"IKAT: Splendid Silks from Central Asia"
1999-09-30 until 2000-01-09
The Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA United States of America

September 30, 1999-January 9, 2000 Elizabeth F. Cheney and Agnes Allerton Textile Galleries Brilliant, dazzling colors and lively, intricate paterns are indicative of the cloth-making process known as ikat. Created by repeatedly binding and dying individual threads before they are woven into a cloth, the term ikat is now synonymous with the finished textiles themselves. Produced primarily in the Central Asian cities of Samarkand and Bukhara-present day Uzbekistan-lusterous ikat fabrics were traded throughout all of Asia during the 19th century. They were often used as decorative hangings or as items of clothing for affluent families and the regional courts. This exhibition features approximately 30 to 40 of the finest examples of ikats assembled from the Guido Goldman Collection-the largest and most comprehensive collection of its kind.

IKAT: Splendid Silks from Central Asia is accompanied by a major catalogue authored by scholars Kate FitzGibbon and Andrew Hale, whose research in Russia and Uzbekistan helped to make this important publication winner of the 1997 George Wittenborn Memorial Book Award as the Best Art Book of the year. The Chicago installation of IKAT: Splendid Silks from Central Asia is curated by Christa C. Thurman, The Christa C. Mayer Thurman Curator of Textiles, The Art Institute of Chicago.

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