[Fwd: [Aztlan] J. Paul Getty Aztec Exhibit coming]

Fri Jul 24 21:27:29 UTC 2009

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Aztlan] J. Paul Getty Aztec Exhibit coming
From:    "michael ruggeri" <michaelruggeri at mac.com>
Date:    Fri, July 24, 2009 11:58 am
To:      aztlan at lists.famsi.org
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Listeros,

I will re-print this announcement from Art Daily in full since it is
an exhibit announcement.

Mike Ruggeri

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The J. Paul Getty Museum announces "The Aztec
Pantheon and the Art of Empire," an exhibition showcasing masterworks
of Aztec sculpture—among them recent archaeological discoveries—which
will be juxtaposed with 16th- to 18th-century illustrations that
reflect European interpretations of Aztec culture.

The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire, on view at the Getty Villa
from March 25 through July 5, 2010, represents the Getty Villa's first
display of antiquities from outside the ancient Mediterranean, and is
scheduled to coincide with Los Angeles celebrations of the
bicentennial of Mexico’s independence and the centennial of the
Mexican revolution.

The exhibition traces European efforts to understand the New World by
viewing it through the lens of its own classical past. Following
Hernán Cortés's conquest of the great city of Tenochtitlan in 1520,
Europeans confronted a culture that was profoundly unfamiliar. When
the Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagún compiled a history of
Aztec culture up to the conquest, known as the Florentine Codex, he
created a parallel pantheon, identifying the principal Aztec deities
with their Roman counterparts: Huitzilopochtli is named “otro
Hercules” (another Hercules) while Tezcatlipoca was likened to
Jupiter, and so on. In this way, Sahagún and his local informants drew
upon Graeco-Roman paradigms to assist Europeans in understanding Aztec
religious beliefs.

These early encounters with the civilizations of the Americas
coincided with Renaissance Europe’s rediscovery of its own classical
past. Europeans were fascinated with the Aztecs and other cultures of
the New World. Artifacts from the Americas made their way back to
European private collections, where they also inspired festivals and
pageants, including performances of classical theater staged in New
World settings. In the 18th century, scholars of comparative religion
such as Bernard Picart compared Quetzalcoatl and Mercury, rejecting
the demonization of what were previously seen as pagan deities.

“Although Graeco-Roman and Aztec cultures are distinct historical
phenomena, and developed in isolation from one another, Europeans
applied familiar frames of reference to a New World that was largely
unfathomable,” explains J. Paul Getty Museum antiquities curator
Claire Lyons. “Bringing these monumental cult statues, reliefs, and
votive artifacts to Los Angeles and showing them in the Mediterranean
setting of the Getty Villa offers an incredible chance to explore a
little known episode: the dialogue between Aztec culture and classical
antiquity that was sparked in the age of exploration, carried forward
during the Enlightenment, and which continues to be informative in the
present.”

The Aztec monuments on view in The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of
Empire both captivate and frighten, with sun gods bristling with claws
and fangs, and undulating rattlesnakes bursting forth from the neck of
a decapitated earth goddess. Soon after being discovered, they were
reburied as creations of the devil, and only later resurrected as
masterpieces comparable to the greatest sculptural traditions. These
remarkable artworks never fail to enthrall those who see them.

After five centuries they continue to be invoked as political symbols,
eternal emblems of Mexican national heritage. But what did these
monoliths mean as part of the sacred architecture and cults of the
gods celebrated in Mexico’s ancient capital of Tenochtitlan? More
answers are emerging after a century of archaeological research,
together with the recognition that the fearsome power of an empire,
embodied in the Aztec gods, was not so very different from that of
other ancient civilizations of the Old World.

Drawing primarily on the collections of the Museo Nacional de
Antropología and the Museo del Templo Mayor in Mexico City, the
exhibition will also feature the Sahagún’s Florentine Codex from the
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana in Florence, and 16th to 18th-century
works relating to Mexico from the Getty Research Institute’s Special
Collections. “European response to pre-Columbian and colonial-era
Latin America has long been a focus of collecting for the Getty
Research Institute,” says Lyons. “Its rich holdings on Mexico show how
remarkable Aztec objects were 'translated' by Europeans.”

Adds J. Paul Getty Museum director Michael Brand: “I have been keen to
broaden the perspective of the Getty Villa. Bringing some of Mexico's
greatest works of Aztec art to the Villa for the first time will
enable visitors and scholars alike to reflect on both cultures in a
richer way. We are very grateful to our Mexican and Italian colleagues
for their generous loans that make this unique exhibition possible.”

The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire is curated by Claire L.
Lyons, curator of antiquities, J. Paul Getty Museum, and John M. D.
Pohl, research associate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA.
Accompanying the installation is an illustrated companion volume, The
Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire, authored by John Pohl, which
describes Aztec culture and cosmology, and the reciprocal consequences
of European contact with New Spain.

In conjunction with the exhibition, a two-day conference will be
convened at the Getty Villa from April 29-May 1, 2010. International
scholars will address historical analogies drawn between the Aztecs
and ancient Rome, the production of Sahagún's Florentine Codex, and
the implications of comparative approaches to the archaeology of
empires.

In addition to the conference, a full schedule of public programs will
be developed, including gallery tours, family programs, adult
education courses, point-of-view talks, and curatorial lectures. A
brochure and audio guide will be available to visitors, and a
permanent exhibition website will extend access to international
audiences.

In collaboration with the California Institute of the Arts, a
theatrical performance based on Aztec texts in Nahuatl, the poem "Sun
Stone" (1957) by Octavio Paz, and Antonin Artaud's 1938 "The Theater
of Cruelty (Second Manifesto)" is currently in development.

The Aztec Pantheon and the Art of Empire is part of Los Angeles’
celebration of the bicentennial of Mexico’s independence and the
centennial of the Mexican revolution. Several other cultural
institutions will also be developing exhibitions and programming as
part of a city-wide effort.

Art Daily URL;
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new2251

Getty Museum URL;
http://www.getty.edu/visit/exhibitions/future.html

Mike Ruggeri's Ancient America Museum Exhibitions, Conferences and
Lectures
http://tinyurl.com/c9mlao
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President,
SUNY Potsdam
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schwallr at potsdam.edu

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