ISSUE 116 MAY/JUNE 2001
CONTENTS
9 |EDITORIAL
Afghan Buddhas and the case for a new pragmatism; the future of the AEDTA.
13 |LETTERS
Udo Hirsch and Kultkelim; kilims from Monastir; a bargain pinwheel Kazak.
15 |NEWS
Kelekian Coptic textiles to auction in Paris; a new art fair for New York; LY'MH buys Tajan: end of the road for Edinburgh tapestries; in memoriam.
17 |FRAGMENTS
Halstatt textile fragments in Vienna; exotic luxury in Santa Fe; news from Berlin: is this a record?
19 |POSTCARD
Steve and Jean Price travel to northeast Anatolia where they discover the ancient beauty o f Van.
37 |PREVIEW
Early Islamic embroidery at the Ashmolean; Asafo Hags and Japanese fish erman's coats at the TM. Washington; American embroidery at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem; tapestry themes at Blondeel-Deroyan and Chevalier, Paris; The HALI Fair 2001.
83 |CALENDAR
A world wide listing of auctions, exhibitions, fairs and conferences.
89 |BOOKS
Murray Eiland reviews Classical Chinese Carpets Part I: Alfred Saulniers 011 Aiettci, L'Art des Femmes Berberes; Johannes Wolff on Lebensbaum & Kalashnikovv.
93 |TITLES RECEIVED
A selection of recently published books and catalogues.
95 |E-VI EW
How are art portal Circline.com weathering the storm?
97 |WORKSHOP
Qashqa'i medallion carpets; a radical new washing technology developed at Chevalier Conservation.
101 tFORUM
Christoph Huber looks at dragon and simurgh imagery on Kaitag embroideries.
102 |THE CHURNING OF THE
SEA OF MILK Tom Cooper Traditional narrative painting in Bali draws on a world of gods and demons, its iconography o f elemental forces familiar in the West from Indonesian shadow puppets. 1 lere the author looks at a classic Balinese subject in which the opposing forces of the spirit world enter into a strange alliance to obtain the elixir o f life.
106 |OAK LEAVES &
ARABESQUES Ushak Large-Medallion Carpets with Pseudo-Kufic Borders Carlo Maria Suriano Do the early Ushak medallion carpets provide internal evidence that may help to date the production more precisely? Focusing mainly on the small group with pseudo-kufic elements in their borders, the author looks at pattern elements that can be related to specific changes in taste and fashion.
116 |OTTOMAN SILKS AND
THE ORTHODOX WORLD Many years o f research by a team of specialist scholars have gone into the publication of a new wide-ranging study of Ottoman imperial silks. One of the most fascinating aspects of their ground-breaking work is the exploration of Ottoman silks made for export to Eastern Europe and Russia.
127 I IS LAM IC ART
Best known for his paintings, AqaMirak was gifted in many media; Stuart Cary Welch looks at a lacquer bookbinding by the great Safavid artist. Mughal jewellery from Kuwait on show at the BM; aShahnama symposium; upcoming Paris auctions; Spain contemplates its Islamic past; birds beasts and arabesques at Michael Spink.
131 iTH E HALI GALLERY
A house style advertisement section.
141 |REVIEW
Exhibitions; The BM's lively and dramatic new installation of African art is now open, as are the Met's new Byzantine galleries: historic textiles at Bamberg; Armenian art of two millennia at the British Library; traditional robes of the Missouri Valley tribes at the Lindenmuseum; imperial Ottoman tents in Istanbul; a lleriz celebration in Brescia; Kordi and Baluch in the Ruhr; Mbenge in Munich; Daoist robes at the Asian Art Museum in SF. Fairs: A pair of Bay Area art shows in February went with a swing in spite o f stock market jitters, the textile arts ever more to the fore; Maastricht 2001. still exciting after all these years; lustre a bit lacking in Milan.
155 |AUCTION PRICE GUIDE
Inportant American Indian blankets in SNY's winter sale rub shoulders with Davide Halevim's succesful carpets and tapestries at CLO.
163 |DESIGN FILE
A visit to Amrapur in Rajasthan, a new carpet weaving community established by Eber Meschoulam in which Mahatma Ghandhi's principles of non-violence, respect and balance are lived out. Roger Cavanna surprises even himself with a new range of Persian decorative carpets; a special kind of hybrid discovered at Ramezani: the brighter side of 1950s Britain: a new Tribe encamped in Islington.
173 !NETWORK
A classified advertisement section.
181 |PROFILE
l.eon Sassoon o f C. John in London talks to Aaron Nejad.
182 |PARTING SHOTS
Action at the Art o f Pacific Asia and Tribal, Folk & Textile Art shows in San Francisco.
184 j LAST PAG E
Richard I reeland looks at Islamic attitudes to the representation of living things and the idea o f tasweer.
MALI 116 | 5