Feather Creations. Materials, Production and Circulation

organized by Gerhard Wolf, Anna Russo and Diana Fane

The following texts were presented in June of 2004 at an international seminar co-sponsored by the Hispanic Society of America and the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Seminar participants were invited to contribute to the formulation of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Mexican feather art, a major artistic tradition that falls outside of the best known areas of the history of art and technology. In order to bring multiple perspectives to "feather creations," the seminar included reflections and insights drawn from the history of collecting, anthropology, history, and theory and practice of conservation as well as ornithology , aesthetics, theology, and economics.

The intention in publishing these papers electronically is to make known the various ideas and proposals that served as the basis for discussion in the seminar and to invite further exchange of ideas through the integration of critical commentary and, even, new versions of the texts. Some of the presentations are only available as abstracts but we hope soon to publish the entire texts or to supply references, in the case of papers published elsewhere.

We are pleased to thank the principal institutions that made the New York meeting possible: The Getty Foundation which supported the implementation of the seminar; the Hispanic Society of America, the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and the Ratti Textile Center of the Metropolitan Museum of Art where various sessions took place.