We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art
We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art
Mesoamerican artists held a cosmic responsibility: as they adorned the surfaces of buildings, clay vessels, textiles, bark-paper pages, and sculptures with color, they (quite literally) made the world. The power of color emerged from the materiality of its pigments, the skilled hands that crafted it, and the communities whose knowledge imbued it with meaning. Color mapped the very order of the cosmos, of time and space. By engineering and deploying color, artists wielded the power of cosmic creation in their hands. We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art explores the science, art, and cosmology of color in Mesoamerica. Histories of colonialism and industrialization in the “color-averse” West have minimized the deep significance of color in the Indigenous Americas. This exhibition follows two interconnected lines of inquiry—technical and material analyses, and Indigenous conceptions of art and image—to reach the full richness of color at the core of Mesoamerican worldviews.
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
This exhibition has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Support for LACMA's Art of the Ancient Americas department is provided by Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser and The Greenberg Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by The David & Meredith Kaplan Foundation, with generous annual funding from Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Alfred E. Mann Charities, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Maggie Tang, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Alfonso Nava Larios, Cosmic Tree (Guamuchil), 2023, © Alfonso Nava Larios, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Javier Hinojosa
- Sep 15, 2024–Sep 2, 2025
- Resnick Pavilion
This exhibition was organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
This exhibition has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom.
Support for LACMA's Art of the Ancient Americas department is provided by Daniel Greenberg, Susan Steinhauser and The Greenberg Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, GRoW @ Annenberg.
All exhibitions at LACMA are underwritten by the LACMA Exhibition Fund. Major annual support is provided by The David & Meredith Kaplan Foundation, with generous annual funding from Louise and Brad Edgerton, Edgerton Foundation, Mary and Daniel James, Justin Lubliner, Alfred E. Mann Charities, Kelsey Lee Offield, Koni and Geoff Rich, Maggie Tang, Lenore and Richard Wayne, and Marietta Wu and Thomas Yamamoto.
We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Returning in September 2024 with its latest edition, PST ART: Art & Science Collide, this landmark regional event explores the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART is presented by Getty. For more information about PST ART: Art & Science Collide, please visit pst.art
Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Alfonso Nava Larios, Cosmic Tree (Guamuchil), 2023, © Alfonso Nava Larios, photo © Museum Associates/LACMA, by Javier Hinojosa