MEXICAN, HUICHOL PEOPLE

Beads on carved wood

11 1/8 x 6 4/8 x 2 1/8" OVERALL

Mexico is the birthplace of the ancient indigenous Huichol people which still exists today in Jalisco, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit and extends in settlements crossing through the Sierra Madre Mountains. Without having a written language, art making provides an avenue for the Huichols shamanic beliefs to be expressed in the form of Beaded masks and Yarn paintings. Images of maize, peyote or deer are created by pressing beaded needles in beeswax onto a base made of clay or wood. This practice has also become commercially successful and provided much needed income for the Huichol while retaining an adherence to and preservation of ritual practices which can often become compromised as cultures advance.

ca. 1930

Artist unknown, Mexican

Estate of Frances Garvin and Keith Julius Puccinelli

2018.001.006