Acknowledgments

Townsend, Richard F.

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Acknowledgments

Richard F. Townsend (Editor)

Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past

During the course of the twentieth century a cultural movement has been evolving in the Americas, aimed at identifying and restoring a range of settings and landscapes: national preserves, historic towns and urban districts, battlefield sites, migration routes, and the ruins of early civilizations. This process has accelerated as the environment becomes ever more rapidly and permanently changed by industrial development, burgeoning cities, and mechanized cultivation. In The Necessity for Ruins …

Author

Richard F. Townsend (Editor)

PublisherArt Institute of Chicago

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00016.004

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-13523

Acknowledgments

During the course of the twentieth century a cultural movement has been evolving in the Americas, aimed at identifying and restoring a range of settings and landscapes: national preserves, historic towns and urban districts, battlefield sites, migration routes, and the ruins of early civilizations. This process has accelerated as the environment becomes ever more rapidly and permanently changed by industrial development, burgeoning cities, and mechanized cultivation. In The Necessity for Ruins, landscape historian J. B. Jackson explained this phenomenon as one that happens after long periods of neglect and discontinuity, followed by times of rediscovering the past and times of preservation. While this may be seen as an expression of a deep-seated psychic impulse aimed at recovering an “original” time of simplicity, the incorporation of the past is also part of imagining the future: we are in the midst of recognizing the patterns of migration, settlement, conflict, and exchange that have characterized life in the Americas for thousands of years and that continue to inform our lives with new forms of cultural encounter and synthesis. In this process we are discovering and acknowledging the achievements of peoples who founded the earliest civilizations in our hemisphere. This book and its accompanying exhibition are part of this ongoing discovery. For West Mexico, this is an especially significant time in which long-buried or dispersed archaeological and artistic evidence is revealing hitherto unknown patterns of the ancient history of the region.

Among those to whom we owe special thanks are the public institutions and individual collectors who have generously allowed their splendid works to be included in the traveling exhibition. I am also deeply grateful for the thoughtful contributions made by the authors whose essays form this volume. I particularly want to thank Hasso von Winning, whose pioneering work in West Mexican art is universally acknowledged.

It is especially important to note our appreciation and thanks to those funders without whom this project would not have been possible: First Chicago NBD Corporation, the exhibition’s corporate sponsor; the National Endowment for the Humanities, dedicated to expanding American understanding of human experience and cultural heritage; the National Endowment for the Arts; and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The U.S.–Mexico Fund for Culture (funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, Bancomer Cultural Foundation, and Mexico’s Fund for Culture and the Arts) supported the publication of this book, and American Airlines provided vital transportation assistance.

Ancient West Mexico would not have been possible without the invaluable assistance of many in the United States, Europe, and Mexico: Isabella Hutchinson, Maria Gualdoni, Wille Fatma, and Stacey Goodman of Sotheby’s; Laurence Mattet of the Barbier Mueller Museum, Geneva; Gaston Bernand, Gerard Geiger, Francis Wahl, Phillippe Nordmann, and Samuel Josefowitz in Switzerland; Baron and Baronne Paul Janssen, Jean Cambier, and Emile and Lin Deletaille in Belgium; Melinda and Santo Micali in Paris; Stephen Wittington of the Hudson Museum, University of Maine, Orono; Dr. Phyllis Pitluga of the Adler Planetarium, Chicago; Thomas Cummins of the University of Chicago; Spencer Throckmorton, Alphonse Jax, John Menser, Claudia Giangola, and Mary Anne Martin for their effective help in New York; Julie Jones at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Michael Kan at the Detroit Institute of Arts; Berta Cea for her assistance in the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City; Marcela S. Madariaga, Program Coordinator, Cultura Mexico/USA; Ing. Federico A. Solórzano Barreto, Curator of Paleontology, and Lic. Yolanda Carvajal Enríquez, Director, Museo Regional de Guadalajara; Barbara Belle Sloane of the Fowler Museum of Cultural History; John Watson and Mac, Kristin, and Jesse Watson for their hospitality in Los Angeles and Santa Fe; Thomas Holien of Santa Fe; Roger and Tony Johnston in Los Angeles; and Virginia Fields of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

At the Art Institute, the staff of the Department of African and Amerindian Art must be at the head of the list of those I wish to thank. Their spirit of cooperation and ability to orchestrate complex tasks under pressure were crucial to the successful outcome of the project. My deepest thanks are given to Anne King, Charmaine Picard, and Julio Sims for all of their efforts on behalf of this undertaking.

There are also many to thank on the extraordinary staff of the Publications Department. The editors of this volume, Robert V. Sharp and Catherine Steinmann, worked devotedly on this challenging project, bringing their intelligence and professional expertise to every aspect of its preparation. Their efforts were complemented by the remarkable ingenuity and meticulous craftsmanship of Sarah Guernsey, who ensured the high quality of the book’s production. They were assisted ably by Simone Juter. The excellent translations of original Spanish-language manuscripts by L. Adriana Rosado-Bonewitz allowed the editorial work to go on unimpeded. I am extremely grateful to Michael Guran, Project Architect, for the reconstruction drawing of the Teuchitlán ceremonial center. Thanks also go to Gigi Bayliss for the numerous drawings she created for this book. The elegant design of this volume is a tribute to Ed Marquand and his staff, especially Melanie Milkie, Marie Weiler, and John Hubbard.

I am particularly grateful to James N. Wood, Director and President of The Art Institute of Chicago, for his friendship and unwavering encouragement during the preparation and presentation of Ancient West Mexico. Similarly, this project could never have been realized without the involvement and support of many in this museum too numerous to name here. I warmly appreciate the expertise of Deputy Director Teri J. Edelstein; Dorothy Schroeder, Assistant Director for Exhibitions and Budget; Christine O’Neill Singer, Vice President for Development; Ed Horner, Executive Vice President for Development and Public Affairs; Karin Victoria, Director of Government Relations; Eileen Harakal, Executive Director of Public Affairs; and all the members of their respective staffs. Special thanks also go to Reynold Bailey and his art installation crew; to Barbara Hall, Suzie Schnepp, and Emily Dunn of the Conservation Department; in the Department of Imaging, to Robert Hashimoto, Christopher Gallagher, Josh Mosley, and Alan B. Newman, Executive Director; and, in Museum Registration, to John Molini, Mary Mulhern, Darrell Green, and Mary Solt, Executive Director. In the Department of Museum Education I gratefully thank Executive Director Ronne Hartfield and Clare Kunny, Associate Director, who provided the link to a large and enthusiastic staff and, through them, to programs that reach diverse audiences within and without the museum. Celia Marriott and her staff prepared excellent audiovisual materials; and Lyn DelliQuadri and her talented assistants, including Senior Graphic Designer Ann Wassmann, designed the fine exhibition graphics. My thanks go also to William Caddick, Director of Physical Plant, and all his dedicated personnel. The opportunity to work with architects John Vinci and Ward Miller in designing the installation in Chicago was a rewarding pleasure.

In conclusion, I give heartfelt thanks to my wife, Pala, for her strong personal and artistic support while the vision of Ancient West Mexico was being transformed into reality.

Richard F. Townsend
Curator, Department of African and Amerindian Art
The Art Institute of Chicago

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Note: Although the dates given here represent generally accepted parameters for the early cultures included, certain authors have chosen to use slightly different chronological schemes that derive from their own research.

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