Forgotten Carpets of the Forbidden City

Dating of Chinese carpets with special attention to a group suspected of being from the Ming dynasty. Use of 14C in carpet studies.

Rhapsodic Objects: art, agency and Materiality (1700-2000), 2021

This chapter examines the indigenous patterned pile carpet making industry of India and Pakistan between 1880 and the early 21st century, and contrasts it with the hierarchy of taste established by western enthusiast of Asian carpets

Rugs and Textiles of Late Imperial China, 1994

Brochure of an exhibition organized by The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, on view in 1994. Drawn from The Textile Museum and loans from private collections.

An essay about the "artistic significance" or oriental carpets.

What is an Oriental Carpet?, 1993

Brochure of an exhibition organized by The Textile Museum, Washington, DC, on view 15 October 1993 - 1 May 1994. Have you ever just stared at an Oriental carpet? Or wondered what makes it so attractive, fascinating, or puzzling? Drawn from The Textile Museum's collections of carpets from Turkey, the Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, and India, this exhibition seeks to address visitors' basic questions regarding patterns, designs, and aesthetics, as well as to consider the utilitarian functions of rugs and carpets, how they were made, and the significance of their cultural origins and impact as trade goods.

ORIENTAL CARPET. View from the "WEST" and view from the "EAST", 2019

Oriental carpet is a cultural phenomenon with ambivalent perception. The ambivalence of carpet perception is inspired by the distinction of the “Western” (pragmatic) and “Eastern” (contemplative) mental types of viewers. At the same time, common to both mental types is the undisputed recognition of its utilitarian origin and functionality in a traditional society. All nations have always had a carpet. When and how was the utilitarian “cosmopolitan” carpet divided into “Eastern” and “Western”? … The fundamental differences in the perception of the Oriental carpet are rooted in the political, cultural and mental history of a European who has realized the alienity, remoteness and exoticism of the “East”. The history of awareness of this alienity began with the era when the ancient Greek community first touched and mingled with the Asiatic, and after it, “Pax Romana” decided to expand its political and economic influence in Asia. The division of the world into “West” and “East” began “here and now". … Perhaps this is explained by the fact that the Orient Carpet for the first time reached Europe as a war trophy during the Crusades. Reaching Europe - it turned into a commodity! … There is no Islamic factor in the hierarchy of values of the Oriental carpet. Islam gave almost nothing to the Oriental carpet. The entire symbolic potential of the Oriental carpet was formed long before Islam. Islam only structured and aestheticized the existing symbolic and ornamental potential in accordance with the new idea of monotheism and theocentrism. The new, structured context of the Oriental carpet under Islam acquires a new semantic paradigm: Sitting on the carpet is a sign of greatness, respect and election by Allah. The traces of this paradigm are fixed in the Quran: In the 16th Ayah 88 of the Surah of the Quran (al-Ghāshiyah [Covering]) described the life of the righteous in the Garden of Paradise. Here the Quran postulates Carpet - as a sign of special respect and God's chosen people of the righteous: "... and carpets spread beneath them". … In the development of a utilitarian tribal carpet, a new vector appears - the “palace carpet”, which is already being created by professional craftsmen on the basis of the same tribal traditions. In the images of this time, the Shah is already seated solely on the carpet symbolizing the Shah's throne. Somewhat later, the flat shape and dimensions of the “carpet-throne” determine the appearance of flat Oriental thrones (Takht) covered with carpet. The new Takht was designed to sit on the Asian tradition - on crossed legs. It was a sitting posture on a carpet spread on the tent floor. Carpet has become a special symbol of significance not only in the palace culture. The impact of the palace carpet on the folk utilitarian carpet led to the enrichment of its status in this society. The most significant events in the life of the “Eastern” person were the Birth-Wedding-Death (Funeral). All these three events are unthinkable in the "East" without the presence of a carpet. The "Oriental" man was born on the carpet, celebrated the wedding against the background of the carpet and dying wrapped in a carpet.

Gloria Gonick’s book is the result of a series of detailed studies of some of the surviving Chinese Manichaean textiles, both in Japan and China. It has an ambitious composition and offers much more than the title announces. Less glamorous and more tribal than the many more studied luxury textiles, a mysterious group of thirty-six early painted tapestries and twenty-one carpets - all woolen - forms the focus of this study. They have been kept in Kyoto since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as part of the local Gion Festival floats' decorations and have until recently been understood as ink-painted tapestries from Korea and regional wool-pile carpets from western China. Indeed, the Japanese notion of the tapestries as Korean made perfect sense in so far as the Japanese having acquired them largely from Korea in centuries past. In this context, it is worthwhile to mention Thomas Cole, who argues for a change in focus on Tibetan rugs from the conventional references to both Chinese and Buddhist influence. Instead, he suggests that the Tibetan weaving tradition should be viewed in a Central Asian tribal context. Similarly, Gonick looks for the provenance beyond Korea and successfully traces all of these textiles back to Gansu in China. This new provenance is a significant contribution of her study. Another is contextualizing the textiles within the Manichaean religion and the material culture it gave rise to. It is these textiles, seen and understood at long last as Manichaean relics, and preserved in China and Japan, that are the subject of her book.

1989

International conference Art and Religious in pre-Islamic Central Asia October 24 – 26, 2016 Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology, Krakow