Thursday, September 4, 2025
Beginning in his teens, Henry Walters, born in 1848 in Baltimore, spent his life elsewhere: in Paris during the Civil War; at Georgetown College, then Harvard; in Wilmington, North Carolina, overseeing the railroad his father, William, founded; and finally in Manhattan, where he served on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s executive committee.
When William Walters died in 1894, his son inherited — along with his Confederate sympathies — the art collection in his father’s brownstone on Mount Vernon Place, to which the public had been admitted on spring Wednesdays. Expanding the collection, Henry hired William Adams Delano to design a Baltimore gallery; modeled on a 17th-century palazzo in Genoa, it opened in 1909.
Upon Henry’s death in 1931, the collection, the building and an endowment went to the City of Baltimore. The Walters Art Gallery, now Museum, was established three years later. A Brutalist Centre Street Building by Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott was added in 1974 and an elegant 1850 townhouse by Niernsee & Neilson in 1991.
Linked by elevators, passageways and staircases (including a hidden stone spiral), the Walters galleries are filled to the brim with cultural treasures from antiquity to the present. Its holdings are scant in just a handful of areas, including — until about 15 years ago — pre-Columbian art.
Last May, the Walters opened “Latin American Art/Arte Latinoamericano,” its first long-term installation of art from the region. Formerly the home of French porcelain, the North Court of the Palazzo building was reconstructed to strikingly display more than 200 objects.
Along the wall of the skylit, two-story courtyard are four eye-catching pieces.
René Treviño’s “Regalia, Moscas Brillantes (Negro)” of 2025 “reimagines coronation robes for the Spanish administrators of the Viceroyalty of New Spain” in “velvet, taffeta, lace, wax, resin, half-scale dress form, sequin appliqués, rhinestones, plastic flies, rooster and pheasant feathers.”
Next is a mahuetá, a decorated ceramic vessel for fermenting yucca root beer, made in Peru in the 1970s or 1980s by an artist (or more than one) of the Shipibo-Conibo culture of the Amazon rainforest.
Third, lent by the Philadelphia Museum of Art: a granite goal ring used in the sacred ballgame of Mesoamerica between (roughly) 1400 and 1521, when Hernán Cortés’s Spanish forces captured the Aztec Empire’s capital, Tenochtitlan.
Last, one comes face to face with a vejigante mask in the style of Loíza, Puerto Rico, worn in parades celebrating Santiago (Saint James). Literally fantastic, the piece, titled “Asa Ibile” — meaning “traditional culture” or “way of life” in the Yoruba language of West Africa — was made in 2024 by Teddy Vazquez Tapia “Delfo” and Wilda Cruz Ortiz.
Indicating the installation’s geographic reach and emphasizing the importance of sculptural practice, this lineup also suggests key concepts: that beliefs and rituals carried over into the Christian period, that some traditions have been maintained up to the present and that the region’s rich cultural history is inspiring contemporary Latin American artists.
One enters through a vestibule that introduces essential colors and materials, believed to contain “inherent spirit.” The colors: cinnabar, a red pigment from the mined mineral mercury sulfide; so-called Maya blue, a composite of indigo, clay and copal, a resin; and the green of greenstone (jade and other green minerals). The materials, in addition to stone and clay: gold, the shell of the spondylus mollusk and feathers (the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science provided a violetear hummingbird specimen).
One then enters a large gallery titled “The Land of Four Corners,” a translation of Tawantinsuyu, the quechua word for the Inca Empire, in what is now Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. A second large gallery is devoted to “The Land That Links” — that is, the Central American countries of Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador — and “Islands That Inspire Art,” chiefly the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Puerto Rico, centers of Taino culture. The final, smaller gallery, “Living and Manmade Mountains in Mesoamerica,” focuses on the Maya and Aztec cultures in what is now Mexico, Guatemala and (Maya only) Belize and Honduras. Brazil is absent, as are Caribbean islands such as Cuba and Jamaica.
The objects are beautifully arrayed, with bilingual explanatory labels, in custom display cases that match each gallery’s predominant color — cinnabar, blue and green, respectively. Contemporary works serve as stimulating sidebars and reference current issues.
“Latin American Art/Arte Latinoamericano” was curated by Ellen Hoobler, William B. Ziff, Jr., Curator of Art of the Americas, and Patricia Lagarde, Wieler-Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, Art of the Americas. The installation also benefitted from the input of the Institute for Human Centered Design and a 12-member Latin American Art Community Advisory Group (there are “Community Voice” labels at various points).
The main source of artifacts and funding was the late New Mexico-based explorer, collector and Singer heir John G. Bourne, who donated about 350 Mexican and Central American pieces from his collection beginning in 2009, eventually establishing a $4-million endowment. Some $70,000 earmarked for the installation’s budget was lost when a major Institute of Museum and Library Services grant was rescinded in April.
Short thematic videos are neatly integrated. María Luz Coco Luján, known on social media as K’ancha, appears in a short video on the quechua language of Bolivia and the Andes region. “Ocarinas: Instruments of Connection” shows how Baltimore artist Melissa Foss leads workshops in which participants form these ancient Andean musical instruments out of clay.
In the last gallery: “Together at the Table,” in which Baltimore chef Carlos Raba discusses corn in Mexican cuisine and culture; “What Chocolate Teaches Us,” hosted by Baltimore chocolatier Jinji Fraser; and, by a display of historic ballgame figurines and equipment, “Ulama: Ancient Sport, Modern Practices,” featuring Dr. Manuel Aguilar’s footage from 2006 of players in Sinaloa, northern Mexico (where Raba was raised).
A few highlights:
- earthenware animal vessels (lobster, sea lion, sea birds) from the Nasca culture of Peru, 300-600 CE;
- Moche portrait vessels, also from Peru, 100-800 CE;
- a caiman effigy incense burner from the Guanacaste-Nicoya culture of Costa Rica or Nicaragua, 500-1350 CE;
- more than 30 gold and jade ornaments from Colombia and Central America;
- a Mayan burial urn painted in “Maya blue” from Guatemala, 600-850 CE;
- a miniature limestone stela, “The Carved Stone of the Wise Man,” reportedly from the Maya site of Uaymil in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, 810 CE;
- a volcanic stone statue of the Aztec deity Macuilxochitl (Five Flower), 1400-1520, in a case with four earthenware ballgame performers, 300 BCE-300 CE; and
- an illustrated map, “Mexico, regia et celebris Hispaniae Novae civitas (Mexico, royal and popular city of New Spain,” published in Germany in the late 16th
Between the Walters collections, the art on view at the Baltimore Museum of Art (notably “Black Earth Rising,” closing Sept. 21, and “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” opening Nov. 2), Baltimore Symphony Orchestra concerts in Meyerhoff Hall and Peabody Institute concerts and recitals across Charles Street from the Walters — not to mention Edgar Allan Poe events coming up in October — fall is a fine time for a Baltimore getaway.
The most luxurious spot to overnight in Mount Vernon is the Ivy Hotel, about eight blocks from the Walters at 205 E. Biddle St. A gorgeously restored and furnished 1889 mansion — one checks in by a central staircase with stained-glass windows — the Ivy contains 17 guest rooms and suites, a small spa and Magdalena: A Maryland Bistro. Personal attention is the keynote, with fresh flowers, afternoon tea, complimentary valet parking and a house car on call within a three-mile radius.
In the Mayor Schaefer era, the Ivy was the city’s VIP guest house. The conversion to a hotel, which opened in 2010, was a project of philanthropists and art collectors Eddie and Sylvia Brown, founders of Brown Capital Management, headquartered nearby. Contemporary paintings from their collection enliven the lavish rooms and public spaces, which lead out to a walled courtyard facing Magdalena’s Garden Room.
A surprisingly affordable option close to the Inner Harbor, the 23-story Lord Baltimore Hotel at 20 West Baltimore St. is ideal for travelers who appreciate the grand hotels of yesteryear. Entering under the N. Hanover St. marquee, one finds oneself in a huge lobby with period décor and contemporary touches, the reception desk and an elevator bank at left. The hotel has 440 room and suites, down from the original 700.
The Lord Baltimore opened on Dec. 30, 1928, over the years welcoming such guests as Amelia Earhart, Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After closure and some years as a Radisson, it was purchased in 2013 by the Rubell family — of the Miami and D.C. Rubell Museums — who carried out extensive renovations. The hotel now offers a 24-hour fitness center, the LB Bistro & Bakery, the LB Tavern and a seasonal LB Skybar on the 19th floor. Oh yes, it is said to be haunted.
Latin American Art / Arte Latinoamericano
Ongoing
The Walters Art Museum
600 N. Charles St., Baltimore
Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Thursday, 1 to 8 p.m.
thewalters.org
A gallery of photos can be found below. All photos by Richard Selden.