About Modern Mayan Portrait Art

To understand mayan portrait art, you have to understand a bit about the Mayan people themselves

. From about two thousand years before the common era, until about fifteen hundred Anno Domini, the Mayans occupied the majority of Central America. As a culturally rich society, they developed outstanding works of architecture and art--however the main subjects of Mayan art, especially modern portraits are based on the day to day social aspects.

Contemporary artists usually focus on highlighting the Maya's way of handling day to day affairs, all the while showing the many dimensional layers of these activities--the meaning behind the actions--and what this meant in such a society. In this way, they can spread knowledge about this ancient society and better help others to understand their way of life and the connections it has to many modern cultures.

Common themes include gatherings, meals, festivities, working condition, traditional garb and ritual ceremonies. Social functions and family life were a big part of Mayan culture and as such, are consistently revisited in paintings today.

A common thread of these portraits is the way in which they use color: boldly, vibrantly, brightly. It is used to emphasize the subjects, way of life, presence of gods or spirits and creates an animated, vivacious scene.

The descendants of the Mayan people are still predominantly concentrated in southern North America and Central America. Guatemala alone boasts an estimated fifty percent of it's inhabitants to be direct descendants of the native Maya people. They are the bulk of the artists involved with creating such artwork.

However, not all artists who contribute to this genre are native to Central America--in fact, many of the mixed race mestizos (people of Indian and European descent) who emigrated to North America also take part in expressing their ideas about their culture. These come from various places in the United States as well, from areas as diverse as California to Illinois.

Because of socio-political and cultural reasons there is some thought among both artists and collectors, that buys into the notion that art on the Maya produced in native areas such as Guatemala by the indigenous people is of a higher quality, more authentic and therefore more valuable. This is because some of these groups, such as the Cakchiquel speaking and Tz'utuhil speaking tribes of Guatemala are direct descendants of the Maya.

Although such aspects of the art are debatable, no matter who the artist, these paintings provide insight, beauty and a rich, colorful perspective on what Mayan life was all about.

by: Sam Patrolio

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