Maya Textile Art. Collections of the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya

This exhibition, curated by María Teresa Pomar and Juan R. Coronel Rivera, emphasized the artistic and creative character of Maya textiles and their masterful use of form, pattern, color, and texture, as well as their technical virtuosity. It marked the first time that New York audiences would be able to admire contemporary textiles juxtaposed with works of art, reflecting the splendor and continuity of the Maya culture that had spanned centuries and continued to thrive at the present day. The exposition aimed to illuminate the collection of Maya textile selections as unique and inimitable “pieces of art” that were distinguished by the aesthetic quality of their composition, authenticity, and structural perfection, reaching beyond their utilitarian function and the rich symbolic content each incorporated.

“This show establishes an imaginary parity among the textiles and the paintings, and emphasizes the artistic and creative character of Maya textiles and their masterful use of form, pattern, color, and textiles,” said Gabriela Rangel, Americas Society director of Visual Arts. “It offers an innovative perspective of the Maya textiles; not only does it go beyond the pre-Columbian area, but it looks to the present and the future,” she added. “In turn,” noted art critic Juan R. Coronel Rivera, “[the exhibition] attempts to show that these textiles are of the same quality as the paintings that will be presented in the exhibition. The principal idea is to illuminate how contemporary painters have taken the elements found in Maya textiles, above all those that are indigenous, to develop them in their work, particularly in terms of color and form.”

The cultural space designated as the Maya world covered the entire Yucatán Peninsula—the jungles of the center and the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala to the south, extending toward Honduras and El Salvador. The exhibition included twentieth century textiles designed by some of the leading artists of Mexico and Guatemala; embroidered women's dresses; photographs; and paintings by modern artists like Carlos Mérida, Rufino Tamayo, and Vicente Rojo.

Most of the textiles featured in this exhibition were from Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico. Fomento Cultural Banamex, A.C., part of the major Mexican bank Banamex, had rescued and restored many of the pieces. Its holdings, along with the collections of the Cooperative San Jolobil and Patronato Pellizzi, formed the core of the future Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya, a new center devoted to the study and preservation of Maya textiles that would open in the former Convent of Santo Domingo, in the town of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas.

Exhibition Catalogue Available.

^{Curators of this exhibition were Teresa Pomar, president of the non-profit organization Populart and director of the Museo de Arte Popular of the Universidad de Colima, and Juan Coronel-Rivera, curator and collector, son and grandson of Mexican painters Rafael Coronel and Diego Rivera, respectively.}

The exhibition was sponsored and organized in collaboration with Fomento Cultural Banamex, A.C.

Image: Visitors viewing Maya Textile Art at Americas Society. 2006. Photograph by Arturo Sanchez.