Huichol art

Huichol art broadly groups the most traditional and most recent innovations in the folk art and handcrafts produced by the Huichol people, who live in the states of Jalisco, Durango, Zacatecas and Nayarit in Mexico. The unifying factor of the work is the colorful decoration using symbols and designs which date back centuries. The most common and commercially successful products are “yarn paintings” and objects decorated with small commercially produced beads. Yarn paintings consist of commercial yarn pressed into boards coated with wax and resin and are derived from a ceremonial tablet called a neirika. The Huichol have a long history of beading, making the beads from clay, shells, corals, seeds and more and using them to make jewelry and to decorate bowls and other items. The “modern” beadwork usually consists of masks and wood sculptures covered in small, brightly colored commercial beads fastened with wax and resin.

While the materials have changed and the purpose of many of the items have changed from religious to commercial purposes, the designs have changed little, and many retain their religious and symbolic significance. Most outsiders experience Huichol art as tourists in areas such as Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, without knowing anything about the people who make the items, and the meanings of the designs. There are some notable Huichol artists in the yarn painting and beadwork fields, and both types of work have been commissioned for public display.

The Huichols are an indigenous people who mostly live in the mountainous areas of northern Jalisco and parts of Nayarit in north central Mexico, with the towns of San Andrés, Santa Catarina and San Sebastián as major cultural centers. Their numbers are estimated at 50,000 and the name Huichol is derived from the word Wirriarika, which means soothsayer or medicine man in the Huichol language.

After the Spanish arrived in the 16th century, the Huichols retreated into the rugged mountains of northern Jalisco and Nayarit. While nominally converted to Christianity in the colonial period by Franciscan missionaries, most of the native Huichol culture managed to survive intact due to the isolation, and because the area lacked mineral or other resources of interest to the Spanish. Mexican historian and anthropologist Fernando Benítez states that the Huichols have probably maintained their ancient belief systems better than any other indigenous group in Mexico. Much of this isolationist tendency remains intact although economic circumstances have forced a number of Huichols to migrate to areas such as Guadalajara, and coastal areas to work or sell their wares.

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Wikipedia