Arte del Mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean at The Met Fifth Avenue

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Deity figure (zemí), Taíno, Dominican Republic (?), ca. A.D. 1000.
Guaiacum wood, shell, H. 27 in. (68.5 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

ARTE DEL MAR

Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean

December 16, 2019 — January 10, 2021

Arte del mar ("art of/from the sea") explores the artistic exchange around the rim of the Caribbean Sea before the sixteenth century between the Taíno civilizations of the Antilles archipelago and their powerful peers on the continental mainland. Recent archaeological, ethnohistorical, and art-historical research has deepened our understanding of indigenous Caribbean concepts of ritual knowledge, ceremonial performance, and political power. Artists in the region—which includes the modern Antilles archipelago and countries such as Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, and Honduras—sought to express the distinct force of their deities and ancestors, known to the Taínos as zemí  (or cemí), which pervaded the environment and was crucial to the foundation of communities. Pendants and other objects worn and used by leaders in ceremonies were created from imported luxury materials and share a formal grammar that is inextricably linked with deeply rooted mythological narratives. Works of art on view in the exhibition, largely drawn from The Met collection, celebrate the region's ancestral traditions, and a twentieth-century painting by an Afro-Caribbean artist explores their enduring legacy.

The exhibition is made possible by the Friends of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas: Art of Five Continents.

Click the video below to preview the Arte del Mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean exhibition.

The Met Fifth Avenue

1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

 

Exhibition Highlights

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Figure pendant, Tairona, Colombia, 10th–16th century.
Gold, H. 5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Gift of H. L. Bache Foundation, 1969
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Seat or platter (duho), Taíno, Dominican Republic, 14th–15th century.
Wood, H. 7 3/8 in. (18.7 cm).
Saint Louis Art Museum; Purchase, Friends Fund and Primitive Art Society Fund in honor of Morton D. May
Photo: Courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum

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Alligator censer, Central Region, Costa Rica or Nicaragua, 7th–12th century.
Ceramic, H. 23 7/16 in. (59.5 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Pedestal Bowl, Ulúa Valley, Honduras, 9th–10th century.
Marble, H. 5 7/8 x Diam. 5 in. (14.9 x 12.7 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1972
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Wifredo Oscar de la Concepción Lam y Castilla (Cuban, 1902–1982),
Rumblings of the Earth (Rumor de la tierra), 1950.Oil on canvas, 59 3/4 x 112 in. (151.8 x 284.5 cm).
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Gift, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cantor, 1958
© 2019 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation / Art Resource, NY

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Head, Taíno, Puerto Rico, Caribbean, 13th–15th century.
Stone, H. 5 1/2 x W. 4 x D. 2 1/8 in. (14 x 10.2 x 5.4 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Eagle Pendant, Veraguas, Panama, 11th–16th century.
Gold, H. 5 1/2 × W. 6 3/4 × D. 1/8 in. (14 × 17.1 × 0.3 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Jan Mitchell and Sons Collection, Gift of Jan Mitchell, 1991
Photo: Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art