Description, free shipping worldwide, please read below.

A note on import fees

The price covers the piece and free worldwide DHL Express shipping. It does not cover import duty or tax in your country; those are paid by you to the carrier before delivery. This piece ships under tariff code 9701.99, works of art executed entirely by hand, which enters duty-free in most markets. Estimates are on the $265 item value and are a guide, not a quote.

Destination | Import duty | Import tax | Estimated total
United States | 0% | none collected at import | $0
Canada | 0% | 5% GST, or 13–15% HST by province | $13 – $40
United Kingdom | 0% | 5% reduced-rate VAT on works of art | about $13
European Union | 0% | 5.5% – 13.5% reduced rate, by country | $15 – $36
Australia | 0% | 10% GST, collected at checkout | about $27
Rest of world | usually 0% | varies | varies

Where tax is collected on arrival, DHL adds a small advancement fee, typically $12 to $20.

About this piece

This is an original Wixárika yarn painting, a nierika, by Fidencio Benítez Rivera. His Wixárika name is Temay, meaning "Flecha Joven," Young Arrow. He is the son of the renowned yarn painter José Benítez Sánchez and works from his family's workshop across from the Tukipa ceremonial center in Zitakua, Tepic. He has exhibited at MUSA, the Museo de las Artes in Guadalajara. ucla

The painting is made entirely by hand. Yarn is pressed strand by strand into beeswax spread over a wood panel. The long frieze reads left to right: peyote blossoms alternate with a hummingbird, a blue bird in flight, twin flame-like forms in coral and orange, a scorpion, serpentine waves, sun discs and stars. A double border in cobalt and turquoise frames it all.

I bought it from a boutique art gallery in Tlaquepaque, Jalisco. It was the last piece by this artist in the shop. The owner's daughter told me the rest went to foreign buyers as soon as they arrived.

The artist's statement on the back

As written:
los Peregrinos asen su Boseria del Peyote Para el Chaman les entrega cada una un hilo cada nudo es un Pecado y el Chama los que ma en el fuego para poder entrar a WIRIKUTA Para aser la caseria del Peyote

Corrected Spanish:
Los peregrinos hacen su boseria del peyote. El chamán les entrega a cada uno un hilo; cada nudo es un pecado, y el chamán los quema en el fuego para poder entrar a Wirikuta para hacer la cacería del peyote.

English:
The pilgrims perform their peyote rite. The shaman gives each of them a thread. Every knot is a sin, and the shaman burns them in the fire so they may enter Wirikuta for the peyote hunt.

The statement is signed Fidencio Benítez Rivera, Art. Temay, Flecha Joven, with his circled signature. The spelling is the artist's own and is kept as written. It is a mark of the hand, not an error to correct.

This is the confession that opens the pilgrimage to Wirikuta, the sacred desert in San Luis Potosí. Each pilgrim ties a knot for every transgression, and the mara'akame burns the cord so they arrive clean.

Size, condition and photographs

The piece measures 31.5 in long x 4 in high, with a 1 in deep wood frame (80 x 10 x 2.5 cm). It is new, from the gallery, and the yarn surface is intact: no lifted coils, no bare wax, no fading. The back is an open pine frame over a plywood panel, left as bare wood, carrying the artist's ink statement and signature. The first photographs show the piece itself in daylight. Styled background images are for scale and setting only; props are not included.

Grade and value

This piece is graded A on the three measures I use for Wixárika yarn work:

• Seating: the coils are packed with no wax showing between them.
• Composition: a balanced frieze runs the full length.
• Density: every inch is worked, background included.

Gallery replacement value for insurance and estate purposes is $550. That is what a comparable signed Benítez family panel would cost to replace through a gallery in San Miguel de Allende, Santa Fe or Mexico City.

Item specifics

Culture: Huichol (Wixárika), Mexican
Date of Creation: Contemporary, undated by the artist
Dimensions: 31.5" W x 4" H x 1" D (80 x 10 x 2.5 cm)
Subject: Peyote pilgrimage to Wirikuta, the knotted-cord confession
Material: Yarn pressed into beeswax on wood panel
Region of Origin: Mexico, artist based in Tepic, Nayarit
Artist: Fidencio Benítez Rivera (Temay)
Signed: Yes, verso
Tariff code: 9701.99

Shipping

Free worldwide shipping by DHL Express with tracking. The piece is professionally packed by Diseños de Cartón in Colonia Americana, Guadalajara. When the box arrives, open it along the seams; do not cut down into it.

If the delivery address at checkout is in a different country from the one on your account, please message me before purchasing so I can quote the difference.

Questions

Every message is answered by me personally. There is no AI customer service here, only human service.

God bless,
Ricardo Ivan Cardenas EMBA, St. Joseph's University New York Business School Graduate