![]() In fact, when Bliss purchased this jade sculpture ( PC.B.014), it was described as Aztec. 1912, when Robert Woods Bliss acquired a fine Olmec statuette as his first Pre-Columbian object, little was known of the Olmec and their relation to other cultures of ancient Mesoamerica. De Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico: Sculpture and votive objects. That slight edging forward in time still leaves the Olmec vastly and fascinatingly distant from us. "Olmec" amplifies this realization by ending with a section showing how the Maya and other cultures that immediately succeeded the Olmec adapted something of their aesthetics and cultural practices, such as the ritual ballgame that the Olmec appear to may have invented. It spurs us, in the age of cascading connectivity, to imagine just how alien to our own world picture many other civilizations have been. ![]() This leaves us largely free to experience "Olmec" through confrontation with the mystery and raw presence of ancient artifacts. The museum has sensibly kept chat panels and label copy sparse, refraining from tendering scholarly speculation as fact.
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