Cleveland Museum of Art's Exhibition: Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes

FAIN: GI-50496-12

Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH 44106-1711)
Sue E. Bergh (Project Director: January 2012 to December 2013)

Implementation of a traveling exhibition, a catalog, programs, and a website on the arts of the Wari, a major Andean civilization and the first empire in that region between AD 600 and 1000.

The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is organizing the first major exhibition in North America to consider the startlingly beautiful arts of the Wari, eminent ancestors of the Inca who, between AD 600 and 1000, may have created South America's first indigenous empire. "Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes" brings together some 150 objects of high aesthetic quality and cultural significance, many of which have never or only rarely been seen outside of the countries where they now reside, and with them tells the story of how the Wari people created a civilization of unprecedented complexity without the aid of writing. Among the art works are elaborate textiles of several kinds, fine ceramics, personal ornaments made of precious inlay or noble metals, and small-scale sculptures of stone and wood borrowed from nearly fifty collections in Canada, Europe, Peru, and the U.S.

Associated Products

Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes (Catalog)
Title: Wari: Lords of the Ancient Andes
Author: Susan Bergh
Abstract: An eminent ancestor of the better-known Inca, the Wari ascended to power in the south-central highlands of Peru in about AD 600, underwent a brief period of incandescently explosive growth, and then, by AD 1000, collapsed. Elite arts and the ideologies that informed them were among the Wari’s most prominent exports. From their capital, one of the largest archaeological sites in South America, they sent their religion along with elaborate objects and textiles out to highland provincial centers hundreds of miles to the north and south, and down into populous Pacific coastal areas to the west. The arts were crucial to the Wari’s political, economic, and religious communications: like other ancient Andean peoples, they did not write. The objects featured here cover the full range of Wari arts: elaborate textiles, which probably were at the core of their value systems; sophisticated ceramics of various styles; exquisite personal ornaments made of gold, silver, shell, or bone and often inlaid with precious materials; carved wood containers; and other works in stone and fiber. 200+ color illustrations
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.clevelandart.org/visit/Exhibitions.aspx?pid={5CD3C2E0-AD02-45C8-9643-D7EB926CA1E2}
Catalog Type: Exhibition Catalog
Publisher: Thames & Hudson

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