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CLEVELAND (Sept. 17, 2002) — The Cleveland Museum of Art has acquired an Olmec-style ceramic vessel from 1200–900-BC Central Mexico, a number of early- to mid-20th-century photographs and a Tamba ware ceramic storage jar from 15th-century Japan.
A selection of these and other newly acquired works will go on view later this month in the permanent collection galleries and in a new recent acquisitions gallery (near the Still Lifes Café).
The Olmec-style piece is a major addition to the Museum’s renowned collection of works from the ancient Americas. According to the associate curator of this collection, Susan Bergh, this very early vessel in the shape of a mask has no known parallel. It melds human features with those of Central America’s two most powerful predatory beasts — the harpy eagle’s beak and the jaguar’s fangs — in a face that seems to have an incredibly ferocious, shrieking mouth. Bergh believes this creature may be the rain god of the Olmec people, who created Mexico’s first great art style.
The deity may symbolize Olmec ideas about the cosmos, since the eagle is a creature of the air and the jaguar is equally at home on land and in
water.
The Museum’s collection of 14th- and 15th-century Japanese ceramic vessels, rivaling or exceeding holdings in other Western museums, is now strengthened by the addition of the storage jar from the Tamba area west of Kyoto, a historic agricultural and ceramic region. It is nearly 18 inches high, in excellent condition, with a natural ash glaze of rich greenish color that is a distinguishing feature of this stoneware among all medieval ceramic production in Japan. The Cleveland Museum now owns vessels representing nearly all the classic sites, which are considered the foundation stones of all subsequent developments in Japanese ceramic
art.
The jar is the latest addition to the Museum’s Asian collection, considered one of the finest in the world. The collection includes more than 5,800 objects such as this of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian and Southeast Asian origin acquired throughout the Museum’s
history.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is one of America’s leading comprehensive art museums. Its permanent collection is world renowned for its quality and breadth spanning 5,000 years. The museum is a key international player in exhibitions, scholarship, and art acquisitions. For more information on the CMA and its events, call 1-888-CMA-0033 or visit
http://www.clevelandart.org/.
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Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica
Pre-Columbian Art and the Post-Columbian World: