Mayan languages system developed by the Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala (ALMG). Orthographies for the languages of Mexico are currently being developed by the Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas (INALI). The pre-Columbian Maya civilization developed and used an intricate and fully functional writing system, which is the only Mesoamerican script that can be said to be almost fully deciphered. Earlier-established civilizations to the west and north of the Maya homelands that also had scripts recorded in surviving inscriptions include the Zapotec, Olmec, and the Zoque-speaking peoples of the southern Veracruz and western Chiapas area—but their scripts are as yet largely undeciphered.
The Olmec-Maya and Now else in his art was "ancillary" to "the burning urge" to express these parallels. "The Olmec-Maya and Now" was first exhibited at the Commonwealth Institute in London in June 1985. In 1989, the artist Denis Bowen remembered it as "a major exhibition with a significant body of work of the highest calibre" which "assure[d] [Williams'] place in the British art scene". The exhibition was opened by Terry Waite. One of the paintings in the series, "Olmec Maya—Now and Coming Time", was presented to the Tate by the Aubrey Williams Estate in 1993. The Olmec-Maya and Now "The Olmec-Maya and Now"