O giver of Life,
Who paints with flowers,
Who bestows color with songs,
Who gives form to all those
Who dwell on earth;
We live here only
In your book of paintings.

(Ballads of the lords of New Spain, about 1560. Attributed to Nezahualcoyotl, Nahua poet, ruler of Texcoco)

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s first presentation of Mesoamerican art in 40 years, Painted worlds: color and culture in mesoamerican art explores the relationships between color, the cosmos, and creation — both divine and artistic — in the region comprising much of modern-day Mexico and Central America.

A sacred spectrum

Painted worlds traces a color-coded journey through the story of creation: from birth to maturity to primordial darkness.

Along the way, learning stations and multimedia experiences teach us about the sciences of color-making, interpret dialogues between Western and Indigenous practices, map the Mesoamerican idea of the cosmos, and explore what new international scientific research reveals about Indigenous knowledge and traditions.

The stuff of life

Painted Worlds highlights the breadth of Mesoamerican art across roughly 250 objects, many rarely or never seen before in the U.S. Glittering mosaics, intricate textiles, mural fragments from Teotihuacán, richly colored ceramics — these and more remarkable objects on view reveal how Mesoamerican artists expressed their worldviews through the manipulation of color and natural materials. Guests can enjoy a rare, close-up look at the Codex Laud, a book of divination and one of only about 15 surviving texts that predate Spanish colonization. The codex is made newly accessible through tactile and digital experiences.

Living arts

Spanning 3,000 years of Indigenous Mesoamerican art, Painted worlds reveals how traditions continued from the pre-Hispanic past to today — often disrupted and changed by colonial forces. The contemporary Indigenous artists featured in this exhibition are in conversation with their ancestors, having maintained and revitalized traditional knowledge.