. West. “I felt that it was unfair.”
The Smithsonian said in December that all of Mr. West’s travel had been approved and that he had raised $51 million in that period. In a Jan. 11 letter to Indian Country Today, a weekly newspaper, Mr. West disputed reports first published in The Washington Post, calling them mischaracterizations of travel that was within the scope of his duties. "I traveled as required by the job I had to do," he wrote.
Referring to Mr. West’s trips in Europe and Asia, Mr. Gover said: “I understand the visceral reaction some people have to what looks like living the life of Riley. But the fact is, the museum has to be present in those places. This is the museum world. This is how it’s done.”
But Mr. Gover, a member of the Pawnee tribe of Oklahoma, described himself as a conservative person and less of a public figure. He said that he expected to conduct a more low-key operation at the museum.
“We took a little hit on our image,” he conceded. “I worry about that in connection with the tribes. But in a very few months I think very few people will remember this.”
A still from Yinka Shonibare’s “Un Ballo in Maschera (A Masked Ball)” (2004) {See Slide Show}
via NYTimes:
Art Review | 'Mask'
Face Time: Masks, Animal to Video
By ROBERTA SMITH
Published: January 11, 2008The mask is one of the most basic and recognizable of all forms, and for good reason. One way early humans made sense of the universe was to personify its forces, and the most visible form of personification was the face. Masks have long been central to religious rituals, serving as tools of transformation and bridges to the spirit world. They have figured in ceremonies intended to ensure fertility and raise the dead, make crops grow and rain fall, kill enemies, ward off evil and cure sickness. They have been used by soldiers and celebrators of Lent, astronauts and action heroes, hockey players and fencers, firefighters and welders.
The ubiquity of the mask, regardless of time, place or purpose, is the impetus behind “Mask,” a sprawling show at the James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea. Subtitled “an exhibition of historic masks and contemporary works curated in collaboration with Joseph G. Gerena Fine Art,” this gathering of more than 40 masks and hoods, and more than 30 works in sculpture, video and photography, is a mishmash of cultures and functions in which old and older tend to dominate. This can mean an American firefighter’s goofy-looking smoke hood from around 1900; a carved and painted wood exorcism mask from 19th-century Sri Lanka; or a terra-cotta jaguar/man mask from Ecuador (700-300 B.C).
These and about 40 other masks from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, premodern Europe, turn-of-the-century America and several parts of Asia do most of the showstopping here. All were provided by Mr. Gerena, a private dealer who seems to have an excellent eye and, along with Mr. Cohan and his staff, has orchestrated an installation full of interesting cross-references and juxtapositions.
The show is also commendable for not being loaded with the gallery’s artists; only 4 of the 32 contemporary works here are from Team Cohan. This includes the opening salvo, a riveting video by Yinka Shonibare that may be one of the best things he has ever done. It shows a highly stylized masked ball in which the guests wear 18th-century garments made from Mr. Shonibare’s distinctive Euro-African fabrics, which is not new for him. But in this case he has used a combination of sound and movement to strip a minuetlike dance down to a tribal, almost animalistic ritual while still leaving its mannered veneer intact.
Beside the door to the video gallery there is an Oddfellows hoodwink from early-20th-century America. A small, neat variation on the masks seen in Mr. Shonibare’s video, it combines a leather eye mask and eyeglasses. It looks like something Amelia Earhart might have worn, except that the eyeglass lenses have little hinged covers that were raised and lowered as the Freemasons’ initiation rites progressed.
In the main gallery there is a lively interchange among historic masks from different cultures, with intermittent input from contemporary works. First, a row of seven masks confounds expectations. An 18th- to 19th-century skull mask from the Tibetan Sherdukpen people of northern India seems made to order for a Mexican Day of the Dead festival, while what looks like an African monkey mask is actually from Nepal.
The show emphasizes these transcultural twists and turns. [read on...]
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