Above are links to a partial collection of precolombian
designs, the fruit of an investigation carried out by the
Colombian painter Antonio Grass, who did the incredible
and very important work of cataloguing an immense quantity
of designs from cultures that lived in what today is known
as Colombia. Grass reproduced precolombian symbols, copying
them from gold jewelry, ceramics, textiles, bone carvings
and petroglyphs.
From his book The Faces of the Past:
When faced with the fabulous treasures of America’
a great German artist wrote in his diary:
“
I also saw all of the things that the king had brought from
those new golden lands: an entire sun made of gold, the size
of a patio, and also a silver moon equally big. And I saw
two rooms full of armours made of these same metals and all
kinds of weapons, projectiles, marvelous shields, strange
clothes, feathers, a great varity of magnificent utensils
for different uses, more beautiful to the eye, then all of
the miracles. All of these objects were so precious that its
value was estimated in thousands of Florin. Nothing I had
ever seen had moved my heart as much as these things. And
upon seeing all of these artistic marvels I was surprised
as to the subdle geniuos of the people of other lands, and
I could not describe here everything that I saw”
Alberto
Durero, August 1520
El Sudor y las Lagrimas de la Luna
Andre Emmerich, 1965.
In
the first part of the book The Faces from the Past,
Grass explains why and how he started this inmense work which
resluted in four books; Disenos Precolombino El Circulo, La
Marca Magica, Animales Mitologicos, Los Rostros del Pasado:
“Nationally
everything has functioned and continues to function as in
an intellectual colony: European thoughts and customs, or
of which ever country is fashionable at the moment. Presently
there is a preponderance of the New York and San Francisco
schools. There has been a ongoing campaign on the part of
cultural leaders in favor of the “universal”,
but not in favor of the universal essences that move man in
his creation. They favor the imposition of this or that style
or concept, these that have been created by people of other
nations who, in order to develop these, did think of their
own environment, context and roots. Thus , the essence and
basic principles that which impulse man’s creativity
are confused with fashion and decrees for colonies. The cultural
“decrees” play the same role as did the Laws of
the Indies, which were enforced here, coming from the Spanish
courts. It is believed that “universal” means
to unite London and Bogotá in one expression.”
P 244
“ Has any value ever been given to pre-Hispanic art
in the cultural circles of our nation? Has anyone been interested?
Has there been men that have desired to base the structure
of an art form based on national origin? No…..”
“Today, as before, foreign agents shout out to the winds
“Pre-colombian art is dead; it is more then dead”….
“Here, Europe has been and still is being studied from
beginning to end, but America is never studied. We have been
and will continue to be a small and shameful colony.”…
P 247
As
to the medium he chose:
“Upon
publishing these investigations, I decided to do so threw
the medium of design, plain structures and graphics, I felt
that such a presentation would make it more comprehensible
and clearer to understand for the onlooker. Plain design would
make its order and structure palpable; no one could say that
behind these designs there were not a diaphanous, intelligent
and calculated concepts; nor could they say that this order
was not concordant with the medium and essence of the Colombian
Indian, our anscestor.
My research on these designs seeks to defend, re- evaluate,
make palpable and clear the entire pre-Hispanic world. Only
nations with a past can construct a present and future. Nations
without a past are nations without a face.” P 249
The
Faces of the Past
Pre-Hispanic Colombian Design
Research, drawings, texts, design and editing by Antonio Grass
Copyright and published by Antonio Grass, 1982.
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