Joanne Pillsbury
@ The Block Museum
40 Arts Circle Dr, Evanston, IL 60208
Opening Wednesday, February 20th, from 5PM - 7PM
“Aztecs in the Empire City: Collecting and Exhibiting Ancient American Art, 1877-1914”
With the return of peace after the dislocations of the US Civil War, The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by businessmen, civic leaders, and artists in New York. Unlike its European counterparts, the institution had no royal collections on which to build. Its ancient American holdings grew through gifts and purchases from diplomats, philanthropists, and collectors. By 1900, with the acquisition of the Petich Collection of some 1500 “Aztec,” and “Toltec” works, The American Archaeologist hailed the Met’s holdings as second only to Mexico City. Yet by 1914, the Museum had turned away from American antiquities, redefining not only itself but also what was considered the appropriate aesthetic purview of an art museum for decades. This paper considers the civic, national, and scholarly currents affecting the collection of ancient American art in the Gilded Age.
Joanne Pillsbury is the Andrall E. Pearson Curator at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. A specialist in the art and archaeology of the ancient Americas, she is the author, editor, or co-editor of numerous volumes, including Golden Kingdoms: Luxury & Legacy in the Ancient Americas (2017).
Northwestern University Department of Art History presents the Warnock Lecture Series.
Image: Toltec panel collected by Frederick Church
Official Website
More events on this date
Tags: Aztecs in the Empire City, Evanston, Joanne Pillsbury, The Block Museum, Warnock Lecture Series, Warnock Lecture Series: Joanne Pillsbury (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
« previous event
next event »