Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas The John Bourne Collection

Dorie Reents-Budet. Contributions by Julie Lauffenburger, Jessica Arista, Glenn Gates, and Marc Zender. With an introduction by John Bourne

Published by GILES in association with the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Publish Date — March 2012 (UK and USA)

Dimensions — 264 pages, 280 x 235 mm, 9¼ x 11 in) portrait

Illustrations — 380 colour and 43 b & w illustrations

Hardback price — US$60.00/UK£35.00

ISBN — 978-1-907804-05-2

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Press Release — A remarkable celebration of a world-renowned...

News — Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas

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Presents works from the internationally renowned Bourne Collection of ancient Mesoamerican, Central American, and Andean South American art, with a checklist of the full collection.

Includes a major chapter on conservation and authentication of pre-Columbian art

Accompanies the exhibition Exploring Art of the Ancient Americas: The John Bourne Collection Gift which is on show at the Walters Art Museum, February 12 - May 20, 2012.

About the Book

This stunning new volume presents full-colour plates, details, groupings and comparative images of approximately 147 Pre-Columbian works (spanning 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1530) from the collection assembled by John G. Bourne in the 1950s and 1960s. It features fine examples of painted earthenware vessels and figures, carved basalt effigies, jewellery and vessels from Mesoamerica, Central America and Andean America covering a host of civilizations, including Teotihuacán, Olmec, Maya, Andean, Aztec and Mixtec.

In addition to John Bourne’s fascinating account of his first expedition to Chiapas in 1945 and 1946, which started his passion for collecting, there is an extensive essay on authentication, a significant part of the study of pre-Columbian art. Each of the three geographical sections of the main catalogue opens with an introductory text on the art, culture and ceremonial features of that region, followed by discursive entries accompanying each work.

About the Author(s)

Dorie Reents-Budet is consulting curator for art of the ancient Americas at the Walters Art Museum and curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dr. Reents-Budet is the author of Lords of Creation: The Origins of Sacred Maya Kingship (with Virginia Fields, 2006) and Painting the Maya Universe: Royal Ceramics of the Classic Period (1994). Jessica Arista is an assistant objects conservator for the ancient Americas exhibition at the Walters Art Museum; she previously held internships at the Walters and at the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Glenn Gates is conservation scientist at the Walters Art Museum; Dr. Gates was previously head research scientist at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Julie Lauffenburger is senior object conservator at the Walters Art Museum, co-editor of A Lost Art Rediscovered: The Architectural Ceramics of Byzantium(2001), and a contributor to Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye(2006). Marc Zender is visiting assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Tulane University. He is the co-author of Reading Maya Art: A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient Maya Painting and Sculpture(2011).