Xochipala: Salvaging a Looted Culture and Its Art

Title

Xochipala: Salvaging a Looted Culture and Its Art

Late Formative, Xochipala, Central Mexico, Guerrero, 400 B.C.–A.D. 200. Standing woman. Ceramic with traces of red pigment. Bequest of Gillett G. Griffin / photo John Bigelow Taylor

Date

Thursday, June 25, 2020

Time

5:30 PM EDT

Leveraging new scientific analyses, available (but limited) archaeological data, and unique historical records held at Princeton, this lecture provides a fresh consideration of the art style known as Xochipala. This material was looted from the region around a modern village of the same name in Guerrero, Mexico, beginning in the nineteenth century but with heightened intensity in the 1960s and later. The looting irreparably destroyed the objects’ original contexts, resulting in decades of speculative and imaginative interpretation. Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas, will provide both new insights and frank assessment of what has been lost through clandestine pillaging.

Free registration at https://princeton.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_MSx39kckRn2v1eyAKjJ9BA (when prompted, click to sign in as “attendee”)

This event will include live closed captions in both English and Spanish. English captions are available directly in the Zoom toolbar. To access Spanish language captioning, enter the Zoom webinar, then open a separate web browser to visit https://www.streamtext.net/player?event=CFI-PrincetonUArtMuseum where you can select “Spanish” to see the live captioning.

Aprovechando nuevos análisis científicos, datos arqueológicos disponibles (pero limitados) y registros históricos únicos en Princeton, esta conferencia ofrece una nueva consideración del estilo artístico conocido como Xochipala. Este material fue saqueado de la región alrededor de un pueblo moderno del mismo nombre en Guerrero, México, a partir del siglo XIX pero con mayor intensidad en la década de 1960 y más tarde. El saqueo destruyó irreparablemente los contextos originales de los objetos, lo que resultó en décadas de interpretación especulativa e imaginativa. Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp Curador y Profesor de Arte de las Antiguas Américas, proporcionará nuevas ideas y una evaluación franca de lo que se ha perdido a través del saqueo clandestino. Este evento incluirá subtítulos en vivo en inglés y español.

LATE THURSDAYS!  This event is part of the Museum’s Late Thursdays programming, made possible in part by Heather and Paul G. Haaga Jr., Class of 1970.