Andrew James Hamilton, Associate Curator of Arts of the Americas at the Art Institute of Chicago visits the MFA on Thursday, October 26 for an enthralling talk about “The Art of the Americas.” The author of the highly acclaimed book, Scale & the Incas (Princeton 2018), will explore how this Andean civilization created a host of fantastically scaled objects as a way of communicating meaning in their multi-lingual empire.

Hamilton will conclude his talk with the case study of a very rare, royal Inca tunic covered with enigmatic motifs—once thought to be a long-lost glyphic language—previewing his forthcoming book The Royal Inca Tunic: A Biography of an Andean Masterpiece (Princeton 2024).  In between, he’ll share his wide-ranging, cross-disciplinary perspective on “the art of the Americas” across time, space, and medium.

The Art of the Americas
Andrew James Hamilton
Thursday, October 26
6:00 pm–7:00 pm
Marly Room
$15 MFA Members; $30 Not-yet Members

Andrew James Hamilton’s work explores the art and architecture of the ancient and colonial Americas, with interests in the Andes and textiles, as well as contemporary Native American art. He is deeply invested in analyzing objects, how they were made, used, and eventually disused, in order to understand why they were created and what cultural meanings they bore. Andrew is also a lecturer in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. He previously served as lecturer in the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and was a member of the Princeton Society of Fellows. He received his BA in the history of art from Yale University and his MA and PhD in the history of art and architecture from Harvard University. His work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the Getty Research Institute, the Fondation Fyssen, and the Laboratoire d’Anthropologie Sociale at the Collège de France.

MFA Museum Studies Institute
The Museum Studies Institute is the MFA St. Pete’s internal “think tank” that encompasses all the intellectual and creative imaginings generated from, and orbiting around, an encyclopedic art museum. Art museums preserve things—art objects that represent the highest aspirations of humankind—in perpetuity. Yet we do so amid the reality of a complex and ever-changing world. Lectures by renowned experts on the history of art museums, conversations on engaging topics, and symposia examining current challenges—from climate change to inclusivity to new media—allow us to open our internal discussions to engage our community in the conversation.