Description
Amate Bark Paintings Curator Card. Amate is a type of bark paperthat has been manufactured in Mexico since the Pre-Columbian Times. The Mayan people first propagated knowledgeabout bark-paper-making and spread it throughout southern Mexico. Amate paper was created to satisfy the human need to express and communicate. Amate paperwas used by Native Americans for commuication, records, and ritual. Two advantages stimulated the extensive use of bark paper: it’s light weight and it’s ease of transport. After the Spanish Conquest, bark paper’s connection to indigenous religion caused it to be banned. The native Otomi secretly kept Amate bark paper in production. The use of Amate paper was revived by native Nahua painers in Guerrero, Mexico. The Otomi produced the paper, and the Nahua have adapted painting tradition to the paper. Painting on bark paper is the most important economic activity in eight Nahua villages. Designs focus on birds, flowers, and landscape painting.
Additional information
| Country of Origin | Mexico |
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