ISSUE 128 MAY/JUNE 2003
CONTENTS
11 |EDITORIAL
ICOC X: Confounding the doom and gloom merchants; some thoughts on the destruction of Iraq's cultural heritage.
13 |LETTERS
Rare and intriguing sightings include a Saxon rug in a Victorian manual and a still fresh vegetable kilim in New York;
identifying Uzbek embroidered panels; Tom Weisbuch remembered.
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15 |NEWS
Highlights of the London Islamic week rug sales; developments in the dotcom world - Cloudband rises from the ashes while Sotheby's calls it a day; grand new galleries for Ali Foumani in Amsterdam and Mark Shilen in New York; Arthur T. Gregorian remembered.
19 |FRAGMENTS
Digital scanning eases the pain of carpet photography; a Dutch silversmith and his Persian carpet at Maastricht: traveller Edward Lane's visual and intellectual encounters with Egypt.
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39 |PREVIEW
Exhibitions: Chinese court robes in focus at the Denver Art Museum and in Linda Wrigglesworth's London show; Werner Abegg’svision as a collector in Riggisberg; Japanese rag textiles with Douglas Dawson in Chicago; Andean featherwork in Paris The HALI Fair: The sixth international 90 antique carpet and textile art fair at London's Olympia in June brings many new ideas, wedded to an unparalleled kaleidoscope of colour and texture.
65 |CALENDAR
Aworldwide listing of auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences.
69 |BOOKS
A strong Persian flavour as James Opie reviews Peter Willborg's Chahdr Mahal va Bakhtidri: VillageWorkshop &Nomadic Rugs of Western Persia; Parviz Tanavoli's Persian Flatweaves: ASurveyofFlatwoven Floor Covers and Flangingsand Royal Masnads is discussed by John Wertime; and Raoul Tschebull looks at OneWoman OneWeft: Rugsfrom the 99 VillagesofFIamadan by Tad Runge.
FORUM Spotted at the New York winter antiques fair, an inscribed herati pattern Karabagh district carpet produced in the town of Susha provides a riddle. Richard E. Wright finds the inscribed date just doesn't add up.
RAISING THEBAR Thomas Cole The place, a rooftop in the provincial capital of Quetta, Baluchistan; the time, a winter's day in December 1994:. the outcome, a coup de foudre that transported the author into aesthetic realms previously unknown. Even for an ardent admirer of Baluch tribal weaving, the Chakhansur khan’scarpet he found that day was, he recalls, “unimaginable".
UNDERNEATHWHICH RIVERS FLOW TheSymbolismof the IslamicGarden Emma Clark The image of the Paradise Garden has cast its light and shade through thousands of years of literature and thought. But no culture has perhaps come closer to realising it, both physically and artistically, than that of Islam. The author looks at the meaning and resonance of images of flowing water and refreshing shade in the Islamic world.
HEART&SOUL TheYellow-Ground RugsofKonya Ralph Kaffel The naive and exultant charm of the yellow-ground village rugs and runners of Central Anatolia, some of which may be several centuries old, makes them one of the most instantly recognisable groups of Turkish pile weavings. Ironically they were amongst the very last to be awarded due recognition by scholars and collectors, primarily due to the quintessentially domestic nature of their manufacture and use. Here they are gently anatomised and explored by a leading collector.
THE HALI GALLERY House style advertisements.
105 |REVIEW
Exhibitions: In Vienna the MAK brings out its great carpet collection, with a noisy sideshow of contemporary 'filminserts'; the Met/LACMA exhibition of Ilkhanid art reveals a treasury of 14th century figured silks; Persian tribal rugs at Minasian of Chicago; Hans Elmby’s fifth Turkmen show in Copenhagen: Turkmen and Caucasian rugs at Krausse in Munich; focus on Baluch weaving with exhibitions in Zurich courtesy Nomadenschatze, in Munich courtesy Markus Voigt, and in Liestal, where the Baseler Kantonsmusum exhibition was coupled with a Rageth-organised symposium. Also: Art Deco at the V&A; khorjins at Galerie Azadi, Hamburg; hooked rugs at the Wadsworth Atheneum; Coptic textiles in Worms; Mali blankets in Basel; celebration of stripes at Peter Pap. San Francisco. Fairs: A brace of Asian and Tribal Art shows in San Francisco and the second edition of Munich Textile Art. Auctions: the Blondeel-Deroyan tapestries fail to ignite at Christie’s; Arts & Crafts carpets hold their appeal in London.
125 |AUCTION PRICEGUIDE
More from the autumn and winter rug sales in Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, Venice and New York, with pride of place going to a MAD prayer rug at SNY.
137 |DESIGN FILE
Man of spirit: Chris Walter of Yayla and the Tibetan Weaving Project believes in doing it naturally; Polishborn Joanna Michalowicz - weaver, restorer and now talented designer of Asha carpets, Catriona Stewart's world of colour, Tulga Tollu and the sculptural dimension.
143 |DESIGN GALLERY
Modern carpet advertisements.
145 |NETWORK
Classified advertisements.
151 |PARTING SHOTS
Baluchophiles in Liestal, a side-trip to Zurich and the February Asia Pacific and Tribal Shows in San Francisco.
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