This James C. Meade Friends’ Lecture is free for members and $12 for non-members. Tickets are available at the door only. Seating is first-come, first-served.
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As an exclusive benefit, members at the Friend or Sustainer level are invited to a private reception prior to the lecture and the Annual Friends’ Dinner ($75/person) immediately following the lecture. Friend and Sustainer level members can contact 405-278-8207 or rsvp@okcmoa.com for more information.
Life and Death on the Island of Jaina, Maya Figurines 800-1964
Maya figurines are the most widespread, recognizable, and beloved ancient Mexican objects in American and European museums. In the 1950s, a Los Angeles art dealer looted hundreds of figurines directly from the Island of Jaina in the Gulf of Mexico and promoted them to museums and private collectors. This James C. Meade Friends’ Lecture will consider the characteristics of these Maya figurines and carefully assess the iconography and facture at the peak of island production.
Presented by Mary E. Miller, PhD
Mary Miller is the Director of the Getty Research Institute, where she also leads the Pre-Hispanic Art Provenance Initiative (PHAPI), a systematic study of the 20th-century international market for pre-Hispanic art. A spet in the art of ancient Mexico and the Maya, her numerous publications include The Murals of Bonampak (1986), The Art of Mesoamerica (1986, now in its 6th edition), Maya Art and Architecture (1999, now in a new edition with Megan O’Neil), and The Spectacle of the Late Maya Court: Reflections on the Murals of Bonampak (2013). She is Sterling Professor Emeritus in History of Art at Yale University and the recipient of many national awards.
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Image Credit: Figure of an Aristocratic Lady, 650-800 CE. The Art Institute of Chicago, 2001.512.
