ISSUE 137 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2004

C O N T E N T S & E D I T O R I A L

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LETTERS Praise for and criticism o f HALI.

FRAGMENTS A new museum in Washington DC.

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NEWS Gallery changes; London's sale season.

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PREVIEW Exhibitions: Anatolian bags; Turks at the RA.

CALENDAR Auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences.

GALLERY House style advertisements.

BOOKS Reviews o f Ostindonesien im 20. Jahrbundert, Surveyors o f Persian Art and Otag-I Hiimayun.

WORKSHOP Using infrared light to detect carpet repairs.

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FORUM Re-investigating the Pazyryk's provenance.

TRANSYLVANIAN TALE Stefano Ionescu Unravelling the mysterious presence o f Ottoman rugs in the region's churches and museums.

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FOSCHI CARPETS A Design Tradition in the Yuntdag Region of West Anatolia Harald Bohmer Tracing the evolution o f the (i(ek sandikli design from a 16th century painting to the present day.

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THE FABRIC OF LIFE Columbus Collects Textile Art Thomas Murray Exploring a ground-breaking textile exhibition at the Columbus Museum o f Art, Ohio.

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REVIEW Exhibitions; Sadraee's paper kaftans: luxury interiors in LA: bags online; TKF in I,in/.; Ottoman art in Alabama; Chinese art at the Met: Indonesian art; Siegal's pre-Columbian textiles; rugs at ICOC Down Under: (Jetinkaya's textile art; Tiawanaku culture. Fairs: Santa Fe & Paris.

AUCTION PRICE GUIDE Andean and African textiles triumph in NY.

MODERN CARPET FOCUS A special advertorial section.

DESIGN FILE Frontlines; modern suzani production.

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NETWORK Classified advertisements.

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PROFILE Carl Strock interviews Jeff Spurr.

PARTING SHOTS Jet-setting from Santa Fe to Sydney.

T his winter, European Turkophiles and oriental art lovers are in for a rare treat. First, in early December, the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris unveils a classical carpet spectacular, its second in less than two decades. 'Le Ciel dans tin tapis', curated by Roland Gilles and Joelle Lemaistre, brings together some sixty pile carpets, mainly Safavid and Ottoman pieces. They include well-known rugs from major French and foreign collections, including Gulbenkian. Keir. Berlin, the V&A, the Met and Sion. Arguably not since ‘The Eastern Carpet in the Western World’ at the Hayward Gallery in 1983 have so many historical carpets from diverse sources been assembled under one roof (see News).

In the New Year. London’s Royal Academy o f Arts opens a blockbuster exhibition of Turkish art. 'Turks: A Journey of a Thousand Years. 600-1600', presents around 330 objects, including many never previously seen outside Turkey. Curated by David Roxburgh of Harvard, in collaboration with Filiz Cagman of the Topkapi and Nazan Olyer. formerly of the TIEM, 'Turks' highlights the artistic achievements of the Turkic peoples from the Uighurs of East Turkestan in the yth century through the great empires of the Seljuks. Timurids and Ottomans.

The RA never does things by halves. Their last foray into Islamic art. the famous Persian exhibition o f 1931, remains a benchmark. Turks' looks equally ambitious. Thanks to the backing o f the Turkish government (with both eyes firmly fixed on EU acceptance), an array of fabulous objects are coming to London, including two of the large Seljuk (Konya) carpets from the TIEM, the Topkapi Library's enigmatic Siyah Qalam manuscript pages and a unique Tinrurid architectural scroll. Add to these a feast of Ottoman treasures, mostly from the Topkapi. as well as diverse loans from Berlin (including the Dragon & Phoenix rug), St Petersburg, the Louvre and the Met (whose iconic early animal carpet will be on display) and it is clear that objects of exceptional quality will be shown in all media, from manuscripts and metalwork to textiles and ceramics (see Preview).

Looking back briefly to the Antipodean spring in Sydney, for the few non-Australians who made the long trip. ICOC Down Under was worth it, with three memorable museum exhibitions, a small but lively academic programme, a dealers' lair and commercial gallery exhibits around the city. Ross l.anglands and Ian Perryman's oriental rug exhibition, 'Pathways through Paradise' at the Powerhouse Museum, is reviewed in this issue, while both Judith Rutherford's excellent 'Celestial Silks' at The Art Gallery of New South Wales, and 'Bright Flowers', the world-class display of Central Asian textiles and ceramics curated at the Powerhouse by Christina Sumner and Guy Petheridge, will be reviewed next time. All in all the event was well-organised by the Oriental Rugs Society of New South Wales, friendly and hospitable, with marvellous food, good company and pleasant discourse.

THE COVER

Aymara man’s ceremonial tunic (ccohuo),Andean highlands, Moquegua, southern Peru, 18th century. Alpaca fibre, natural dyes, warp-faced plainweave with discontinuous warp inserts, 0.96 x 0.56m (3'2" x i ' i o " ) . The sleeveless tunic, with sewn sides leaving a space for the arms and discontinuous warp neck opening, has been the primary male overgarment of Andean highland culture formillennia, and is a textile of great social and ritual significance in native society. Close to the boundary with Bolivia, with Arequipa and Puno to the north and Chile to the south, Moquegua is both a town and an area in the southeastern part of the Peruvian highlands, an old Aymara stronghold from Tiahuanaco times, where great, early, and very interesting Aymara weavings have been found. Private collection, Columbus, Ohio

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