Reconsidering the Americas

They all include depictions of the 4 Movement glyph, or Nahui Ollin, the Mexica or Aztec symbol of the current cosmic era.

As the museum’s curator who helps steward works of Indigenous art, as well as colonial Latin American art, I have been excited to foreground these kinds of connections across time and space in our newly reinstalled Arts of the Americas Sculpture Court, Gallery 161. Changes to our campus last fall had closed Gallery 136 (where Indigenous art had been displayed since 2011), but this closure created the opportunity to relocate a dozen standouts from the collection to the heart of our Arts of the Americas galleries.

This is no small change. It marks the first time that archaeological objects have been on view in the permanent collection galleries of the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Building since the building opened in 1988. These objects extend the timeframe of art in the building by over a millennium. Moreover, these works dramatically expand the geography of the galleries. Numerous works from Latin America—including Mexico, Guatemala, and Peru—bring a broadened hemispheric scope to the presentation. They emphasize the plurality of the Americas and celebrate the extraordinary artistic traditions of our neighbors, both internationally and within our own community right here in Chicago.

At the center is one of the most revered works in our care, the Mexica (or Aztec) Coronation Stone. Carved with glyphs that record the history of the Mexica universe up to 1503, the massive work is now exhibited in the round so that visitors can appreciate it from all sides. The infrequently seen back of the sculpture features the 1 Rabbit glyph, which marks the beginning of time. The front is carved with glyphs for the four previous cosmic eras in each of the corners. The current cosmic era, 4 Movement, appears in the center. Above and below it, 1 Crocodile and 11 Reed indicate the date July 15, 1503, when the ninth Mexica emperor Moctezuma Xocoyotzin was coronated. 

The Coronation Stone is the perfect addition to the gallery because it plays into the constellation of other works on the nearby platforms. One platform includes bronze sculptures of Abraham Lincoln, a puritan, and a cowboy, which together question the type of American historical figures usually memorialized in this enduring medium. Another platform features subjects who are less often commemorated in public sculpture, such as a young mother and a lady going to church.

The Coronation Stone introduces an Indigenous American monument to the conversation. And while Illinois might be the “Land of Lincoln,” the Mexica monolith has special resonance in Chicago. Next time you are in Pilsen, look for the sculpture’s 4 Movement glyph within the mural painted on the 18th Street ‘L’ station platform and on bronze medallions in the sidewalks throughout the neighborhood, which has long been home to Chicago’s vibrant Mexican community. 

The reinstallation also created an opportunity to put Woman with a Bird Cage by the Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo directly across from our Jalisco storyteller. The two figures actually appear to talk to each other across the corridor and the centuries. Tamayo’s Zapotec heritage and his own collection of such ancient West Mexican sculptures shaped his artistic practice. Notice how he painted the woman’s face in a manner similar to the ceramic figure’s. The pairing demonstrates the long impact of Indigenous artistic traditions throughout the hemisphere—in fact, Tamayo created the painting while living in New York City.

Adjacent to a double portrait of a mother and daughter painted by Joshua Johnson around 1805 is a case featuring an outstanding Moche portrait vessel from the 7th century that hails from what is now the north coast of Peru alongside a contemporary reinterpretation of a portrait vessel by the Peruvian artist Ana De Orbegoso. It is as if all the portrait subjects are looking at each other look at each other across generations. In fact, that was part of De Orbegoso’s goal: She made the surface of her Neo-Huaco mirrorlike gold so that contemporary Peruvian viewers could see their own reflection in the place of an ancestor’s face. And just as the Moche ceramic is one of the earliest Indigenous portraits from South America, Johnson was the first-known Black portraitist and painter to gain professional recognition in the United States.

Identity is also a key issue for three Maya vessels from the late 700s now on view. In the ancient Americas, it was unusual for artists to sign their works; but the inscription on the Water-Lily Vessel contains a rare artist signature. The artist identifies himself as Aj Maxam from the kingdom of Naranjo in what is now Guatemala. To highlight this, we included his name the way he wrote it—in Maya glyphs—on the label. If you look closely, you can see the glyphs within the lower border of the vessel directly above the label. What is even more incredible, though, is that the two other vessels in the case are also believed to have been painted by Aj Maxam. He had a really refined painterly style featuring elegant brushwork. Only three other works by the artist are thought to survive to the present day.

Another juxtaposition spanning centuries reflects on time itself. In the wall niches at the far end of the gallery are a Maya stela and an innovative late 20th-century clock by Wendell Castle. Although portions of the hieroglyphic text and image on the stela are significantly eroded, an inscription on the left side records the date of January 20, 702. Maya rulers erected such monuments with images of themselves to commemorate major dynastic events, but we do not yet know what exact event this stela marked. The clock, in many ways, is equally anthropomorphic and cryptic. Meant to resemble a magician playing tricks with time, the numbers are not found on the face but rather on the twelve feet!

Finally, the reinstallation created the opportunity to unite the Double Dip Model snowboard by James Johnson (Tlingit) with his original cedar carving. Side by side, the two pieces make it possible to see how Johnson reimagined this longstanding Tlingit art form as a commercial product, enabling him to share Tlingit culture with the world.

This reinstallation of the Sculpture Court is the first step in a larger reenvisioning of our Arts of the Americas galleries, something we are actively planning now while many of the galleries surrounding the Sculpture Court are closed for the construction of the Grainger Center for Conservation and Science. In the future, all artistic traditions from this hemisphere will be exhibited in the Rice Building—everything from American Gothic to “medieval American art,” as the scholar Pal Keleman once described the millennium of Indigenous art before the European invasions.

As we plan our new galleries, we are also working to make new acquisitions, particularly those that expand our presentations of colonial Latin American art and contemporary Native American art. Keep an eye on Gallery 161, as we might include some sneak peeks in the coming months or years!

—Andrew James Hamilton, curator, Arts of the Americas

Topics

• Exhibitions
• Arts of America
• Ancient Art