The Denver Art Museum is displaying an exhibition on the ancient Tiwanaku civilization of Bolivia. The exhibition brings together the latest research on this important pre-Columbian empire, which lasted from around 200-1100 AD and had a population of up to 40,000 people. The exhibition aims to educate visitors who are unfamiliar with Tiwanaku, as not much is widely known about this advanced civilization outside of scholarly circles. Though focused on academic research more than blockbuster attendance, the exhibition further solidifies the museum's leadership in displaying art of the Americas.

1. empire
glimpses
By Kyle MacMillan
Denver Post Fine Arts Critic
T
iwanaku could have used
some better public-relations
people.
Although the once-great em-
pire ranks among the most im-
portant pre-Columbian civili-
zations in South America, it is all but un-
known outside scholarly circles.
And even among specialists, many ques-
tions remain about the once-advanced civili-
zation centered in the Bolivian highlands. It
lasted from 200 to 1100, reaching a popula-
tion of as many as 40,000 people before mys-
teriously vanishing.
Bringing together the latest research and of-
fering perhaps the best look yet at Tiwanaku
is a continuing Denver Art Museum exhibi-
tion organized by the Margaret
Young-Sánchez, Jan and Frederick Mayer cu-
rator of pre-Columbian art.
The show has drawn 16,129 people in its
first four weeks, a tally that does not put it
on pace to break any attendance records.
But that’s no surprise, because drawing big
crowds is not the chief intent of this offer-
ing.
The Denver Art Museum has done a good
job, particularly in the past couple of years,
of balancing box-office blockbusters with
major undertakings like this one that ad-
vance art-historical research and bol-
ster the museum’s international reputa-
tion.
This exhibition comes a few months
after “Painting a New World: Mexi-
can Art and Life, 1521-1821,” a ground-
breaking display of Spanish colonial
art also organized by the Denver Art
Museum.
Few if any institutions in the world
could match these two back-to-back offer-
ings, which have further solidified the muse-
um’s pre-eminent position in the art of the
Americas field.
Although this latest offering, like its sum-
mer predecessor, has an obvious scholarly
bent with no works by Claude Monet or Pab-
lo Picasso, there is still much to stimulate
the interest of even a casual visitor willing
to give it a chance.
The exhibition is titled “Tiwanaku: Ances-
tors of the Inca.” The reference to the con-
siderably better-known Incan empire is obvi-
> See TIWANAKU on 6F
of a
T
here we were: Three women,
curled on a couch, trying to get
insight into the male psyche
from a little book called “He’s Just Not
That Into You.”
He doesn’t call you all day and
blames a busy day at work? He’s just
not that into you.
He’s working out a problem and
doesn’t have time to see you? He’s just
not that into you.
He’s been acting indifferent lately
when you’re together? He’s just not
that into you.
It’s that cut-and-dried. Don’t give
him excuses. Don’t justify his behavior.
Just move on.
I laughed at passages in the book.
But in the end I kept wondering why
last week it ranked No. 1 among hard-
cover advice books on the New York
Times best-seller list.
Why are there no celebratory books
titled “He Is Really Into You!”? Why
does the premise of these books hinge
on a deficit perspective?
Or, more important, why don’t wom-
en spend more time talking about how
to effectively communicate with men?
Of course, it takes two.
I asked my girlfriends, both educat-
ed, attractive, professional: Do you
think that in all of Denver — in all of
America — there is a group of men sit-
ting on a couch trying to decipher
women? I have my doubts.
I just don’t think they dwell on that
the way we do, in that obsessive-com-
pulsive, slightly neurotic way.
For good reason.
We are single, professional women
in a modern world that chafes against
our innate needs.
We’re raised to be self-sufficient. We
don’t need a man to make a household.
We earn enough money to pay a mort-
gage, go out on the town and have
enough left over to splurge on a Louis
Vuitton bag.
Mothers may try to push us to stay
with someone, but we tune them out,
convinced that the self-help book tell-
ing us he’s no good has the right an-
swer.
The forces that used to bring a man
and woman together, and work to keep
them as a couple — the church, the
family — have been replaced by well-
intentioned but ignorant friends who
repeat what they read in those books.
Something better is out there. And if
not, you’re better off on your own.
Single women recite that affirmation
to themselves and feel good — until
something reminds us that something
is missing.
The reminder came Friday at the pre-
miere of “Bridget Jones: The Edge of
Reason.” Six of us went.
Afterward, we shared our thoughts
over cocktails. Bridget is slightly chub-
by, not fat. (Anorexic Hollywood!)
Bridget was self-sabotaging the rela-
tionship — something we’d all done.
And one friend said the movie made
her realize how much she wishes she
had a boyfriend.
During the scene where Mark Darcy
proposes to Bridget, my friend Eliza-
beth said, she scanned the audience to
find most of the women smiling and
wiping tears.
That’s the romance we crave: the
Hollywood version of the fairy tales
we heard over and over as children.
There has to be a strong, intelligent,
romantic, sexy man like him out there
who loves you just the way you are,
even if you’re a chubby, insecure,
chain-smoking neurotic. Right?
I have a thought. Maybe we need to
rein in the unrealistic expectations,
boycott those movies and burn the
bad-advice books.
Cindy Rodríguez’s column appears
Tuesdays and Thursdays in Scene.
Contact her at 303-820-1211 or
crodriguez@denverpost.com.
By Douglas Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer
With President Bush in charge for
another four years, some Ameri-
cans are preparing exit plans and in-
vestigating buying land in Mexico,
New Zealand and other countries.
And many are flirting with Amer-
ica’s neighbor to the North.
Canadian lawyers are experienc-
ing a flood of immigration inquir-
ies as some Americans of a liberal
stripe are talking about leaving the
country.
“I’m drowning,” says Jeffrey
Abrams, an immigration lawyer in
Toronto who picks up much of his
business through the Internet.
In a 12-hour period between the
Tuesday night of the presidential
election and Wednesday morning,
“I received 500 inquiries from
across the United States, and this
transcended every state line, every
marital status — everything,” he
says.
The ongoing deluge of interest
from Americans has caused
Abrams to work around the clock.
But he’s not complaining. “For me,
this is a boom,” he says.
It’s also unprecedented, he and
other Canadian lawyers say. While
thousands of mostly young Ameri-
cans did move to Canada during
the Vietnam War, there hasn’t
been such intense Canuck interest
based on the results of a presiden-
tial election.
Libertarian Jon Caldara, presi-
dent of the Independence Institute
think tank in Golden, says he never
thought about leaving the country
during his own long seasons of po-
litical discontent.
> See CANADA on 6F
Disgruntled U.S. liberals look northward
Relationship
advice needs
reality check
Scene SWEET DREAMS WITH “PATSY CLINE” REVIVAL > 3F
CREAM RISING FOR REUNION CONCERTS > 5F
THE OFFER ONE AUTHOR COULDN’T REFUSE > 7F
CINDY RODRÍGUEZ
Denver Post Staff Columnist
More online: Find a slide show of works from the
Tiwanaku exhibit. > www.denverpost.com
The great empire of the Tiwanaku vanished 900 years ago. The Denver Art Museum found it again.
Snuff tray
with
sacrificer,
A.D.
200-1000,
wood and
turquoise,
Chile.
Effigy head cup, A.D.
500-1000, from an island in
Lake Titicaca, modeled poly-
chrome ceramic.
Photos courtesy of the Denver Art Museum
Tapestry panel, 200-400, made of woven camelid fiber, from Bolivia, Peru or Chile.
lost
The Denver Post g Section FTuesday, November 16, 2004