FIERY POOL: THE MAYA AND THE MYTHIC SEA, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, USA, August 29, 2010-January 2, 2011. Next stop: Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, February 13-May 8, 2011.
From the official promotional material:
Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea brings together over 90 works, many never before seen in the United States, to offer exciting insights into the culture of the ancient Maya. Surrounded by the sea and dependent on the life-giving power of rain and clouds, the ancient Maya created fantastic objects imbued with the symbolic power of water. This exhibition presents four thematic sections—Water and Cosmos, Creatures of the Fiery Pool, Navigating the Cosmos, and Birth to Rebirth—that explore the different ways Maya artists represented water, from setting religious narratives in watery domains to using shells and other exotic materials acquired through coastal trade networks.
Not only fascinating in and of itself, the exhibit obviously has universal relevance. Ecology, social organization, language, symbolism: it's all there. And let's not forget the essential coolness of the artifacts, ranging from frog carvings to miniature clattering skulls and all sorts of other interesting stuff.
Link to the Kimbell exhibit: http://www.kimbellart.org/maya/
Today's Rune: Wholeness.
5 comments:
Have you been to see the exhibit? I bet it's pretty freakin' cool!
Hey, Lana, I have and it is!
Better see it within the next year then heh?
I was fascinated with the Maya when I was in college but I haven't kept up a lot with it since then. I'd love to see this, though.
I wish I lived closer to this. Sounds really neat.
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