Museum Studies Commons^™

Circles And Centers: A Review Article, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Review of: Geometric Patterns from Islamic Art & Architecture, by Robert Field. Tarquin Publications, Norfolk, UK, c1998. AND "The Nature of Islamic Ornament, Part III: Geometric Patterns," exhibition on view March 17-July 18, 1999 in the Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Circles of equal radius, when tight-packed, naturally combine in two ways. One method yields centers that form a triangular grid; the other method yields centers that form a square grid. These basic mathematical considerations underlie the play of pattern in Islamic art. By selecting centers in a triangular grid, one may establish …

Review Of Textiles Of Late Antiquity, By Annemarie Stauffer Et Al., Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

This publication presents twenty-nine superb photographs of a selection of outstanding Late Antique textiles from among more than fifteen hundred classified as Coptic in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Accompanying an exhibition of sixty-one textiles (on view 4 December 1995-7 April 1996), this booklet celebrates the "new, accessible storage and ex- tensive visual and documentary archives" (p. 4) of the Antonio Ratti Textile Center at the Metro politan Museum of Art. ...

The study of textiles can tell us so much more about the societies from which they came, about the cultures that produced them--information concerning environmental …

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. …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Ornament And Islamic Art, Carol Bier

Textile Research Works

Review of: The Mediation of Ornament, by OLEG GRABAR & Problems of Style: Foundations for a History of Ornament, by ALOIS RIEGL.

TWO MAJOR WORKS addressing the nature of art, published in the same year but written a century apart, are each based, in part, upon analyses of Islamic monuments. Both derive from series of lectures on the history of ornament, and each offers a perspective explicitly countering the author's own intellectual milieu in the study of art focused on Western tradition.

Problems of Style is an impressive translation of Stilfragen, a broadly-based and wide-ranging inquiry by Alois …

Preface - Contact, Crossover, Continuity - 1994, Louise W. Mackie, Patricia R. Anawalt

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The Fourth Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, Inc., was hosted by the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles, California, September 22–24, 1994. The papers addressed a broad theme which was chosen in order to accommodate the diverse interests of members. The proceedings contains the thirty papers and two abstracts of papers presented at the symposium, plus a video script, and a list of the two hundred and forty participants.

Contact, Crossover, Continuity highlights the causes and effects of change on textiles around the world. The proceedings provides an opportunity to identify and evaluate …

Table Of Contents - Contact, Crossover, Continuity - 1994

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Table of contents from Contact, Crossover, Continuity: Proceedings of the Fourth Biennial Symposium of the Textile Society of America, September 22–24, 1994

What’S In A Name: The Domestication Of Factory Produced Wax Textiles In Cote D’Ivoire, Kathleen E. Bickford

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In a frequently evoked passage from Romeo and Juliet, William Shakespeare asks "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Yet, as Romeo and Juliet tragically come to learn, human beings make much of names. Indeed, one's name is a significant part of one's social persona; it can describe who we are, it can join us and separate us from others, and it can link us to the past. In a sense, when we are named we are given an identity. Describing the complexities of naming for the Wamakua …

Continuity Of Culture: A Reenactor’S Goal, Elizabeth Mcclure

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper examines the maintenance of cultural continuity through historical reenactment. It is the reenactor's goal, in this case, to portray and maintain the culture of Ireland and Scotland. They are holding on to this culture and presenting it to others by maintaining the dress, crafts, and lifestyles of sixteenth-century Scotland and Ireland.

The methods of data collection for this study were ethnographic in nature. Interviews with key informants were conducted. In addition, there was a questionnaire distributed to members of the group This method of data collection provided the insight to see how a member of this group achieved …

Green Labels With Golden Elephants: Western European Printed Cottons For Malaysia And Indonesia, Frieda Sorber

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In the second half of the 19th century, several Belgian cotton printing firms were involved in the production of imitations of African and Southeast Asian textiles for markets in West-Africa, the Dutch East Indies, and Malaysia. Extensive records of one firm, the Societe Anonyme Texas, owned by the Voortman family in Ghent, have been preserved in the Ghent public records office and the Vrieselhof Textile Museum (Oelegem, near Antwerp). Frans de Vos and Abraham Voortman started a cotton printing establishment in Ghent in 1790. At that time cotton printing was a relatively new type of enterprise in Flanders. The first …

Bolong-Bolong And Tirtanadi: An Unknown Group Of Balinese Textiles, Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Monika Palm-Nadolny

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

On late 19th- and early 20th-century photographs, South and East Balinese people clad in traditional adat wardrobe for rituals, temple ceremonies, and dances often wear transparent, netlike open-work textiles as breastcloth (anteng), shouldercloth (cerik) girdle (selendang), or headcloth (destar, lelunakan). Information given by elderly Balinese concerning the situation before World War II confirm their use as part of their ceremonial wardrobe but also as important items in offerings and rituals. Such textiles could be laid over several fabrics, covering the body of a toothfiling candidate, or serve as curtains (langse …

Micronesian Textiles In Transition: The Woven Tol Of Kosrae, Ann Deegan, Ross Cordy

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper presents findings on the major steps in the transition of the Kosraen tol from traditional clothing, to tourist souvenir, to the end of tol manufacture. An extensive study of the German, French, and English literature of the 19th and 20th centuries was done to piece together the history of the Kosraen tol.

The island of Kosrae, located in the Pacific (4–10°N latitude, 140–163°E longitude), is part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Since earliest European contact it has seen numerous changes in its traditional culture. One of its most beautiful and complex traditional crafts is the woven …

The "Severed Shroud": Local And Imported Textiles In The Mortuary Rites Of An Indonesian People, Penelope Graham

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper explores the significance of local and imported textiles as these interact forming complex categories in the mortuary rites of the Lamaholot-speaking people of the traditional district Lewolema in eastern Flores, Indonesia. Within this regional framework, my account draws primarily on field work in the village of Lewotala. There a person's physical demise elicits diverse social and ritual practices, depending on the deceased's achievements during his or her lifetime and the circumstances surrounding the death. As regards the mortuary sequence that commonly occurs, I will argue that various uses of cloth for exchange purposes mark both the severence—consequent on …

Supplementary Weft On An "Ikat" Isle: The Weaving Communities Of Northwestern Flores, Roy W. Hamilton

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Among textile enthusiasts, the island of Flores is known primarily for its beautiful warp-ikat cloths. Most of the island's numerous ethno-linguistic groups, including the Ngadha, Nage, Endenese, Lio, Palu'e, Sikkanese, and Lamaholot, produce related yet distinctive textiles within this tradition. It is therefore surprising to find a series of weaving districts, stretching along the northwest coast of the island, where the ikat technique is not used. Instead, weavers in this region produce indigo-dyed textiles decorated with colorful supplementary-weft motifs.

In the ikat districts, sarongs for men and women differ in their patterning and in the names applied to them. In …

The Influence Of Computer Technologies On Contemporary Woven Fiber Art, Cynthia Schira

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

It is generally agreed upon, by both the participants in the field and those few who have chronicled it, that the fiber art movement as we know it today began with Jean Lurcat in France in the late 1950s. He was among the first, if not the first, to make designs or cartoons specifically for the medium of tapestry. Previously, paintings were translated into the medium of tapestry. As well as creating the design or cartoon, he personally oversaw the actual weaving process. This direct connection between the process and the concept or image, the manual and the mind, laid …

Byzantine Influences Along The Silk Route: Central Asian Silks Transformed, Anna Maria Muthesius

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Silks traded along the ancient Silk Route were precious, light, and easily transportable commodities that served as ideal vehicles for cross-cultural exchange. The survival of several hundred Central Asian silks, variously datable between the seventh and the eleventh centuries, presents an opportunity to trace patterns of trade, diplomacy and cross-cultural developments at the heart of the Silk Road. These silks perfectly mirror contact, cross over, and change fostered under the auspices of Mediterranean/Near Eastern economic and diplomatic exchange.

This paper will ask three questions:

1. What lay behind Byzantine influence in Central Asia along the ancient Silk Route?

2. What …

Cloth As Marriage Gifts: Change In Exchange Among The Lio Of Flores, Willemijn De Jong

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

The exchange of gifts at life cycle ceremonies is one of the most important institutions in Lio society, as in many other societies in Oceania. The life cycle event of marriage and its exchange of gifts is often significant, because important sociopolitical alliances between kin groups are initiated or renewed. In these exchanges, cloth wealth may play a crucial role, especially in ranked societies. Weiner contends that in Samoa "each distribution [of fine mats] is an example of the negotiation and validation of rank and power." Gittinger has pointed out the economic and symbolic value of cloth gifts at marriage …

From The Ancestors Or The Portuguese: Exotic Textiles In Flores And The Solor Archipelago, Robyn Maxwell

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Throughout the eastern Indonesian island of Flores and the neighbouring Solor archipelago, village treasuries usually contain considerable numbers of highly valued textiles and some items of costume. These consist predominantly of important local products clearly made within the particular village or district.

Other heirloom textiles have been acquired from outside the local regions in the distant or not-so-distant past. These exotic heirlooms are often awarded a special place in the hierarchy of textiles found throughout Flores, Solor, and Lembata and, where possible, examines local histories and myths associated with the origins of particular objects or types of cloth.

Further, an …

Market Effects On The Design And Construction Of Carpets In The Milas Region Of Southwestern Turkey, 1963–1993, Charlotte A. Jirousek

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Beginning in 1964 my husband and I were involved in the development of a village carpet weaving cooperative in Southwestern Turkey. We lived with the weavers of Çömlekçi from 1964 to 1966, as part of the first Peace Corps rural community development program in Turkey. Between 1966 and 1969 we continued to work with the cooperative in its efforts to develop markets and quality control standards while working as Peace Corps staff. Since leaving Turkey in 1969, I have visited Çömlekçi periodically, most recently in 1992 and 1994.

The success of the Çömlekçi cooperative in tum generated carpet cooperatives throughout …

The Assimilation Of European Designs Into Twentieth Century Indian Saris, Linda Lynton

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Although so-called "Indian" designs of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century chintzes influenced Western European [Western] textiles almost from their introduction, Western patterns did not impinge on indigenous Indian fabrics, such as saris, until the last half of the nineteenth century.

They were superimposed upon an already complex mix of textile ornamental styles, which can be briefly categorized as: (i) Mughal, (ii) Hindu, and (iii) adivasi (aboriginal). The Mughal style consists of the elaborately patterned prints and brocades typical of western India. It shows strong Persian influences, such as the kalga (Paisley motif); intertwining floral vines (bel); and life-like depictions of …

From Bohemian To Bourgeois: American Batik In The Early Twentieth Century, Nicola J. Shilliam

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

In 1919 Pieter Mijer wrote in his influential book Batiks and How to Make Them, "Batik is still a comparatively recent importation; brought here some ten years ago, it was met with absolute incomprehension and lack of interest, but its real merit as a means of decorating fabrics has earned it a place in the industrial art of the nation and year by year it is gaining wider recognition."

This paper briefly considers the rise and fall in popularity of batik in America in the period Mijer indicated: how it changed from being a foreign import chiefly seen in …

Anni Albers: Pre-Columbian Resonances: The Significance Of Pre-Columbian Art In Her Textiles And Writings, Virginia Gardner Troy

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

Anni Albers is known primarily for her contribution to the Bauhaus Weaving Workshop and her woven prototypes for industrial production; she has rarely been acknowledged for her role in reviving and redefining the Pre-Columbian fiber art tradition. She researched, analyzed, collected, and extensively wrote about Pre-Columbian textiles. Her seminal text, On Weaving, 1965, is not only dedicated to Andean weavers, "my great teachers, the weavers of ancient Peru," but is essentially a textbook of Andean weaving techniques, revived and meticulously analyzed by Albers. Furthermore, she and her husband, Josef Albers, amassed an important collection of ancient Mesoamerican sculpture, acquired …

Wreath And Cap To Veil And Apron: American Modification Of A Slavic Ritual, Patricia Williams

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

This paper explores a wedding custom practiced for more than one hundred years in the Chicago area by the descendants of Czech, Polish, and Slovak immigrant women. Through the custom's existence and perpetuation in America, the role of a transitional rite of passage is chronicled in both the process of assimilation and the preservation of ethnic heritage. The original textile symbols used in the ritual were modified to reflect the differences in culture in the United States but with the "echoes" of European folk tradition still heard. Chicagoans today have continued to modify the custom as the role of women …

Discussion Of "Textile Transformations And Cultural Continuities In West Africa", Christopher B. Steiner

Textile Society of America: Symposium Proceedings

I have divided my discussion of these papers into two parts. First, I would like briefly to address each of the papers individually—highlighting what I find to be some of the most important issues raised by each. And second, I would like to put forth two dichotomies—(1) regarding the relationship between the sacred and the profane, and (2) on the relationship between aesthetic value and commercial value—both of which strike me as critical organizing principles that join these four papers [those of Judith Byfield, Kathleen Bickford, Lisa Aronson, and Elisha Renne and Joanne Eicher in this proceedings] into a coherent …