Past Exhibition
Past Exhibition
(L-R) Bowl with Ring Base and Face, Bowl with Pedestal Base and Face, Bowl with Tripod Teet, Mexico, Guanajuato region, Chupicuaro culture, Late Formative period Earthenware with slip, Gift of Ruth & George Judson, 2005.3.2, 2005.3.3, 2005.3.4, Photography by Peggy Tenison
The exhibition Raíces Americanas: Recent Acquisitions of Pre-Columbian Art will shed light on the exceptional skill and creative spirit of Ancient America.
The Museum has a small, superb collection of pre-Columbian art representing most of ancient Latin America. This art has strong ties to San Antonio representing the cultural roots of the city and over 65% of its citizenry. As a priority, the Museum collects, researches, and exhibits pre-Columbian art from Mesoamerica, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. However, the collection did not include examples of ancient art of the Greater Antilles and northwest central Mexico. Raíces Americanos changes that.
The exhibition features recent acquisitions (two gifts and one promised gift) of art from the Taíno Culture of the Greater Antilles (A.D. 700–1500), Chupícuaro Culture of Guanajuanto, Mexico (300 B.C.–A.D. 200), and Tarascan Culture of Michoacan, Mexico (A.D. 1200–1520). The art produced by these enigmatic cultures is partly idiosyncratic, but it is also informed by larger artistic trends of the pre-Columbian world. All of the objects in this exhibition were made and used for rituals associated with human burials or in homage to local deities.
SAMA is more than a museum; it’s a place to explore the world.
