Aymara Weavings: The Indigenous Andes

This free exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum presents exceptional weavings by Aymara artists alongside related works from the Central Andes. Dating primarily to the 18th and 19th centuries, these skirts, mantles and ponchos demonstrate how artists in Bolivia maintained and reinvented ancient artistic practices to express Indigenous identities during the colonial era. While pattern and form vary considerably across type, the textiles in this exhibition share a number of characteristics. Each design reflects the vertical structure of the warp yarns made from exceptional hand-spun and hand-dyed fibers harvested from camelids such as alpaca and vicuña. Showcasing select works from a 2018 gift of art by Paul and Elissa Cahn, Aymara Weavings offers visitors the chance to engage more deeply with the technically sophisticated and historically rich practice of warp-faced weaving among the Aymara.