Deity Figure (zemí) (detail), ca. A.D. 1000. Dominican Republic (?). Taíno. Wood (Guaiacum), shell, 27 x 8 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. (68.5 x 21.9 x 23.2 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.380)
Caribbean Art at the Metropolitan Museum The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents ‘Arte del mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean’, an exhibition highlighting the artistic exchange that took place around the rim of the Caribbean Sea before the 16th century. December 16, 2019–January 10, 2021.]]>
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Showcasing 40 objects drawn primarily from The Met collection and augmented by select loans from public and private collections in the U.S., including rarely seen works from ancient Puerto Rico, “Arte del mar” (art of/from the sea) presents a stunning narrative of Caribbean creativity in the millennia before European colonization. Part of The Met’s 150th anniversary celebration in 2020, the exhibition is the first to shed light on the artistic achievements of the civilizations throughout the Caribbean region, which includes the modern Antilles archipelago and countries such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras.
Organized into three sections—ritual knowledge, ceremonial performance, and political power—the exhibition celebrates ancestral traditions in the region with a focus on the sculptural achievements of the diverse island societies known today as the Taínos. Highlights among the works on view include rare wooden sculptures such as the 10th- to 11th-century Deity Figure (Zemí) from The Met collection, a masterpiece intertwined with spirituality, ceremony, and politics. Objects created from diverse materials including greenstone, shell, bone, ceramic, gold, and marble underscore the range of connections between Caribbean peoples. The exhibition also explores the legacies of indigenous peoples and practices in present-day Afro-Caribbean culture through a selection of modern works inspired by similar themes as the ancestral sculptures. The accompanying Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin presents new archaeological and art-historical research from international scholars of the region; it will be published in February 2020.
Related content
Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago – Portland Museum (exhibition, 2019)
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