{"id":3057,"date":"2015-03-19T10:49:12","date_gmt":"2015-03-19T15:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=3057"},"modified":"2015-03-19T10:49:12","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T15:49:12","slug":"mexican-craftsmanship-on-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/?p=3057","title":{"rendered":"Mexican Craftsmanship On Show"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here in Montevideo one of my favourite museums is the Museo de Arte Precolombino e Indigena,\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous Art.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.mapi.uy\/informacion_de_interes.html<\/a><\/span> \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s on Calle 25 Mayo in the Cuidad Vieja. \u00a0The permanent exhibitions are always fascinating and I always learn something new. \u00a0Definitely a must-visit if you’re coming here to Montevideo.<\/p>\n

They also have exciting temporary\/visiting exhibitions, and on at the moment until 4\/4, with the possibility of extension – is a visiting exhibition of superb Mexican artisanship, \u00a0Grandes Maestros del Art Populare Mexicano,<\/em> \u00a0which I enjoyed last week. \u00a0Just as in other parts of the world, hand crafted art is constantly under threat of extinction from mass produced stuff, and people are becoming less aware of the importance of traditional crafts. This project and touring exhibition is designed to help\u00a0promote and\u00a0preserve the traditions in danger of being lost to younger generations.<\/p>\n

I have travelled a little in northern and central Mexico, and have a sister who for nearly 40 years has lived in the extreme south of New Mexico US. \u00a0 That location has allowed a great deal of travel \u00a0across the border down the years, and given her opportunity she has never resisted to collect a large quantity of very fine examples of Mexican folk art. \u00a0Mexican ceramics, textiles, wordwork, \u00a0cut and textured tin, glassware and clothing are in use in and and decorate her genuine traditional adobe mud brick home in the Rio Grande Valley. \u00a0She would love this collection, and many of the pieces in this fantastic exhibition are of crafts and art that I \u00a0have met before. \u00a0 But others were new to me – like this incredible candle wax sculptured altar<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

approx 1m w x \u00a090cm h which was displayed in a rather cold air-conditioned room for \u00a0obvious reasons! \u00a0(It was a pretty hot early march day)<\/p>\n

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\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

This 2.5m x 2m hand embroidered cloth could be used on bed, wall or table. \u00a0I have a couple of huipils in this technique, plus some small mats and a table runner.<\/p>\n

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On one wall was hanging a group of different weavings, all in lovely colours and very skillful . \u00a0I show the edging of this\u00a0shawl or scarf \u00a0for its featured fringing and feathers – quite beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

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Embossed and cut metal sheeting is used a lot \u00a0for frames \u00a0and light fittings, and this one around a mirror is superb:<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From Oaxaca comes \u00a0wonderful hand painted wooden items particularly animals birds insect and fish, of which these are the largest examples I’ve seen. \u00a0We have some nice pieces at home in Australia, too, but they are much smaller. \u00a0The spotted cat-like creature, jaguar perhaps, is about 80cm long x 35cm high.<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The beautiful ceramic candelabra itself is perhaps 60cm tall and the candles add another 20cm approx. \u00a0Talk about intricate, delicate and downright fragile – heavens’ knows what the bill for packing and transporting this stuff was!!<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And, finally, some Day of The Dead ceramic figurines at a funeral …<\/p>\n

\"Mexican<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Apart from my delight at seeing this beautifully hand crafted art work and so much of it – 600 pieces – the wonderful thing about the exhibition is that it is here in Montevideo. \u00a0If you’re coming soon, or live here, take an hour or \u00a0two to enjoy it: \u00a0<\/em>http:\/\/www.mapi.uy\/informacion_de_interes.html<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Montevideo one of my favourite museums is the Museo de Arte Precolombino e Indigena,\u00a0\u00a0or\u00a0Museum of Pre-Columbian and Indigenous Art. http:\/\/www.mapi.uy\/informacion_de_interes.html \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 It’s on Calle 25 Mayo in the Cuidad Vieja. \u00a0The permanent exhibitions are always fascinating and I always learn something new. \u00a0Definitely a must-visit if you’re coming here to Montevideo. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[165,249,250],"class_list":["post-3057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-creativity","tag-high-quality-craftsmanship","tag-tradition-matters"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6uxpF-Nj","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3057"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3075,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3057\/revisions\/3075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}