TAM Exhibit: Folk Art and Treasures of Mexico

From the practical to the playful, Nelson Rockefeller's collection of Mexican folk art truly provides a vibrant and varied rendering of Mexico's past which is rich in culture and heavily saturated in color.

Looking over the entrance was a giant paper mache devil who had to have been over eight feet tall. These large Beelzebub-inspired monsters are called Judas, and were created for one purpose, and one purpose only, to blow up. Once a year on Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican people light these Judas' up full of pyrotechnics and symbolically rid the world of sin.

The first piece in the exhibit to catch one's eye would be the large tablas, which was a painting style used by the Huichol people to communicate with their gods. The color and composition flirts with spacing but then pays little mind to it as the painting gets more and more convoluted with colorful depictions. A notable trait of the tablas is the use of sacred colors.

Another work of Huichol native art was a piece done by Felipe Olay of the disappearing art of the popovers. This art was known as popote and traditionally uses the straw of brooms. The straw is pressed into wax and then laid over a drawing. A quick Google search of this can illuminate the immaculate detail that only a piece of straw can present with relation to lines.

The Mexican pull toys on display provided for a comic relief to the seriousness that are dowries and religious paraphernalia. These pull toys were arguably the equivalent to a Mexican muppet and were handmade with wood, bottle caps and cloth, which implied a universal accessibility to all, regardless of class.

Beside Teodoro Blanco's ancient clay pots, lay an antiquated ornate saddle and spurs, circa 1922. The description of the piece implied a rich story behind it, most likely rich with moraccas and pistol smoke. Insert your favorite desperado quote here.

A collection of elegantly decorated antique chests were on display which could rival the post-modern Louis Vuitton chests of today. These chests were predominantly used as gifts for a part of a dowry.

The plethora of religious relics were both fascinating and almost endless in Rockefeller's collection, as Mexican culture seemed to have lived quite semoitically with God.

An awash of trinkets lie scattered under the protective display case, with the description beside them, "Milagros". These are votive amulets whose purpose is for gifts. The idea was to buy these trinkets outside of the church after praying for a change to your favorite saint, and if your prayers were fulfilled, you would present it to the church to hang up as visible proof of a miracle. Cynically, this could have ensured the churches need never have to make new milagros.

Ancient vases were also on display, which may be assumed to have been used to transport holy water on arduous pilgrimages to various locations in Mexico.

In the middle of the exhibit, eerily levitating was the Negrito mask, circa 1930. This mask was found in Nahuatzen, Michoacan, Mexico. This mask was made to resemble a person of African descent, who the Mexican people esteemed as being powerful. In the 16th century, 20,000 African slaves worked in the silver mines of Mexico until the abolishment of slavery in 1822.

Adjacent from the beautifully preserved stations of the cross, was one of the oldest pieces in the collection, an oil painting on canvas which was in the form of a scroll, circa 1800. The artist is unknown, but the dominant use of red, white and green, the colors of the Mexican flag, implied a strong sense of patriotism in its creator.

A healthy supply of masks were also on display, most notably the Jaguar mask, which is coincidentally a mask of a jaguar, used in religious rituals.

A description of the piece said the mask,"gives great license to the anonymous wearer, who often mocked local social order." A colorful wall mural dominated the end of the exhibit, depicting the Virgin Mary residing over a church. Coincidentally, this larger than life painting, actually has a larger than life story that goes along with it.

In 1531, a baptized native named Juan Diego was visited by the Virgin Mary, who told him to build a church on Tepeyac Hill. She in turn, left an image of herself in his cloak, which is on display in the church he built to this day. Today it is one of the most visited Catholic shrines in the world.

A rich history undertoned every relic, which easily provides meaning and reason for their procurement by Rockefeller.