Arte del Mar

The very same sea that separates the islands of the Caribbean from each other, and from territories on the Central and South American mainland, also connects them: for centuries before 1492, the indigenous peoples of the region travelled by boat between archipelago and continent, sharing “concepts of ritual knowledge, ceremonial performance, and political power.” Arte del Mar: Artistic Exchange in the Caribbean, an exhibition at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum (running until 27 June, 2021), assembles forty-two objects — from ritual artworks to jewellery — exploring connections among the Antilles and regions which today are part of Panama, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Honduras, predating European colonial contact. A highlight is a magnificent zemi of carved wood and seashell, depicting an ancestral figure and dating to the turn of the first millennium. Connecting the works of these early, anonymous artists to the present, the show closes with a 1950 painting by Cuban Wilfredo Lam.