Featuring Dr. Orlando Hernández Ying, this talk revisits the history and dissemination of the art of metallurgy in the ancient Americas through a long and extensive process of intercultural exchange that extended over vast territories from South America to the periphery of the Caribbean Basin during the first millennium CE. The stylistic similarities between gold ornaments found namely in Colombia and Central Panama from the Dallas Museum of Art's collection will serve as documental evidence of the existence of a pan-regional cosmology over native cultures that until recently are being studied from a broader geo-cultural perspective.
Dr. Orlando Hernández Ying has dedicated over 20 years to museums and higher education. In his native Panama, Dr. Hernández was the head curator of the Anthropology Museum (MARTA) and held the position of National Coordinator of Museums, where he oversaw 18 museums across the country. His trajectory in the U.S. includes collaborations with MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Walters Museum, and the Historic New Orleans Collection.
Hernández Ying has taught at NYU, CUNY, Tulane University, and the National University of Panama. His academic training includes an MA in Museum Studies from NYU and a doctoral degree in Art History & Criticism from the Graduate Center, City University of New York.
As Curatorial Associate at the Hispanic Society Museum & Library, Hernández conducts research on several topics, from ancient to modern art in the Americas. His essay In the Absence of the Written Word: Ancient Gold in the Isthmo-Colombian Area is included in the DMA's new catalogue The Arts of the Ancient Americas at the Dallas Museum of Art, hot off the press and available now.
This lecture is presented by the Boshell Family Lecture Series on Archaeology.
Image: Pendant Crocodile Deity, 800–1200 CE. Veraguas, Panama. Gold. Dallas Museum of Art, The Nora and John Wise Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jake L. Hamon, the Eugene McDermott Family, Mr. and Mrs. Algur H. Meadows and the Meadows Foundation, Incorporated, and Mr. and Mrs. John D. Murchison, 1976.W.270.