José Chávez Morado, Autorretrato con Nana (1948)

Sofia Ortega-Guerrero

On a dirt road, a young boy cocks his hip slightly beneath the weight of a loaded holster that tugs on his small frame and sends ripples through his overalls. The sleeves of his powder-pink shirt stop short of his dimpled hands, which grip a rifle. Though the barrel’s height rivals his own, the boy looks out with a chilling sense of normalcy, his dark, doe eyes tinged with maturity.

Ronny Quevedo, los desaparecidos (the arbiters of time) (2018)

Sofia Ortega-Guerrero

On a banner of unstretched muslin, a gilded plan for a shirt jacket is suspended in time and space. The pattern paper, printed with mathematical specifications of measurement, enters a diagrammatic purgatory, its capacity to envelop human volume left unfulfilled. Instead, the gold-leafed pattern pieces are held in a perpetual state of dismembered abstraction.

John T. Curran, "Aztec" tête-à-tête coffee pot for Tiffany & Co. (1897)

Rong Lin

In 1897, William Randolph Hearst, an American businessman and newspaper publisher, commissioned an "Aztec" tête-à-tête coffee service for his formal dinnerware use. His action of doing so epitomized the popularity of objects in the ''Aztec'' style in the late 19th century.

Einar and Jamex de la Torre, Gaiatlicue (2022)

Marina Álvarez

Gaiatlicue (2022) is a two-story, backlit lenticular photomontage that lives at the Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum (better known as ‘The Cheech’). As one enters the museum, the various images forming the collage of Gaiatlicue become clear and obscure from various perspectives depending on where the viewer is in the museum in relation to the image.

Cecilia Vicuña, Disappeared Quipu (2018)

Lucia Neirotti

In 2018, the Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña installed a work titled Disappeared Quipu in two successive exhibitions, the first at the Brooklyn Museum and the second at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In the monumental scale characteristic of her late-career works, 24-foot strands of raw, white wool hang from the ceiling and pool heavily on the floor.

Diego Rivera, Pan-American Unity (2018)

Sydney Barofsky

Diego Rivera’s Pan-American Unity mural was revealed at the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island, a man-made piece of land in San Francisco Bay, in 1940. During a time of war and uncertainty, the artist conceived of an alternative where technology can be implemented in the service of liberating and uniting the working class in the Americas.

Clarissa Tossin, 21st Century Wisdom: Healing Frank Lloyd Wright’s Textile Block Houses (2019)

Lucia Neirotti

As installed at the 18th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica California, the Brazilian artist Clarissa Tossin’s work, titled 21st Century Wisdom: Healing Frank Lloyd Wright’s Textile Block Houses, appears like an unconventional archaeological display.

The Motorcycle Diaries book (1993) and film (2004)

Leili Adibfar

Ernesto “Che” Guevara (1928-1967) begins his diaries on a Latin American journey by stating “[t]he person who wrote these notes passed away the moment his feet touched Argentine soil again. The person who reorganizes and polishes them, me, is no longer, at least I am not the person I once was. All this wandering around ‘Our America with a capital A’ has changed me more than I thought.”

Eamon Ore-Giron, Talking Shit with Coatlicue (2017)

Jessica A. Ramirez

Like the monolith as an enigma or mystery, Ore-Giron’s Coatlicue presents as a semi-abstract enigma, providing just enough for the viewer to recognize the piece as an artist’s interpretation.

Tatiana Parcero, Cartografía Interior #35 (1996)

Léa Sainz-Gootenberg

Tatiana Parcero’s photographic practice is centered on the creation of historical and personal reflections on the self and the body, aiming to go beyond the physical realm, exploring the implications of memory, ritual, and lineage. Cartografía Interior #35 (1996) is a prime example...

Choose Your Own Adventure: Mystery of the Maya (1981/2005)

Andrew Finegold

Written in the second person, with a narrative that regularly bifurcates as it presents the reader-protagonist with options of how to proceed, the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) series of books gives literary form to the late capitalist condition of the ostensibly empowered individual subject...

Liene Bosquê, Pre-Hispanic City (2014) and Recollection(2000–2015)

Andrew Finegold

Within an expansive art practice that addresses the interfaces between architecture and individuals, Liene Bosquê has made a number of pieces that reference Mesoamerican buildings.

"Zzutak: The Thing That Shouldn't Exist!!," Strange Tales #88 (1961)

Andrew Finegold

Issue number 88 of the anthology comic book Strange Tales features a two-part story called “Zzutak: The Thing That Shouldn’t Exist!!”

Spyro Gyra, Stories without Words (1987)

Andrew Finegold

The cover of Stories without Words, the eleventh album by the jazz-fusion band Spyro Gyra, is a cartoon-like image adapted from portions of the mural program at the Late Classic Maya site of Bonampak.

John Walter Scott, Jesus Christ Visits the Americas (1969)

Andrew Finegold

John Walter Scott (1907–1987) was a prolific American illustrator known for his pulp fiction covers. In the 1960s, he was commissioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormon Church) to paint several large murals for their facilities.

Aaron Siskind, Photographs (1940s–1970s)

Andrew Finegold

Aaron Siskind’s photographic practice centered on the tension between documentation and abstraction.

House II: The Second Story (1987)

Andrew Finegold

In this mid-eighties horror-comedy, Jessie and his girlfriend Kate move into a house built by his ancestor, a 19th-century adventurer.

William S. Burroughs & Malcolm McNeill, Ah Pook Is Here (1970s)

Andrew Finegold

The author William S. Burroughs—member of the Beat movement, counter-cultural icon, and proponent of experimental writing techniques—lived in Mexico City in the early 1950s, in a self-imposed exile avoiding drug charges in the United States.

The Scooby-Doo Show, "The Fiesta Host Is an Aztec Ghost" (1976)

Andrew Finegold

The Scooby-Doo Show was the second iteration of a popular cartoon series, the premise of which involves the titular dog accompanying a group of mystery-solving teens as they encounter spooky situations that are inevitably shown to have...

Nadín Ospina, Artworks (1990s–2000s)

Andrew Finegold

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the Colombian artist Nadín Ospina created works that replicated object types associated with various Pre-Columbian cultures while replacing the original imagery with contemporary popular culture icons such as Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Andrew Finegold

Drawing inspiration from adventure serials of the 1930s—the same period in which it is set—Steven Spielberg’s extremely popular and influential film Raiders of the Lost Ark presented an over-the-top portrayal of the archaeologist as a swaggering treasure hunter

A Place to Bury Strangers, Onward to the Wall (2012)

Andrew Finegold

The Brooklyn-based noise-rock band A Place to Bury Strangers released its Onwards to the Wall EP in 2012, the cover of which features two photographs of architectural structures placed side-by-side with the images converging at the center line.

The Simpsons, "Blood Feud" (1991)

Andrew Finegold

In The Simpsons Season 2 Episode 22 ("Blood Feud"), Mr. Burns presents Bart an Olmec head (purchased at Plunderer Pete’s, a store in the local mall) as a gift in thanks for his life-saving donation of blood.
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