Snite exhibit explores color of Mayan traditions
By MARIBEL MOREY
News Writer
Few Americans would dare to paint their houses bright blue like the ocean or their church a rich red, but the Maya people use colors to represent different aspects of life.
On the Notre Dame campus, the blue and red walls of the Snite Museum reflect the luminous, rich colors of this new exhibit, Jeffrey Becom Photographs: The Maya and Their Color Cosmos.
"It's a different world — the tropical and subtropical world is much brighter — It's a much more colorful place," said Steve Moriarty, associate art professor and associate professional specialist at the Snite. The exhibit consists of three topics: painted houses, painted churches and painted tombs.
"This is the first museum exhibit of this photographer's show," said Gina Costa, marketing and public affairs specialist. She said that students could benefit from the exhibit's immersion into the very beauty of vivid colors within a traditional indigenous Mexican society.
"Sometimes we are not aware of the very sophisticated system [the Maya people] have of symbolically using colors," Costa said. Colors are not just pigments selected from a palate, but rather, represent death, the heavens or even sacrifice.
Becom reflects those traditions in his photography.
"[Becom's] obsession is color," said Costa, explaining that the photographer accentuates the beauty within the Mayan's poverty.
"It became clear that painted architecture — and specifically its colors — was my life's calling, whether I photograph, paint or write books about painted color customs, myths, and meaning," Becom said.
Becom uses a silver bleach process to highlight the rich colors in the architecture.
"Dye structure is a positive-to-positive process that produces prints directly from color transparencies without the need for an inter-negative," said Becom. "During the processing … some of the dyes are bleached out to remove unwanted areas of color."
In the Mayan tradition, houses should all resemble each other to avoid envy from neighbors.
"Only in those towns where the lure of the outside world holds sway do customs loosen; and Maya might dare personalize their houses with flamboyant colors," Becom said. This does not hold true for churches, however. Before the Spanish explorers, Mayan people painted their churches in red paint "as a potent symbol of blood sacrifice and a prayer for renewal," Becom continued. Because this practice was contrary to Catholic beliefs of red as the devil and sin, the Mayan people were forced to paint their churches white as a sign of purity for the Europeans.
The only place where the Mayans were able to show their true artistic talents without inhibitions was at the tomb of a relative. Choosing blue and green as the most appropriate colors for the dead, the Mayan people considered death a transition rather than an ending to life.
"In Mayan, every shade of blue and green is simply one word — yax — the color of the heavens and precious water," said Becom.
Becom spent two extended trips, months at a time, working on these photographs of the Mayan villages in Mexico and Central America. His wife helps him with the books that correspond to the photographs.
The colors in the photographs are amazingly captivating because of the Mayan people's reliance on color through different stages of life.
Before visiting the Mayans in Mexico and Central America, Becom photographed the radiant Mediterranean architecture of Europe. Although this is his first showing, he is well known within his field and his work has been shown on PBS, according to Costa.
Bridging this exhibit and the last Cuban exhibit, the Snite Museum is trying to introduce more Latin American art.
"We've been trying to do something with Latin American issues because Notre Dame does have an interest in Latin America," Moriarty said. This show brings new photographic elements to the Snite while showing the richness of a culture many consider long forgotten.
All News Stories for Friday, March 24, 2000
