ikat; rust red, brown, blue, white; two panels sewn together vertically; symmetrical designs, top and bottom; alternating rows of brown and rust; rust colored rows have horses alternating with roosters, or pairs of facing fish; wide brown rows have pair of rampant lions flanking a crowned horse on a crowned shield, with pair of rearing horses (?) and pair of walking birds; central brown field with white and rust red diamonds and rows of roosters in white; received with attached Velcro heading band

Textile panel, ca. 1950s

Unknown artist, expand_more
Not on Viewexpand_more

Women on the remote Indonesian island of Sumba are renown for producing distinctive, boldly patterned warp ikat textiles, exemplified in the cloth here. The intricate process: preparing dyestuffs (indigo and kombu plant roots respectively yield the deep blues and reds); setting the pattern by resist-dyeing; and then weaving the cloth panels on a backstrap loom can take months to complete. The technique is believed to have arrived on the Indonesian archipelago during the Dong-Song period (8th- 2nd C BCE), and that knowledge has since been passed down matrilineally. Even today, men are denied access to the enclosure where the treads are dyed blue.

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Details
Title
Textile panel
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2019.51
Curator Approved

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ikat; rust red, brown, blue, white; two panels sewn together vertically; symmetrical designs, top and bottom; alternating rows of brown and rust; rust colored rows have horses alternating with roosters, or pairs of facing fish; wide brown rows have pair of rampant lions flanking a crowned horse on a crowned shield, with pair of rearing horses (?) and pair of walking birds; central brown field with white and rust red diamonds and rows of roosters in white; received with attached Velcro heading band