ART REVIEW : Treasures From Lost Civilization at LACMA : Mesoamerica Art Reflects Nature, Society

Anthropologists pretty much agree that civilization, as a high state of social and cultural organization, first developed in three distinct areas of the globe. The ancient civilizations of China, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica shared certain general characteristics, but their geographical isolation from one another likewise guaranteed stark differences.

It also guaranteed that the first encounter between discrete civilizations would create a situation like no other. Never had two highly civilized, completely disparate entities come into broad contact. Columbus’ arrival at the Caribbean island of San Salvador on Oct. 12, 1492, and that of subsequent European conquerors to North, Central and South American shores, ignited a “War of the Worlds,” as surely as if Martians had descended from outer space to conquer the inhabitants of Earth.

“The Ancient Americas: Art From Sacred Landscapes,” which opened Sunday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, is an exhibition that uses the occasion of the Columbus Quincentennial to reconsider Mesoamerican civilization in the centuries before the devastating encounter. Organized by the Chicago Art Institute, where it had its debut last fall, the show means to articulate and to clarify one fundamental feature shared by nearly two-dozen diverse and far-flung Amerindian cultures, which had flourished in the vast territories between the deserts of New Mexico and the mountains of Peru, before the European slaughter began.

The modeled ceramic vessels, monumental stone sculptures, gold ornaments and woven textiles date from about 800 B.C. to the early 16th Century. If that sounds like a huge chunk of time and space to reasonably assess in a single exhibition of some 250 objects--imagine attempting the same with European or Chinese art--rest assured that it is. However, a full accounting is not what this engaging show is after.

What organizers hope to reveal is the way in which all these diverse societies regarded themselves as an integral part of nature and the environment. Whether through the alignment of entire cities to cosmological referents, or through the stunning merger of a human being, a deity and a stalk of corn in a single stone sculpture, an awareness of the intricate fusion of nature and society was always in the artist’s mind.

The focus on this one unifying feature makes the show manageable. How to articulate the theme, especially as manifest in so wide an array of styles and forms, is a thornier matter.

That’s where the exhibition stumbles. It’s surely worth seeing for the astonishingly high level of quality maintained throughout, but you’ll likely find yourself soon distracted from the show’s subject.

In Chicago, the relationship between the social order and the land was suggested in two ways: through a plethora of large photo-murals of relevant sites and landscapes, keyed to individual objects; and, through a spare installation, in which the encounter with objects was meant to be subtly contextualized through the very spaciousness of the galleries.

At LACMA the presentation is very different. Tightly packed, even though it has been trimmed of several dozen objects, and with fewer identifying murals, it displays the work in a more traditional way. One result is an emphasis on the formal qualities of these often extraordinary ritual objects. Their seamlessness with natural context can get lost.

Recurrent formal characteristics include stressing frontality, two-dimensional design and organic patterning, and the suppression of illusionism. Highlighting abstractness underscores the sacred and ritual functions of almost everything in the show.

Among the expected wonders are a stunning display of Mimbres pottery, the precise and elegant geometry of its decoration conveying a sense of universal order and harmony, as well as the blunt intricacy of monumental Aztec carving, which exudes brute power. A delirious summit is reached in the refined sophistication of the Mayan civilization, which is exquisitely represented in seven stone carvings and 16 modeled or painted ceramics.

Less familiar but decidedly enchanting are the aggressive and odd ceramic effigies of the Jama-Coaque people from Ecuador, which can embody a sense of playfulness rarely encountered in Pre-Columbian art. Elsewhere, the vivid graphic designs on painted ceramics or in hammered gold reliefs made in the Cocle province of Panama animate a faith in an internal “life force,” believed to permeate everything in the visible--and invisible--universe.

Why was nature harnessed as an organizing principle for these societies, as represented in artistic objects made to connect the community to the landscape? Simple survival is one obvious explanation. The rhythms of nature and its seasons are essential to civilizations based on agriculture, and their extrapolation into religious systems and cosmologies is to be expected.

Still, it performed another useful function. A civilization such as the Maya was, after all, extremely sophisticated. If nature gave life, physically and spiritually, then a ruling elite would certainly benefit from any articulation of a “natural” source for its power and authority. Call it nature’s version of “the divine right of kings.”

The political dimension of “Art From Sacred Landscapes” is what is most obscured by the show’s inadvertent emphasis on formal qualities. At LACMA the tedious, old-fashioned convention of displaying ancient art in mysterious, darkened galleries, theatrically lit with pinspots, has been hauled out yet again, the better to inject a deceptive sense of exotic razzmatazz.

This extraneous stagecraft works against the show’s intent. While you may have trouble reading labels in the dim light, and may even discover objects obscured by inevitably deep shadows, go anyway. Dozens of the objects are spectacular.

* Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Blvd., (213) 857-6000, through Aug. 15. Closed Mondays.