Object of the Week: Raul Anguiano's "The Mayas"

BMCA#99.63.2
The Mayas, 1999-2000
Raul Anguiano, Mexican
Oil on canvas; 160.5 in. x 72.5 in.

Raul Anguiano (1915-2006), led a prestigious artistic career that took him around the world. His paintings, drawings and mural work can be found in some of the world’s most prominent museums and the Bowers Museum is fortunate to have two of his mural size paintings, both of which are now on permanent exhibit. Anguiano began his art career at the age of 12. By 15 he joined the group Bandera de Provincias a collaboration of artists that exhibited together. Involvement in the group expanded Anguiano’s artistic, political and literary knowledge. In the 1930’s Anguiano moved to Mexico City where he was witness to the highly charged political atmosphere and the equally revolutionary developments in painting by artists such as Siquieros and Rivera that accompanied it.
In 1949, Anguiano was part of an anthropological and archaeological expedition to study the Lacandon Maya, a population living in the forests of Chiapas along the Usumacinta River. At the time of the Spanish Conquest of the Maya region of Mexico, the Lacandon fled from their towns to escape into the forests. The mural pictured here titled The Mayas is inspired from this expedition into the Lacandon forest. The mural was painted by Anguiano at the Bowers Museum in 1999. In the center of the composition a Maya scribe writes the history of his people in a book called a codex. At the extreme left is Kukulcan-Quetzalcoatl (the Feathered Serpent) and nearby is a large figure in profile representing either a priest or a warrior, which appears on a fresco painting at the Maya ruin of Bonampak. To the right of the large figure in profile is the God of Death, Ah Puch, who corresponds to the Mexica Lord of Death. His incorporation in the mural was inspired from representations of him found in the Dresden Codex, the finest of the Maya codices. In the lower left hand corner of the mural is an animal that is indigenous to the forest regions of the Lacandon Maya.

This mural was painted on site at the Bowers Museum. A more complete description can be found accompanying the mural in the Pre-Columbian gallery.

Images and text protected by copyright. Please contact the Collection Department for permission to use.