Contested Visions in the Spanish Colonial World

A comparative view of Mexico and Peru in the Spanish colonial period, spanning from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, is the subject of this remarkable groundbreaking exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).

With approximately 200 works of art, the exhibit analyzes the integration of cultures through collisions of images and texts, and includes sculptures, paintings, codices, manuscripts, queros (ceremonial drinking vessels), and featherworks.

Ten years in the making, curator and department head of Latin American Art, Ilona Katzew, showcases the art in six broad sections.

Beginning with the Pre-Columbian Antecedents section of Tenochtitlan and Cuzco , displayed are indigenous artistic traditions that include Aztec sculptures, as well as Inca textiles, feather and metalwork, made of exotic materials such as turquoise from southwest USA , spondylus from Equador, and gold from Oaxaca.

Not much of original Inca or Aztec writing is left or decipherable, but a glimpse of their symbolism is evident.

A checkered hanging or mantle (1450-1532) illustrates the “concept of dynamic dualism in which a harmonious universe is achieved through the reciprocity between contrasting but complementary opposites” states curator Katzew.

Indicating rank were earspools by Chimú, Peruvian metallurgists, while feathers represented political and religious figures. Also present are miniature tunics (12-13th century) with brilliant plumage from the Amazon tropical forests as well as Inca feather tabards and banners (1470-1534).

Templo Mayor offerings from the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, some dating to emperors Moctezuma I and II's periods, are largely of aquatic materials (seashells, fish, coral and reptiles) and evoke layers of the cosmos from the watery underworld to the surface of the earth. Vessels from Tenochtitlan’s twin temples (1576-1608), a year bundle (c. 1500), and wooden slit drums from Teponaztli (1325-1525) are also on view.

Peruvian textiles and Mexican featherworks, in the section of Ancient Styles in the New Era, show how pre-Hispanic styles and materials in colonial times were adapted in the creation of Christian objects.

Magnificent paintings with vibrant colors, folding screens, and codices are exhibited in the Conquest and New World Orders section.

The Devotional Landscape and the Indian as Good Christian section explores the new devotions of converted Indians forming a specific Mexican and Andean religious pantheon, featuring among others, the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico.

Ancient festive rites, dances, Indian weddings incorporated into Christian rituals are depicted in the fifth section of Indian Festivals and Sacred Rituals.

Memory, Genealogy, and Land is the final section displaying a series of paintings and manuscripts preserving the memory of the natives' ancestral roots.

This wide exhibit provides a multifaceted framework of evolving intersecting complexities, illustrated through the natives' rich arts and traditions.

The exhibit runs through January 29, 2012, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90036. For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit www.lacma.org

Complementing the exhibit is LACMA-UCLA co-sponsored three-day international symposium, Dec 2-4, 2011, bringing together thirty of the most distinguished scholars in the field from Mexico, South America, Europe, and the United States.

Following the display at LACMA the exhibit will travel to the Museo Nacional de Historia (Castillo de Chapultepec), Mexico City, from July 6, 2012, through October 7, 2012.