Art Practice Commons^™

Blanket Statements, Issue 86, Winter 2007

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 86, Winter 2007

Blanket Statements, Issue 82, Fall 2005

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 82, Fall 2005

Blanket Statements, Issue 81, Summer 2005

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 81, Summer 2005

Blanket Statements, Issue 80, Spring 2005

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 80, Spring 2005

Blanket Statements, Issue 83, Winter 2006

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 83, Winter 2006

Symmetry And Symmetry-Breaking: An Approach To Understanding Beauty, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Considering the relationship of symmetry and beauty, the author examines three textiles from the collection of Doris Duke at Shangri La in Honolulu. Referring to abstract expressionism of the 20th century as antithetical to symmetry, and the Arts & Crafts Movement of the 19th century as countering the insistency of industrial mass production, Bier explores the relative roles of symmetry and symmetry-breaking in the construction of three embroideries (called suzani, after the Persian and Tajik word for “needlework”), using as her point of departure a recent research initiative, the Shangri La Suzani Project. The study of colors, motifs, stitches, designs …

Blanket Statements, Issue 78, Fall 2004

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 78, Fall 2004

Blanket Statements, Issue 77, Summer 2004

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 77, Summer 2004

Blanket Statements, Issue 76, Spring 2004

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 76, Spring 2004

Patterns In Time And Space: Technologies Of Transfer And The Cultural Transmission Of Mathematical Knowledge Across The Indian Ocean, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

This article explores the potential role of textiles in the transfer of mathematical knowledge from the Indian subcontinent to the central Islamic lands and west- ward to an emerging modern Europe through an inquiry into prospective tech- nologies of textile manufacture and pattern-making. Ikat textiles of the ninth and tenth centuries, found in Egypt but presumed to be from Yemen, serve as a means to explore possibilities of numeration and treatment of the spatial dimension. An initial attempt is made to separate patterning from the technology of textile pro- duction in an effort to treat the mathematical possibilities that patterning …

Mathematical Aspects Of Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

When one looks at an Oriental carpet in the context of Western art, one usually perceives a richness of colors and patterns, and perhaps the contrast between central field and surrounding borders. A careful observer might notice the appearance of superimposed plane patterns in the central field and multiple linear patterns in the surrounding borders. Each of patterns, whether in the field or the borders, is composed of various design elements, which in combination are repeated according to the principles of symmetry, often with the addition of symmetry-breaking (Bier 1992, 1997, 1998, 2000a). The mathematical principles of pattern making according …

Islamic Art At Doris Duke's Shangri La: Playing With Form And Pattern, Carol Bier, David K. Masunaga

Textile Research Works

Shangri La is the historic home of Doris Duke in Honolulu. It is filled with installations of Islamic tilework and other arts. Open to the public in late 2002, by reservation for tours arranged through the Honolulu Academy of Arts, today this home serves as a museum in which a walking tour can provide extraordinary visual opportunities for the study of geometry and pattern both in the arts that are installed and exhibited, and in the surrounding plantings and landscape. The house offers a plethora of educational opportunities, for which its full potential has not yet been tapped. A new …

Spanish And Mamluk Carpets: Comparisons Of Decoration And Structure, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Two recent exhibitions, Carpets of Andalusia and Mamluk Rugs from Egypt, at The Textile Museum afforded a rare opportunity to compare two radically different rug-weaving traditions from the perspectives of design and weave structure. While not often evident to the casual viewer, there is a significant relationship between design, pattern, and weave structure in all Oriental carpets. The opportunity to explore such differences warrants careful examination and critical viewing.

The Mamluk rugs all probably date from the last quarter of the 15th century. They comprise a cohesive group defined by color, a geometric style, and similarity of weave characteristics. The …

"Indigo" From Encyclopædia Iranica, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

INDIGO (Pers. nil), the common name of a broad genus, Indigofera, with numerous species, widely distributed throughout Asia, Africa, and the Americas. A member of the leguminous pea family, indigo is variously classified as an herb or small shrub; its stalks are long, bearing raceme flowers. It is usually perennial, but in some areas annual. Native species are known from Arabia, including the Yemen, and around the Indian Ocean. In some sources Persia is not listed among those regions in which indigo occurs in a natural form (e.g., the website mentioned below). Hans Wulff (p. 192) mentions two local species …

Blanket Statements, Issue 79, Winter 2005

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 79, Winter 2005

Blanket Statements, Issue 74, Fall 2003

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 74, Fall 2003

Blanket Statements, Issue 73, Summer 2003

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 73, Summer 2003

Blanket Statements, Issue 72, Spring 2003

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 72, Spring 2003

Mamluk Rugs From Egypt: Jewels Of The Textile Museum's Collection (Exhibition), Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Mamluk rugs are considered by many to be among the most beautiful of any rugs ever created. The brilliant reds, greens, and blues (figs. 1 and 2) are reminiscent of rubies, emeralds and sapphires; whether this was an intentional evocation is not known. But The Textile Museum's holdings of Mamluk rugs, unparalleled in the world, are truly the "jewels" of the collection. Simply by virtue of the fact that they date from the late 15th century, Mamluk rugs comprise one of the most significant groups of classical carpets. Their lustrous wool and wondrous color, as well as their geometric designs …

Carpets Of Andalusia (Exhibition), Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

The fall of Granada in 1492 reestablished Christian dominion in Spain after centuries of Islamic rule. The rapid expansion of Islam from Arabia in the 7th century encompassed the rich cultural legacy of the Late Antique world, forging a unified empire throughout the Middle East and eastern Mediterranean lands and across North Africa to Spain within a short span of several decades. Arab and Berber armies had crossed into Spain in 711, generating at once an effort that lasted for many generations to restore Christian rule. In Islamic times, the Iberian peninsula was called al-Andalus, or Andalusia. Although we have …

Blanket Statements, Issue 75, Winter 2004

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 75, Winter 2004

Blanket Statements, Issue 70, Fall 2002

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 70, Fall 2002

Blanket Statements, Issue 69, Summer 2002

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 69, Summer 2002

Blanket Statements, Issue 68, Spring 2002

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 68, Spring 2002

Geometric Patterns And The Interpretation Of Meaning: Two Monuments In Iran, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

The Alhambra has often served in the West as the paradigm for understanding geometric pattern in Islamic art. Constructed in Spain in the 13th century as a highly defended palace, it is a relatively late manifestation of an Islamic fascination with geometric pattern. Numerous earlier Islamic buildings, from Spain to India, exhibit extensive geometric patterning, which substantiate a mathematical interest in the spatial dimension and its manifold potential for meaning. This paper examines two monuments on the Iranian plateau, dating from the 11 th century of our era, in which more than one hundred exterior surface areas have received patterns …

Introduction To Doris Duke's Shangri La By Sharon Littlefield, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

SHANGRI LA, the most intimate of Doris Duke's residences, is the one that today offers the best view into the private domain of a public celebrity. What it reveals about Doris Duke presents a strong contrast to her well-publicized persona as a tobacco heiress, born to wealth, who liked to frolic. Observe the house, spilling down terraces of Ka'alawai toward the sea; contemplate its well-considered vistas and its polished black lava, white marble, and coral limestone surfaces. Admire the architectural features shipped from abroad and installed on site; experience the gardens with their towering trees, sparkling water chutes, and placid …

Blanket Statements, Issue 71, Winter 2003

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 71, Winter 2003

Review Of Stillman, Arab Dress: A Short History, From The Dawn Of Islam To Modem Times., Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Arab Dress: A Short History, From the Dawn of Islam to Modem Times. By YADIDA KALFON STILLMAN. Edited by NORMAN A. STILLMAN. Themes in Islamic Studies, vol. 2. Leiden: BRILL, 2000. Pp. xxxii + 240, plates, figs.

Billowing folds, exquisite pleats, tightly wound turbans, flowing burqas, short square kerchiefs-the dramatic drapery of Islamic fashion fills the quiet spaces of our daily news coverage; yet the garments illustrated and their significance often pass without verbal notice. Little would Yedida Stillman ever have anticipated the widespread presence of the Islamic vestimentary system in Western media a short three years after her death …

Blanket Statements, Issue 66, Fall 2001

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 66, Fall 2001

Blanket Statements, Issue 65, Summer 2001

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 65, Summer 2001