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By Janina Ciezadlo

M ore than 20 years ago,when I was teaching onthe Navajo reservation in

the northeast corner of Arizona,I climbed up an escarpment tosee ancient figurative drawingsin a niche in a cliff. These draw-ings of elongated trapezoidalpeople, some of which date backto 1500 BC, are evidence of thebelief systems that continuedthrough the first millennium ADin the American southwest andnorthern Mexico and influencedthe pottery collected in the ArtInstitute’s current “CasasGrandes” exhibit. The agricultur-al Pueblo believe that theirancestors came from the earth,and those faded scratchings onthe rock, almost merging with it,seemed to document this event.

Encountering antiquities in situcan be an amazing experience.But the Art Institute has created adifferent kind of contemplativespace. A mural of ancient figuresvery much like the ones I saw insouthern Utah greets viewers at

the show’s entrance. Photographicmurals show aerial views of twoarchaeological sites: the ruinedcities of Chaco Canyon in westernNew Mexico and the Paquimesettlement in Mexico. The sites’stark geometric patterns areechoed in the designs on the ves-sels, displayed in spotless, reflec-

tive vitrines. Semitransparentscrims on the walls also reflect thepots’ designs, amplifying the visu-al dialogue of proliferating geo-metric shapes and animal andhuman forms in a process ofmetamorphosis; viewers can easi-ly become entangled in the arti-facts’ conversations.

The exhibit includes some 120vessels, half of which are in theCasas Grandes style while theother half represent earlier cul-tures. The Casas Grandes potshave never before been on displaybecause the culture’s settlementswere excavated later than othersites, only in the last half century.

Research indicates that sometimebetween 1100 and 1200 AD anextended drought drove culturesfrom the American southwest tothe banks of the Casas GrandesRiver in central northern Mexico,where within three generationsthe large, sophisticated city of

A Postmortem in PotteryArchaeologists have recently pieced together what Casas Grandes ceramics indicate about a complex culture.

CASAS GRANDES AND THE CERAMIC ART OF THE ANCIENT SOUTHWEST THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

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Anasazi olla, Mimbres bowl, Casas Grandes jar

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Paquime was built, flourishingbetween 1250 and 1475. Longbelieved to be the northern out-post of Mesoamerican cultureslike the Olmec and the Aztec,Casas Grandes is now thought tobe the southern outpost of cul-tures from the American south-west, blending their graphic styleswith Mesoamerican mythology.

The pots are organized chrono-logically. The show begins withlarge, simple ollas (water vessels)made around 300 AD by theHohokam, the first agriculturalpeople in the southern part ofwhat is now Arizona. It moves onto the Anasazi culture in northernArizona and New Mexico, whichbegan about 400 AD and contin-ued to the 1500s, and theMimbres culture, which appearedin 950 AD in southeasternArizona and southwestern NewMexico. The Casas Grandes set-tlements represent a renaissanceof these cultures. But after that

culture failed,pottery makingceased until thelate 19th centu-ry, whenwomen took itup again (partlyin response tothe interest ofearly tourists),and the exhibitends with thesevessels. Thepots’ designsare not onlymesmerizingbut instructive,charting overcenturies theregion’s migra-tions and thesyntheses ofaesthetic tradi-tions, belief sys-

tems, social organizations, andmeans of social control.

The Anasazi’s large, whitekaolin- and carbon-painted ves-sels are products of a culturefamous for its astro-archaeologi-cal ceremonial sites, centered inChaco Canyon and meticulouslyaligned with lunar and solar ris-ings. The severe drought precipi-tated the collapse of the complex,hierarchical Chacoan culture,producing intra- and extramuralwars, disruption of trade, andeventual migration to Mexico.The pottery demonstrates witand skill, elegantly balancingline, symmetry and asymmetry,positive and negative space, andthe interaction between surfaceand volume. Jagged step patternsand curvilinear shapes moveover the ollas to create designs atonce simple and complex. Mazesand diamonds repeat and recom-bine in multiplying abstractdelineations of somethingbeyond our experience.

The designs of the Mimbrespeople are largely narrative. Incomparison to the sober, intellec-tual Anasazi patterns, theMimbres work seems lightheart-ed. Depictions of the occasionalsex act, childbirth, and hunt and

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WHEN ThroughSun 8/13WHERE ArtInstitute ofChicago,Michigan &AdamsPRICE $12; $7children, stu-dents, seniors.Kids under 12free. Thursdaysand Fridays 5-9PM free. INFO 312-443-3600MORE Relatedevents includepainting work-shops and a freetalk Thu 6/22, 7PM, in Gallery 100

CHICAGO READER | JUNE 16, 2006 | SECTION ONE 37

38 CHICAGO READER | JUNE 16, 2006 | SECTION ONE

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images of deer, quail, rabbits,and metamorphic beings (forexample, birds that are part fish)move over the interiors of openbowls. Of course, this mythiciconography isn’t as cheerful as itmay look, recounting the terrorsof sexuality, death, and birth—consider the image of a craneswallowing a decapitated humanhead. The Mimbres pots, whichcombine the Anasazi’s dynamicabstractions with bird and ani-mal motifs, are the precursors ofCasas Grandes pottery.

The densely patterned, poly-chromed, burnished pots of CasasGrandes—black, white, andblood- or iron red—are coveredwith birds, clouds, human figures,and borrowed Mesoamericanimages, such as the plumed ser-pent, which unites earth and sky

in one being, and macaws or par-rots, connected with the sunbecause of their colors. The logicof the geometric designs recallsthe Anasazi’s kinetic interactionsbetween line, shape, motif, andcosmos, suggesting that the CasasGrandes culture had a similarsocial organization and belief sys-tem and also used symbolicimages to legitimize power.Among the Casas Grandes jarsare a few animal- or human-shaped pots, called effigies.

The surrealists, notably MaxErnst, prized Amerindian arti-facts for their expression of themarvelous—of the dialectical rela-tionship between reality anddreams. In what was called “prim-itive” art, the energy of direct con-nections between men, women,and cosmological powers was notsuppressed. But artists and othercreative people aren’t the onlyones who’ve taken real or imagi-

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Long believed tobe the northernoutpost ofMesoamericancultures, CasasGrandes is nowthought to bethe southernoutpost ofcultures fromthe Americansouthwest.

Ink Well by Ben Tausig

The HoldupACROSS 1. Hip-hop article4. Pride and prejudice, e.g.8. First name in whodunits

14. Stereo line abbr.15. Sedgwick, subject of the Velvet

Underground’s “Femme Fatale”16. Hindu aphorisms17. Theme of this puzzle20. Pink Floyd’s Barrett21. RN’s MO22. Manual alternative23. New Zealander26. Chichen ______28. Join the cast of29. Theme of this puzzle32. Like some coincidences33. Wave point34. Strikers’ org. founded in Akron, Ohio37. Expired, as a subscription39. HBO program featuring

Bob and David41. April letters42. Abercrombie & Fitch logo46. Inmediatamente

47. Theme of this puzzle49. Shoot for a job52. Small, at Starbucks53. Shake54. Neighbor of Mauritania55. Favoring56. Here, over there58. Theme of this puzzle, finally64. Glimpses65. Noodles often eaten with tempura66. “¿ ______ pasa?”67. Freshen seawater, in a way68. Impudent69. Disco ______

DOWN 1. It’s in the pits2. Tint3. Rose of Los Angeles4. Spicy5. Words of triumph or confession6. Zilch7. Bubbly beverage8. “Just ______!”9. You might have to suck it up

10. Include a document, as with an e-mail11. Game catch12. The world’s first independent

black republic13. ______ Martin (007’s car)18. The way things stand19. Sunscreen issue?23. Talib of Black Star24. “Word on the street is . . .”25. Nintendo portals27. High-minded stuff?28. Starlike30. Appropriate31. Leathernecks, initially34. Album unit35. Hardly engages

LAST WEEK: SOCIETY FUNCTIONS

50. Break down grammatically51. Sounds made by big, fat drops55. Observe Ramadan57. Naysayer’s word59. Zoroastrianism, e.g.: Abbr.60. Ox tail?61. Brain measurements62. Like Sir Ian McKellen63. Kraftwerk contemporaries

36. Up on things38. “And how!”40. Critic with a handlebar mustache43. Four Holy Roman emperors44. Dot-com, maybe45. Architect’s addition47. Keys in music48. Sense and Sensibility heroine49. Psyched

CHICAGO READER | JUNE 16, 2006 | SECTION ONE 39

nary possession of these works. Sohave academics—archaeologists,anthropologists, art historians—and high-end collectors (a com-panion exhibit of southwesternartifacts at Douglas Dawsonended recently). Meanwhile tradi-tional Navajos shun the potsherdsthat are everywhere in the NewMexico-Arizona region: there arecultural injunctions against vio-lating ruins and relics. Looterscan legally be shot on sightbecause the artifacts are the her-itage of the indigenous people andoften scattered on sacred lands.

The Pueblo of the Rio Granderegion and the Hopi are descend-ed from the peoples who madethe pots now enshrined in muse-ums and galleries. Long beforethe colonists and cowboys arrived,these native cultures had complexcivilizations and trade networks.Though the precise functions ofthese beautiful artifacts, theirconnections to the land and totheir cultures, are obscured, thestories implicit in them reverber-ate through this collection. Youdon’t have to be an archaeologistor a collector to find antiquitiescompelling: objects once func-tional, now classified as art, theywere made by people both likeand unlike us. v