Bidspirit auction | Guna Mola Panel Confronting Roosters

Guna Mola Panel Confronting Roosters with Cigarette Brand Cartouches - Panama (Guna Yala), circa 1970s 16 × 19.5 inches Vibrantly worked reverse appliqué mola panel of notable narrative and cultural complexity, organized across two registers. The upper field features three rectangular cartouches depicting rendered cigarette brand imagery: at left, a Gallito rooster advertisement with the word ”Gallito bonito”; at center, a Marlboro pack with a row of embroidered cigarettes and two flanking figures; and at right, a Philip Morris advertisement with paired yellow figures flanking a tree. The saturated red ground of the central register is densely scattered with multicolored triangle-form cutouts and depicts two large confronting crested birds — rendered in orange, yellow, pink, and green — facing a small blue human figure holding an upraised cigarette. The lower border carries the appliquéd inscription ”FINOS HAZTAL FINAL / HECHON N PANAMA” in multicolored lettering on a black ground. Executed in reverse appliqué, applied appliqué, and embroidery in red, black, orange, yellow, blue, green, pink, and white cotton, in two layers. A similar photo of this mola can be found on page 233 of MOLAS Folk Art of the Cuna Indians by Parker and Neal. Provenance: From the Parker & Neal Collection.