Art Practice Commons^™

Review Of The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry And Ornament In Islamic Architecture, By Gulru Necipoglu, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Reviewed work: The Topkapi Scroll: Geometry and Ornament in Islamic Architecture, Gulru Necipoglu. Santa Monica, CA: J. Paul Getty Publications, 1996.

Reproducing the patterns from a 15th-century scroll (Topkapi Palace Museum Library, MS H.1956) that served as a guide for architects and artisans, Necipoglu brilliantly explores the juncture of geometry and philosophy that informed art and architecture over the centuries. Lucid essays accompany illustrations the scroll's 114 sequential patterns and place this virtually unknown work the dynamic intellectual discourses on geometry, religion and building that taking place in Europe and parts of the Islamic world during the 15th century. …

Dayton Collects Ii, Wright State University Art Galleries

Exhibition and Program Catalogs

The collectors represented in this show have a variety of interests and collecting styles. The collections range in size from well over 500 objects to just a handful of works, and they cover the full range of artistic media. Some collectors concentrate in depth on a particular period in art history or in a particular geographic area: there are collection of Winslow Homer and Whistler, collections of contemporary art, works by Dayton artists, works by African and Native American artists.

Blanket Statements, Issue 46, Fall 1996

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 46, Fall 1996

Sarah Spurgeon: Artist And Educator, Karen J. Blair

History Faculty Scholarship

This brief article is a personal history of Sarah Spurgeon (1903-1985), who was a professor of art (painting and drawing) and art education in the Department of Art and Design at Central Washington University between 1939 and 1971.

The Legacy Of Timur: A Small Rug At The Textile Museum, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Among the two hundred lots offered oh the block by Christie's from Bernheimer Family Collection of Rugs in February 1996, a small shaped rug with white ground was acquired by the Textile Museum. The rug was Lot 192, published in the catalogue as an East Persian saddle rug dating to the 19th century. The Textile Museum's interest in the piece was sparked by my hunch, based upon its design, that this rug is far more significant than its published attribution might suggest. A carefully conceived trefoil scroll implies a Timurid heritage. To read the design correctly, it should probably have …

Blanket Statements, Issue 45, Summer 1996

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 45, Summer 1996

First Fire, Richard Bresnahan

Asian Studies Faculty Publications

Potter Richard Bresnahan discusses wood firing. He asserts that it is not the placing of the pots in the kiln but where they are not placed that is the truth of wood firing; this theory involves the creation of a chamber in the kiln where no pots at all are placed. The theory, he continues, provided him with the answers to several problems in wood firing, including the problem of building a front fire-mouth chamber from previous first chambers. He adds that there is also the problem of combining three distinctly different styles of firing in a larger kiln for …

The Quest For The Gnarl, Rudy Rucker

SWITCH

The article describes some of the author’s own image-generating computer programs that he describes as “gnarly”. He began writing a simple spirograph program based off simple sine wave function called Spiro. Later transitioned into writing with C and better programs using more nonlinear feedback. Where Spiro is based on a simple sine wave function, Vine uses a nested sine function: the sine of the sine. The need for a more complicated computational approach lead to iteration and parallelism. Julgnarl uses Iteration and Calife uses parallelism. Calife shows one-dimensional cellular automata: spaces in which virtual computers are lined up like beads …

Gnarled Defined, Rudy Rucker

SWITCH

The article is a reflection of the author’s conception of the term ‘gnarly’, extending the term’s meaning from its origins in California surfer slang. 'Gnarly' is often used in a colloquial context, however, the author believes that the term is able to be used in an academic field as it pertains to outcomes and results of equations. Discussions towards the application of the term 'gnarly' showcase how it can be used in a scientific, mathematical, and artistic context through seemingly random patterns. In order to be gnarly, things must lie and exist between the realm of orderly and chaotic often …

Nanotechnology, Fullereness, & The Golden Mean, Loretta L. Lange

SWITCH

This article explains how nanotechnology can be used in digital art forms and how it may be used in the near future. The development of nanotechnology has led to breathroughts such as the discovery of buckyballs and fullerenes. Such concepts eventually led to the research into nanobiology. The world of nanotechnology is still considered new and all of the concepts that dabbled into this medium can be expectred to evolve as time goes by.

Blanket Statements, Issue 44, Spring 1996

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 44, Spring 1996

Drawing From Perception: A National Juried Drawing Exhibition, Wright State University Art Galleries

Exhibition and Program Catalogs

A program from a juried drawing exhibition held at the Wright State University Art Galleries from March 31 through May 5, 1996. The prize juror was Professor Emeritus at Yale University Art School, Bernard Chaet.

Roberley Bell The Site Of Memory, Wright State University Art Galleries

Exhibition and Program Catalogs

This catalog features exhibition of work by Roberley Bell. The Site of Memory was held at the University Art Galleries, Wright State University from January 2 through 28, 1996.

Legacy Of Collector George Hewitt Myers, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

A CULTURAL JEWEL in the nation's capital, The Textile Museum is a testament to the vision and unerring eye of its founder, George Hewitt Myers. Established in 1925, this small museum has assumed a revered place in the international museum community not only for the quality of its collections and library, but also for its leadership. in the study, preservation and interpretation of the textile arts. Over the years it has been the flagship institution for the conservation and display of textiles around the world based upon the foresight of Myers. Today, The Textile Museum's exhibitions and educational initiatives distinguish …

The Meaning Of Yoruba Aso Olona Is Far From Water Tight, Lisa Aronson

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

While researching the ritual meaning of cloth among the Eastern Ijo of the Niger Delta, I examined the contents of a number of family owned trunks in which were stored old and much valued cloths traded from elsewhere in Africa, Europe, and India. One type of cloth which I frequently found in these collections was one made up of three, or sometimes four, woven strips that are sewn along the salvage and decorated with supplemental weft-float design. The Eastern Ijo regard this cloth as a valuable heirloom for its trade value and for the fact that its designs evoke spiritual …

Textiles Of Sacrifice: Aztec Ritual Capes, Patricia Rieff Anawalt

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This presentation analyzes three long-gone prehispanic textiles, a feat made possible due to the peculiarities of the Aztec language, Nahuatl, and the sixteenth-century Spaniards' dedication to detailed recordkeeping. From Columbus' first voyage in 1492 to Spain's final expulsion from the Americas in the nineteenth century, the Spaniards were exemplary recorders. Fortunately, this trait was particularly evident in the decades following the 1519–1521 conquest of Mexico, a period that yielded invaluable conquistador eye-witness accounts, administrative records and missionary chronicles. It is to the latter genre that we owe the data presented in this paper.

Of all the newly-discovered peoples in the …

Other Pile-Weavings From Safavid Iran - The Persian Velvets At Rosenborg, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Among Persian pile-weavings, the most famous are carpets produced in Safavid Iran connected with the Persian monarchy or with European royalty. These include the Habsburg hunting Carpet today in the Osterreichisches Museum for Anfewandte Kunst, Vienna, the Swedish royal carpet, and perhaps the Boston Hunting Carpet . A hunting carpet which may also be categorized as a "medallion carpet" is that in Milan at the Poldi Pezzoli; another celebrated medallion carpet is the Ardabil carpet in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London , with a companion in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. More numerous are the star medallion …

Blanket Statements, Issue 47, Winter 1996

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 47, Winter 1996

Approaches To Understanding Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

ORIENTAL CARPETS reached a peak in production in the late nineteenth century, when a boom in market demand in Europe and America encouraged increased *24 production in Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus.* Areas east of the Mediterranean Sea at that time were referred to as. the Orient (in contrast to the Occident, which referred to Europe). To study the origins of these carpets and their ancestral heritage is to embark on a journey to Central Asia and the Middle East, to regions of low rainfall and many sheep, to inhospitable lands where animal husbandry and the seeking of good pastures …

Symmetry & Pattern: The Art Of Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

The beauty of oriental carpets is achieved by various means including choice of colors and designs, as well as by the manipulation of designs to form pleasing patterns. Patterns in Oriental carpets are never quite what you expect — a surprise here, a flourish there, a change of color, the flip or rotation of a design where you might not predict it. The more you look, the more variations you will find.

The study of symmetry offers an approach to analyzing patterns in Oriental carpets. Through symmetry analysis we may identify areas of pattern that exhibit expected repetitions, and areas …

Uncoverings: The Research Papers Of The American Quilt Study Group, Volume 17 (1996), Virginia Gunn, Tracy Barron, Jill Sutton Filo, Cassandra Stancil Gunkel, Elizabeth Hoffman, Susan Price Miller, Pat L. Nickols, Rebecca A. Ries

Uncoverings Journal

Preface by Virginia Gunn

Research Papers

Nancy Riddick's Quilts: Autobiographical Statements by Cassandra Stancil Gunkel

Carlie Sexton and Her Quilt Pattern Business by Susan Price Miller

Ruby Short McKim: The Formative Years by Jill Sutton Filo

Quilting Imagery in the Writings of Rachel Field by Tracy W, Barron

Stitched in Place, Stitched in Time: Relationships of Quilts, Quiltmaking, and Landscape by Rebecca A. Ries

Contributors

In Memoria: Natalie Youngquist and Eva Earle Spruiell Kent (d. April 20, 1996)

Index

A Naturalistic Study Of The History Of Mormon Quilts And Their Influence On Today's Quilters, Helen-Louise Hancey

Theses and Dissertations

This interpretive study investigated the "quilt" and its significance to Latter-day Saint Women. Mormon master quilters were chosen because of their knowledge of fabrics, patterns, and symbolism, their skill levels, and their intense interest in quilting. The researcher conducted interviews with the master quilters from July 1995 to April 1996. Field notes were taken and data concerning both observed actions and verbal comments regarding the importance of the quilt were collected, charted, coded, and analyzed.

Several dominant patterns and themes emerged from analyses of the data, including: quilting is an enjoyable and active art form among Mormon women, pattern selection …