Maya Blue: Ancient Color, New Visions at San Antonio Museum of Art

The San Antonio Museum of Art presents 'Maya Blue: Ancient Color, New Visions,' an exhibition exploring the rare and stable Maya blue pigment through eight ancient earthenware artworks and one stucco piece, dating from 550 to 1,500 years ago, alongside five modernist and contemporary works. Curated by Kristopher Driggers, the show highlights the pigment's sacred and ritual significance, often associated with the rain god Chaak and produced as an offering. Maya blue, first identified at Chichén Itzá in 1931 by chemist H. E. Merwin, is a hybrid organic-inorganic material made from indigo and palygorskite clay, sometimes with copal incense. Anthropologist Dean E. Arnold's 2024 book 'Maya Blue: Unlocking the Mysteries of an Ancient Pigment' details its production and stability. Contemporary works include Clarissa Tossin's 2017 video 'Ch'u Mayaa,' filmed at Frank Lloyd Wright's Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, featuring dancer Crystal Sepúlveda reappropriating the Mayan Revival architecture as a temple. Sandy Rodriguez's 2019 watercolor 'Healer No. 1' references Maya blue's medicinal uses, while Rolando Briseño's 'Verdeazul' (1998) connects the pigment to agricultural abundance. The exhibition runs through May 10, 2026.