Transformation: Art of the Americas through October 6, 2019 at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland

Transformation: Art of the Americas through October 6, 2019 at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
Transformation features approximately 20 works from indigenous American cultures, dating from 1200 bce to 1500 ce, that illustrate the metamorphosis of body and spirit. People of the indigenous Americas radically modified their bodies in the belief that altering their physical selves would transform them into deities and supernatural beings. The objects on view, including gold jewelry, stone sculptures, musical instruments, and a painted ceramic burial urn, powerfully illustrate a fundamental worldview of the ancient Americas: that states of being—human, animal, and divine—were fluid and interchangeable.


Image: Maya Polychrome Lidded Urn with Seated Figure 600-900 CE courtesy of the Walters Art Museum.

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