Techniques used and Opening Remarks:
§ Cutout lace pattern on a piece of solid wood 120 X 101 X 3 cms / 47, 24 x 39, 76 x 1, 18” = The frame is part of the work.
§ Screwing on plywood of the same size but one centimeter thick is in the final 3 + 1 = 4 cm / 1, 57”
§ Embedding the two heads of white cloth masks with exposed raw seams thread.
§ Several under layers preliminary paintings “Special protective timber” to absorb bumps.
§ Successive sanding.
§ Artistic finishing with a limited palette of paints to keep him both a seemingly "Art Brut" without being refined, which fits perfectly with striking contrasts of iconography Mimbreños. Contrasts complex yes, but balanced that suggest an energetic struggle of opposing forces. We could thereby, interpret their secret desire to send us their creed only known by their pictographic writing, which finally seems full of contradictions?
§ Visible shadows on the bottom panel in Indian yellow do not exist when you look at the original work, illuminated face: they are shadows that are important, given the thickness of the wood. They kinetically fragment forms by providing a complementary color according to the light source. The final lighting will be particularly important as the intended effects.
§ I presented the board with the couple vertically, to give it a conventional image. Upon request, the work may well be mobile with a central fixation using a ball bearing, as I have done for other tables (see my website: www.philhelm.com references : ancient Minoan M156 Hunting ... or ancient Achaemenid B155-Hunting ... or P174-Five Lives of Mimbres Mogollon: meeting, affinity, love, revelation, family). In this case, the couple will be presented in all rotational positions of the work, man or woman, above or below the other?
§ Total weight: 12.5or 25kg/ 26, 68 or 53, 36 lb (The rotation formula requires a fixed counterweight flat to be of the same scope.)

ART GALLERY / This painting was inspired by the art of a Native American burial minority called Mimbres Mogollon (or Mimbreños) and has disappeared there is now about 1000 years ... and rediscovered in 1914 in southwestern New Mexico. We have the memory of the survival of their time on earth to the extraordinary beauty of their painted pottery. This is now my third work concerning this tribe. Tribe which I had the opportunity to detail their customs rather accurately: See the P174 & P175 references on my site: www.philhelm.com
The couple chosen for this work was represented painted inside a funeral bowl on the head of the deceased. He was buried in a large jar squatting under the floor of his house, as all the members of his family. Additional feature of this ritual: each had a bowl painted inside and placed upside down on their skull. The bowl had been holed voluntarily with a sharp object, and that, in the middle to allow "escape the soul of the dead," and that, according to the interpretations that have been made by archaeologists and anthropologists, and admitted today. The term is often used for "kill hole." Archaeologist J.J. Brody suggests that the act of piercing the bowl and placing it over the head of the deceased allowed the spirit of the dead to escape the body. It should be noted that there is no other similar custom in the world known to date!
As their writing is not known (if it existed) many bowls refer to a major feature of the life of the deceased, as if we had wanted to leave a trace of their passage on earth describing their status as it was a hunter, fisherman, dancer, witch or other. Their imagination is fertile, we often discover animals, mythical or real that reveal a true and beautiful bestiary.
Going back to our table, it is clearly a coupling or its preliminaries. The partners are here both carry masks. The woman is completely naked except for her jewelry on her arms and ankles. Man alone is fully tattooed in complex curvilinear and geometric lines, recurring in Mimbres and a large mythical and symbolic bird on his chest. In their amazing and unique iconography, many Mimbres tattooed with geometric lines. Pets are not left since most are decorated with geometric designs, which sometimes take the entire surface of their bodies. Note that among the thousands of Native American pottery listed, those of Mimbres are immediately identifiable.
On our original bowl, which is exposed to the” Musée du quai Branly” in Paris, they do not wear masks exceptionally or tattoos! I have added to get closer to their standard. Another variant, the woman wore a skirt certainly initially coarsely woven with dangling straps, which are also a recurrent theme Mimbreños, but we usually find only a belt around the waist with straps dangling! In general, most of the time everyone is naked! Regarding tattoos, which are the expression of a figurative writing known to the Mimbres, note that they were not painted and tattooed permanently as we understand it today. The lifetime of these paintings was short, it was necessary to maintain them regularly, if not change them as the status of the wearer.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TRIMMINGS AMERINDIAN ASSETS: These people were distinguished them by their body clothing, if not their nakedness. All work on the body resembled a code, a sign with an expression of humanity. Each company develops its own nakedness obeying rituals, rules, staging, and codifications. It is a language that shows the identity of a person in his clan but also of its neighborhood. Clothes, body marks, jewelry, floral ornaments, demonstrating expression and communication of his own world with the neighbors. So everyone can immediately recognize the identity of others and especially its place in the group. Marking tattooed thus governed by specific codes that would be difficult to break. Throughout its existence, the individual was of his body painted motifs, varying according to their status, age, gender or the events of his life. The body marking depending on the circumstances, can be just as much a sign of war, beauty, protection, religious ritual but also magic, in that he became the visible symbol of an "organization of appearances." The most used colors were black, white, but especially red. The red referred to a purely symbolic that evokes both: seduction, protection, anger, prestige, passion. It was linked to blood and life; it protected and honored the one who invited them! Red was provided by the scale insect that lived on the cactus. The paint protects the heat and perspiration, but also insects due to odorous substances they emanated. It should be noted that the paintings included Mimbres pottery lot of different insects including mosquitoes and mosquitoes, particularly pungent variety! The Mimbres also painted many animals and anthropomorphic with representative of their perceptions that can be likened to a true writing geometric signs! To conclude the tattoos are flourishing in our contemporary world called "civilized", remember that the ancient Greeks did tattooed their slaves! Other times other manners!

BIBLIOGRAPHY :
Brody, J.J.: Mimbres Painted Pottery. School of American Research: Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1977.
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Creel, Darrell: Excavations at the old Town Ruin, Luna County, New Mexico, 1989-2003.
Cultural Resource Series No. 16, New Mexico Bureau of Land Management. 2006
Fewkes, J. Walter: Archaeology of the Lower Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1914.
Fewkes, J. Walter: Designs on Prehistoric Pottery from the Mimbres Valley, New Mexico. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 74, No. 6, pp 1-47, 1925
Hegman, Michele: Recent Issues in the Archaeology of the Mimbres Region of the North American Southwest. Journal of Archaeological Research Vol 10, No. 4, December 2002.
Leblanc, Steven A.: The Mimbres People: Ancient Pueblo painters of the American Southwest. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1983.
Munson, Marit K.: Sex, Gender, and Status: Human Images from the Classic Mimbres. American Antiquity 65(1): 127-143, 2000.
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Shafer, Harry J.: 2003 Mimbres Archaeology at the NAN Ranch Ruin. University of New Mexico Press.
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