The Realm of the Condor: Wari, the Art of a Pre-Inca Empire

FAIN: GE-50237-10

Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH 44106-1711)
Sue E. Bergh (Project Director: August 2009 to June 2011)

Planning for a traveling exhibition and a publication on the art of the Wari Empire which flourished in highland Peru from about AD 750 to AD 1000.

The Cleveland Museum of Art seeks planning support for "The Realm of the Condor: Wari, the Art of a Pre-Inca Empire," the first North American special exhibition devoted to the startlingly beautiful arts of the Wari, who are widely believed to have forged one of the ancient Andes' first empires. An eminent ancestor of the better-known Inca, they began their ascent to power in the south-central highlands of Peru around A.D. 600, experienced a brief period of explosive growth, and then, by A.D. 1000, collapsed. Elite arts and the ideologies that informed then were among Wari's most prominent exports. NEH funds will support the effort to determine and refine the exhibition's humanities themes, fine-tune the object loan list and the exhibition layout, and provide advice about both the catalogue's structure and interpretive strategies that will make the show appealing and accessible.