A Resolution of the Arts & Sciences: Lecture by Heather Hurst

Location: Palamountain Hall: Davis Auditorium

Date: 09/27/2011

Time: 5:00 PM

Speaker: Heather Hurst

Description:
You Are What You Paint?

Anthropology professor and archeological artist Heather Hurst speaks about her work creating watercolor illustrations of the ancient Mayan murals at Bonampek, Chiapas, Mexico, a three-year endeavor using imaging, pigment analysis, archeological reports, and historical documents, in collaboration with art historian Mary Miller of Yale University.

The ancient Maya had a vibrant tradition of painting murals on public walls, within private palaces, and in ritual buildings. The imagery, iconography, and rare painted texts of these artworks tell us about the lives of Maya peoples.

Yet the story is not all on the surface. Hidden beneath and within the layers of paint resides a narrative of the artists themselves. Using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), the range and variation of materials used in painting is characterized. Materials science provides new data regarding the individual artists who painted murals of 2,000 years ago, and informs our future investigation of these artworks.

Heather Hurst graduated from Skidmore in 1997 and is now assistant professor of anthropology here. Her research concentration is mesoamerican archaeology. Heather worked as an archaeological illustrator on several field projects, including excavations in Honduras, Mexico, and Guatemala. Between 1999 and 2002, she and co-artist Leonard Ashby painted a half-size watercolor reproduction of the famous Bonampak murals from Chiapas, Mexico.

Heather received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship in 2004; her work has been published in "National Geographic," "Arqueología Mexicana," and the "New York Times," has been included in numerous exhibitions at venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the National Gallery of Art, and is held in the permanent collection of the Yale Univeristy Art Gallery and the Museo Nacional de Guatemala.

Contact:
Rebecca Shepard
580-5049

Tags: anthropology archeology art and art history chemistry iconography illustration