PAST EXHIBITIONS

Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas
October 18, 2008 - March 8, 2009

Timbuktu to Tibet: Rugs and Textiles of the Hajji Babas examined the central role that rugs and textiles play in diverse cultures around the world. Through the display of 90 Oriental carpets and other woven objects, the exhibition showcased the dazzling beauty of the pieces and explored the context in which they were created and used within
cultures on several continents.

The exhibition also chronicled how the Western understanding and appreciation of non-Western textiles has changed over the 20th century, through the history of the 75-year-old Hajji Baba Club, the nation's oldest society of rug and textile collectors. Over the years, the Hajji Baba Club has had a great impact on the appreciation, study and promotion of carpets and textiles as works of
art as well as culturally significant objects. George Hewitt Myers, founder of The Textile Museum, was a member of the Club, and it
continues to boast an active membership today. The club's history, coupled with exhibition's thematic focus on the cultural context and functionality of the objects, provided a delightful journey for those unfamiliar with textiles and for specialists in the field.

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The Finishing Touch: Accessories from the Bolivian Highlands
February 15, 2008 - February 1, 2009

The Finishing Touch featured a charming group of belts, bags and other accessories made and used by the indigenous people of the Bolivian highlands. A large group of traditional Bolivian textiles acquired by the Museum in late 2007 inspired the exhibition and comprised the bulk of the more than 100 objects on view. The belts, bags and other accessories in the exhibition, although small, are often invested with great care and even more fully decorated than larger shawls and ponchos. The broad range of techniques, patterns and items in the exhibition reflected the many regional variations that characterize the cultural wealth of the Bolivian highlands.

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BLUE
April 4 - September 18, 2008

The human perception of color is a complex sensory phenomenon filtered through the eyes, brain, language and multiple layers of social experience. While shades of red (examined in the 2007 Textile Museum exhibition RED) quicken the pulse and increase blood pressure, blue induces a calming effect and is widely perceived as a “cool,” tranquil color.

BLUE explored the creation and meaning of the color blue on textiles produced across time and place, with particular emphasis on contemporary artists’ use of natural indigo dyes. Until the invention of chemical dyes in the late 19th century, peoples worldwide relied largely on indigo-bearing plants to achieve blue-colored garments, household furnishings, artworks and even body paint. Many cultures attributed talismanic properties as well as health benefits to indigo, and the mysterious transformation of this temperamental dye has long been steeped in myth and magic.

The exhibition featured blue textiles ranging from Greco-Roman and pre-Columbian tunic fragments to installations by internationally renowned artists. Hiroyuki Shindo, a Japanese artist who grows and processes his own indigo to produce innovatively patterned textiles, as well as Maria Eugenia Davila and Eduardo Portillo, who raise silkworms and dye threads with natural dyes in Venezuela, highlighted the ways that artists around the world are embracing this ancient dye to create works that speak to their own experience.

BLUE was curated by Lee Talbot, Assistant Curator, Eastern Hemisphere Collections, and Mattiebelle Gittinger, Research Associate, Southeast Asian Textiles.

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Private Pleasures: Collecting Contemporary Textile Art
September 28, 2007 – February 17, 2008

Collecting has played a central role in the shaping of art history as a discipline. Private Pleasures highlighted this aspect of the discipline through the display of contemporary textile art drawn from private collections in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The exhibition explored both the individual preferences of the collectors and presented the textiles as outstanding examples of the art form. This discussion included the history of textile art from the mid-20th century to the present day and the genre's place in contemporary art history.

Featured artists included Olga de Amaral, Archie Brennan, Nick Cave, Nancy Crow, Peter and Jason Collingwood, Lia Cook, Ritzi Jacobi, Michael James, John McQueen, Jon Riis, Ed Rossbach, Cynthia Schira and Katherine Westphal, among others. The exhibition was curated by Rebecca A. T. Stevens, The Textile Museum's Consulting Curator for Contemporary Textiles and accompanied by an evening lecture series funded by Eleanor T. and Samuel J. Rosenfeld.

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In 1925 George Hewitt Myers founded The Textile Museum with a collection of 275 rugs and 60 related textiles drawn from the traditions of non-Western cultures. With the establishment of The Textile Museum, Myers demonstrated his commitment to championing the appreciation of textiles as works of art. Ahead of His Time explored his collecting interests and strategies, and emphasized the richness and importance of the Museum's holdings acquired by him. As the exhibition showed, Myers collected not only for personal pleasure but with the aim of improving the aesthetic sensibilities of others. The eventual establishment of a museum for the appreciation of textiles as art was the culmination of his efforts in this regard.

A small but representative portion of The Textile Museum's collections acquired by George Hewitt Myers were displayed, including items rarely exhibited before. A selection of some of the finest textiles from both the Eastern and Western hemispheres reinforced the theme of collecting explored in all three of the Museum's fall 2007 exhibitions. The exhibition was curated by Sumru Belger Krody, the Museum's Associate Curator for Eastern Hemisphere Collections in collaboration with Ann P. Rowe, Curator for Western Hemisphere Collections.

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Textiles of Klimt's Vienna
August 3, 2007 – January 6, 2008

Vienna was a center of creative activity between 1897 and 1932, when two aesthetic movements emerged: the Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte. The movements were intended to challenge the prevailing conservative and historicizing tendencies of many Vienna artists and exhibitions. Participants also strived to encourage among the public a heightened sensitivity to, and appreciation for, culture and the arts in everyday life. The line between fine and applied arts became blurred, and the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, or unified work of art, was introduced. This resulted in a full range of objects and furnishings being designed for specific interiors to create a unified, harmonious ensemble.

The founding group of young artists who formed the Secession included the architect Josef Hoffmann, the painter Koloman Moser, and the painter Gustav Klimt, who was elected president. Workshops for painters, cabinetmakers, gold and silversmiths, jewelry makers, leather workers and bronze founders thrived during this era. Wiener Werkstätte fabrics were designed by a multitude of talented designers and were then produced on an industrial basis. Equally impressive textiles were designed prior to the establishment of the Wiener Werkstätte textile department and contemporaneously by artists working outside of the workshop context. The goal of this intimate, focused exhibition was to examine the artistic values and development of the Secession and Wiener Werkstätte movements through textiles, one of the most resonant and revealing aspects of artistic creativity of the time and a key element in the realization of Gesamtkunstwerk.

On view were approximately 50 textiles and related objects including fabric samples, a sample book, fabric covered books and boxes created by Josef Hoffmann, Dagobert Peche, Maria Likarz-Strauss and other textile artists working in Klimt's era.

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Architectural Textiles: Tent Bands of Central Asia
March 30 – August 19, 2007

The trellis tent is a brilliant invention. It has made nomadic life possible across Central Asia for at least one and a half millennia. An important component of its construction is a woven tent band which girdles the lower part of the wooden roof struts. This critical engineering element provides the tension necessary to brace the roof dome against outward collapse under the load of heavy felts and the force of strong steppe winds. Beyond serving a utilitarian function, tent bands are often elaborately decorated.

Architectural Textiles: Tent Bands of Central Asia highlighted this unique and fundamental weaving. The exhibition included tent bands made by different Central Asian ethnic groups, including Turkmen, Kyrgyz, Uzbek and Kazakh. Approximately 40 objects drawn from The TM’s collections and private holdings were included in this exhibition, representing a wide range of structures, colors, designs and materials. Supplemental materials provided a richer context to deepen understanding of the lost world of the nomads. These included period photographs of nomadic life and weaving for discussion of textile structure. An educational gallery taught visitors about the exhibition, such as how to read a tent band. Richard Isaacson, a former member of The Textile Museum’s Advisory Council, served as the guest curator.

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RED
February 2 - July 8, 2007

Red is a potent color. This exhibition explored the uses and meanings of red in textiles across time and place. From the pre-Columbian high Andes to the 21st century streets of New York, red textiles are a compelling symbol, representing passion, power, status and human emotion itself. Before the invention of synthetic dyes, achieving this highly evocative color in textiles was no easy task. The difficulty of its production heightened the importance and allure of red cloth which became a prestige commodity in many societies. The textiles on view illustrated the complex usage of red - not only to denote prestige, but also to celebrate love and beauty, to protect against evil, to promote good fortune and to mark life cycle passages such as marriage and death. The earliest textile in the exhibition was more than 2,500 years old while the most recent was less than five. Objects in the exhibition included an ancient Peruvian tunic border fragment, a Turkish velvet panel, a Navajo rug, a couture ball gown, an AIDS Awareness ribbon and a series of photographs depicting the use of red textiles in contemporary life.

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Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Mandalay to Chittagong
October 13, 2006 - February 25, 2007
Mantles of Merit is the first major exhibition devoted to the sophisticated textiles of the Chin peoples, an ethnic minority group some two million strong who live in the hills of western Myanmar, northeastern India and eastern Bangladesh. Traditional textiles play a central role in Chin practices, marking the achievement of merit in this life and the next, as well as serving as clothing and as badges of identity and status. This exhibition introduces a variety of Chin ceremonial textiles, which are traditionally created on back-tension looms with homegrown cotton, flax or hemp, and often dyed with indigo or other locally produced natural dyes. Included are mantles, tunics, loincloths, skirts and other garments. The exhibition also includes historic and contemporary photographs, the latter taken during the curators' extensive fieldwork in the region.
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Pieces of a Puzzle: Classical Persian Carpet Fragments
September 1, 2006 - January 7, 2007
This exhibition reunites for the first time the three known fragments of a superb and unusual late 16th-century Persian carpet of the so-called Khorasan type. Khorasan type carpets, distinguished by superb color and drawing, are named for a large province in northeastern Iran where they are thought to originate. The type has been defined only in recent times and is not well known to the public since most surviving examples are fragmentary and have not been displayed. Included in the exhibition are one large field and border fragment belonging to The Textile Museum; another large field fragment, with beautiful colors and drawing, from a private collection in New York; and a small border fragment with splendid color from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The large fragments are unpublished and the carpet as a whole is little known. In bringing the actual pieces together for close inspection in one space, the exhibition guides visitors in sharing the process of research and discovery experienced by the curator. The exhibition will also include a selection of Persian carpet fragments from the same time period, including others of the same Khorasan class.
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Harpies, Mermaids, and Tulips:
Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region
on view through September 3, 2006
Harpies, Mermaids, and Tulips: Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region includes more than 65 embroidered textiles created between the 17th and 19th centuries for bridal trousseaux and domestic life. The textiles on display are from island groups located in the Ionian and Aegean seas surrounding the Greek mainland, and from the Epirus region on the western Greek coast. While the geographic area where these textiles were made is relatively small, they are incredibly diverse in design, structure and function. The exhibition will explore how and why people living so close together produced such divergent styles of embroidered textiles, offering a unique window into Greek island societies at the intersection of two worlds: the Latin West and Ottoman East. Objects include colorfully-embroidered bed tents, bed curtains, large covers, and pillows, as well as handkerchiefs and embroidered panels from women's clothing. All of the textiles, except for two loaned objects, are from The Textile Museum's collections. Many were collected by the Museum's founder, George Hewitt Myers, in the early part of the 20th century. The exhibition will be accompanied by a full-color catalogue.
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Seldom Seen: Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections
Seldom Seen: Director's Choice from the Museum's Collections presents Director Daniel Walker's selection of 28 rarely exhibited textiles from The Textile Museum's permanent holdings, which number more than 17,000 objects. In consultation with the Museum's curatorial staff, Mr. Walker selected each object based some compelling visual quality or aspect, sometimes more than one - form, surface treatment, color, or refinement of concept or expression. The resulting exhibition is varied in terms of culture and function, representing the major areas of textiles traditionally collected by the Museum. Included are textiles from South America, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia, and Japan.
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Silk & Leather: Splendid Attire of 19th-Century Central Asia
An exhibition in honor of Caroline McCoy-Jones
September 2 - February 26, 2006
Silk & Leather: Splendid Attire of 19th-Century Central Asia featured different types of garments and accessories worn by the ruling class and urban and nomadic elites of the region which today encompasses Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and part of Kazakhstan. The exhibition included seven stunning coats as well as children's clothing and accessories such as hats, boots, belts, pig tail covers, purses, pouches and veils. The 38 objects featured in the exhibition were drawn from The Textile Museum's holdings as well as private collections.

Silk and leather have lengthy, intertwined histories as materials for Central Asian dress. Silk was first and most prolifically produced in China, where for centuries its source and production methods were closely guarded secrets until they were carried to Central Asia and beyond. Leather, felt and fur as well as a distinctive clothing style that included trousers, made life easier for the horse-riding nomadic pastoralists of the vast, sparsely populated Eurasian steppe bordering on China and Central Asia. The nomads' mobile economy and potent cavalry enabled them to extort vast quantities of coveted luxury goods from the Chinese - first and foremost silk - which they both consumed and sold. The copious production of silk, its brilliant dyeing and multifaceted use in textiles of urban and nomadic manufacture, along with the continued use of leather, were all part of the spectacular blossoming of the textile and related arts during the 19th century in west Central Asia.
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Rozome Masters of Japan
October 14, 2005 - February 12, 2006
Rozome Masters of Japan featured the work of 15 contemporary Japanese artists and included folding screens, scrolls, panels and kimono all
created using rozome, a wax-resist dyeing technique unique to Japan. The exhibition was complemented by a selection of Japanese textiles from The Textile Museum’s own collections. Rozome has roots in ancient Japan, dating to the Nara period (645-794), but was eclipsed by other resist-dye techniques after the Heian period (794-1185). The technique experienced a revival of popularity in the early part of the 20th century, when Kyoto-based kimono specialists began to reexamine the possibilities of the wax-resist medium. Rozome flourished after World War II as artists became interested in the technique as a vehicle for unique image-making and self-expression on cloth. Today, in the hands of these talented artists, rozome is used to create technically breathtaking, complex works whose imagery ranges from traditional botanical and landscape subjects to contemporary abstract compositions.

Rozome Masters of Japan was organized by Betsy Sterling Benjamin and Ann Wessmann in collaboration with Massachusetts College of Art. The exhibition was curated by Betsy Sterling Benjamin and accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue published by the Exhibitions Department at Massachusetts College of Art.
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Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles
July 1, 2005 - January 15, 2006
During the 7th and 8th centuries the Huari Empire conquered a vast area of what now constitutes modern day Peru. Archaeological evidence of the Huari Empire includes fine tapestry-woven textiles featuring colorful and distinctive iconography. Gods and Empire: Huari Ceremonial Textiles explored what this iconography tells us about Huari religious and ceremonial practices and the development of the empire over time. The centerpiece of the exhibition was a large tapestry panel that was donated to The Textile Museum in 2002. It came to the Museum as a group of fragments that were reassembled and prepared for exhibition by the Museum's conservation department. Unlike most other known Huari style tapestry textiles, it is clearly not a garment, and its iconography also suggests a prominent ceremonial function. Also included in the exhibition were examples of Huari style garments and related ceremonial textiles.
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Textiles for This World and Beyond: Treasures from Insular
Southeast Asia
April 1 - September 18, 2005
Long before Islam and Christianity were established in the islands of Southeast Asia, the people who settled the area had developed a philosophy for existence in a highly unpredictable world. Textiles play an important part in many of the beliefs and customs which are followed to this day. Textiles for This World and Beyond explored the role that textiles in Indonesia and Malaysia play in daily society, and how textiles are used in ceremonies to maintain harmonious relationships with the deceased or the gods. This was the first exhibition of a group of 19th- to early 20th-century Southeast Asian textiles acquired by The Textile Museum in the last 25 years. Many of the more than 60 objects had not been exhibited at The Textile Museum or elsewhere in the United States prior to this exhibition. Several of these textiles were acquired by the Museum in 2000 with a grant from The Christensen Fund in Palo Alto, California. The exhibition was curated by Dr. Mattiebelle Gittinger, The Textile Museum’s Research Associate for Southeast Asian Textiles. A leading scholar in the field of Southeast Asian textiles and culture, Dr. Gittinger has curated numerous exhibitions and published extensively. The exhibition was accompanied by a fully-illustrated color catalogue.
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Beyond the Bag: Textiles as Containers
January 28 - June 5, 2005
While containers perform the practical functions of holding, carrying and covering everyday items, they are also objects of creativity made with a designing and purposeful eye. Beyond the Bag celebrated the use of textiles as utilitarian containers and gave visitors an opportunity to investigate the many ways various cultures have exploited the unique properties of textile containers to suit their needs. Through the objects on view, visitors gained insight into the lifestyles of different cultures and their various storage and transportation needs. Included in the exhibition were objects from both Eastern and Western Hemispheres drawn from the Museum's collections.
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A Garden of Shawls: The Buta and Its Seeds
October 1, 2004 - March 6, 2005
In Kashmir, an area at the foot of the Indian Himalayas, weavers produced a garment of surpreme quality now known as the Kashmir shawl. A Garden of Shawls: The Buta and Its Seeds traced the development of the quintessential design feature of the shawls - the buta, known as paisley in the West. The exhibition included several precursors to the buta design, including textiles from Egypt, Iran, India, Asia Minor, and Europe. Art Historian Eunice Dauterman Maguire, Curator of the John Hopkins University Archaeological Collection, was guest curator for the exhibition. All objects in A Garden of Shawls came from The Textile Museum's collections.
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Floral Perspectives in Carpet Design
August 27, 2004 - Februrary 6, 2005
Floral motifs are represented in the arts of many cultures and are ubiquitous in carpet design. Floral Perspectives in Carpet Design examined this phenomenon from three perspectives - spiritual, cultural, and artistic - as rendered in the designs of 17th- to 19th-century Indian, Chinese, Central Asian, Persian, and Turkish carpets. The exhibition explored variety of floral motifs and how these motifs speak to the transfer of ideas from culture to culture. Included in the exhibition were 12 carpets drawn from The Textile Museum's collections, many of which were collected by the Museum's founder, George Hewitt Myers.
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Over One, Under One, and Much More...
July 2, 2004 - January 2, 2005
Plain weave is the simplest method of interlacing yarns in a textile and is a technique found in every weaving tradition across the world. Over One, Under One, and Much More... explored the diversity of patterning that can be achieved in plain-woven textiles. Plain-woven textiles on display included shawls from Guatemala, Bolivia, and Mexico, Indonesian sarongs, objects from Japan, Turkey, West Africa, and more - all drawn from The Textile Museum's collections.
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By Hand in the Electronic Age: Contemporary Tapestry
March 27, 2004 - September 5, 2004
This exhibition included the work of 14 contemporary artists using tapestry technique, one of the oldest, most versatile textile techniques used to produce designs and pictures in cloth. Featuring a single work by each of 12 Hungarian artists, By Hand in the Electronic Age also took an in-depth look at two North American artists, Jon Eric Riis and Marcel Marois, to demonstrate how a tapestry artist, like a painter, develops his or her own style and themes. Through works ranging from pictorial to abstract, the exhibition showed that this labor-intensive technique is not an abandoned anachronism but continues to be a vibrant medium of artistic expression. By Hand was curated by Rebecca A.T. Stevens, Consulting Curator, Contemporary Textiles, The Textile Museum.
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Timeless Connections: Exploring Tapestry Weave
April 16, 2004 - August 1, 2004
This exhibition demonstrated the historical continuity of one of the world's oldest and most versatile textile patterning techniques. Featuring a selection of 17 textiles from a variety of cultures and historic periods, Timeless Connections explored how different weavers, using materials ranging from fine silk to coarse wool and even raffia, can apply the same technique to produce works of striking diversity and originality. Tapestry woven textiles on display included Tunisian and Iranian kilims, Chinese kesi textiles, Peruvian tunics and bands, and Egyptian Coptic material, as well as objects from Mexico, India, Mali, and Zaire. All objects were drawn exclusively from The Textile Museum collections.
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Draped, Wrapped, & Folded: Untailored Clothing
January 30, 2004 - June 6, 2004
Featuring 19 untailored garments from around the world, this exhibition highlights the visual complexity of these seemingly simple textiles. The exhibition also explores how clothing is often used to communicate a wide variety of societal distinctions within a culture.
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Navajo Blankets of the 19th Century: Selections from The Textile Museum Collections
September 5, 2003 - March 14, 2004
Featuring 16 blankets made between 1800 and 1890, the exhibition explores the powerful aesthetics and significant trends that characterize nineteenth century Navajo weaving. The exhibition also explores how Navajo blankets were made and how experts today analyze Navajo blankets' materials, structures, and designs to assess and assign dates to each textile.
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African-American Quilts from the Robert & Helen Cargo Collection
October 3, 2003 - February 29, 2004
Twenty quilts that reflect the African-American quilt making tradition of using a wide variety of materials, colors, patterns, and textures. The exhibition includes patchwork quilts, story quilts, strip quilts, and abstract original patterns that display a unique sense of individuality and lively improvisation.
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The Art of Resist Dyeing
July 5, 2003 - January 5, 2004
The Art of Resist Dyeing focuses on how textiles from many cultures are patterned by the process of resist dyeing. In resist dyeing, areas of either woven cloth or yarns to be woven are protected from dye penetration. Familiar examples of resist-dye patterning include batik and tie dyeing.
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Mamluk Rugs from Egypt: Jewels of The Textile Museum's Collections
March 27 - September 7, 2003
An exhibition featuring 20 of The Textile Museum's Mamluk rugs, which date from the last quarter of the 15th century. The Museum's collection of Mamluk rugs is the largest and most important collection in the world.
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Carpets of Andalusia
March 8 - August 10, 2003
The carpets of Andalusia are among the oldest preserved carpets of the Islamic world. The exhibition will include almost two dozen Spanish carpets, of which The Textile Museum has one of the world's finest and most comprehensive collections.
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Hold It: Textiles as Containers
January 31 - June 8, 2003
This exhibition investigates the many ways various cultures have exploited the unique properties of textile containers to suit their needs.
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The Classical Tradition in Anatolian Carpets
September 13, 2002 - February 16, 2003
Anatolian carpets dating from the 15th through 19th centuries are presented in the context of their history and relationship to the centuries-old Anatolian weaving tradition.
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Secrets of Silk
June 28, 2002 - January 5, 2003
An exhibition exploring the production and use of one of the world's most luxurious fibers.
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Hidden Threads of Peru: Q'ero Textiles
March 21 - August 18, 2002
Approximately 40 textiles are on display, representing a remote indigenous community in southern Peru that uses pre-Hispanic weaving techniques.
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Technology as Catalyst: Textile Artists on the Cutting Edge
February 15 - July 28, 2002
An exhibition of textile art created using revolutionary digital technologies that enable contemporary artists to implement traditional textile concepts with new-found freedom and flexibility. Six featured artists include Susan Brandeis, Lia Cook, Hitoshi Ujiie, Carol Westfall, Cynthia Schira, and Junco Sato Pollack.
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Exhibition Schedule 1985 - present
March 21 - August 18, 2002
A list of exhibitions on view at The Textile Museum from 1985 to the present.
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