This well-preserved mantle exhibits gray-blue, brown, and cream cotton stripes and figural patterns. The bands were composed through different techniques—plain weave, double-cloth, and floating warps—and were combined together for the final mantle. The social value of the textile is enhanced through the incorporation of dyed camelid fiber on each corner.

This tall staff is made from a hard wood and ornamented with brass and iron sheet metal at the cap and along the shaft at even intervals. The metal cap is decorated with an animate sun at the top, as well as a flowering vase and a Latin cross around the sides.

Weaving remains a specialized art in the Andes, with the continued production of vibrant patterned ponchos, mantles, carrying cloths, and hats, as well as slings and coca bags (chuspa).

After Huari (Wari) influence subsided, several styles evolved on the central Andean coast. The Chancay developed on the central coast of Peru, in the fertile valleys north of Lima, Peru, from 1000 to 1476 CE. Not much is known about the Chancay, but their decline in the late 15th century coincides with the territorial expansion of the Inca (Inka) Empire.

This late Chancay tunic is a stunning testament of Andean weaving. The waist-high length, long sleeves, and waistband are typical of the Andean coast, with decorative strips of double-bodied birds reflecting Chancay style. The vertical bands of birds alternate with paired blocks that bear diagonal frets angled obliquely from the tunic midpoint.

This vessel reflects the influence of Inca imperial expansion on coastal ceramic styles.

This vessel reflects the influence of Inca imperial expansion on coastal ceramic styles. The double-chambered vessel form with a false spout became common throughout the Inca Empire, with the impressed design and paint palette here suggestive of a coastal style.

This vessel reflects the influence of Inca imperial expansion on coastal ceramic styles. This Late Horizon (1400-1532 CE) blackware vessel exhibits the distinctive features of a common Inca vessel form, the urpu, including the long, constricted neck, wide body, and flat base.

George L.K. Morris (1905-1975) was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) group, and an influential art critic for the Partisan Review. He wrote frequently of abstraction as the next logical development in the visual arts and believed that all art throughout history was abstract, but American art had a particularly strong tradition of abstract values reaching back to the colonial period.