Stories Spun in Silk at Ikat Exhibition at LACMA
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In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the privileged classes in Central Asia wore their wealth on their sleeves in the form of colorful, intricate silk garments woven and dyed in a process that created richly patterned fabric known as ikat.Today those garStories Spun in Silk at Ikat Exhibition at LACMA
In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the privileged classes in Central Asia wore their wealth on their sleeves in the form of colorful, intricate silk garments woven and dyed in a process that created richly patterned fabric known as ikat.Today those garments are collector items that reflect their makers’ abstract, and often improvised, skills.More than 60 examples from the collection of an American couple will be on display from February 3 through July 28 in the Resnick Pavilion of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (A $25 adult General Admission ticket allows entry to this exhibition and others at the museum.)Clarissa M. Esguerra, LACMA’s associate curator for costumes and textiles, talks about the exhibition “Power of Pattern: Central Asian Ikats from the David and Elizabeth Reisbord Collection.” (The interview has been edited and condensed.)What is ikat and why is it collectible?Ikat is a tie-resist-dye textile technique where a pattern is dyed into threads before weaving. This is done by tying off or binding sections of bundles of threads before submerging them into a dye bath; the areas that were bound resist the saturation of the dye. In an ikat textile, this method of binding and dyeing is repeated for each color. When these threads are finally woven together, it creates the blurred effect that is distinct to ikat. All of them were woven using silk, though some had a mix with cotton. This exhibition was an amazing opportunity to highlight the encyclopedic nature of our collection and how textiles are the basis of dress.Why focus on pieces from Central Asia?Though this is an ancient tradition that has been practiced by cultures throughout the world, Central Asian ikats are particularly known for their vibrancy of color and creative use of scale, proportion, and orientation that cohesively blends the use of contrast and composition in design. The resulting fabrics are visually dynamic and can look surprisingly modern to contemporary viewers, though many date to the 19th and early 20th century. I think this is why western collectors have been so drawn to the material as works of collectible art. In the case of Central Asian ikats, which were so laborious to produce, the simplicity of the construction of the robes — that wasted little fabric to create — illustrates how precious they are.What is your background as a curator and your interest in textiles?I have been at LACMA since 2008. What I find most fascinating about textiles and dress is that because these objects were used and worn, they were and continue to be a form of visual communication, alerting others to a person’s level of sophistication, wealth, taste, age, etc. These luxury textiles were very much symbols of status, which is why they grew to be so complicated to create, and so bold and rich in color.What can visitors expect to see at the exhibition?The ikat robes and wall hangings are organized by motif to highlight the use of improvisation by the ikat makers who drew upon the shapes that surrounded them in everyday life and distilled them into compelling textile patterns. By isolating these shapes, the exhibition encourages the viewer to observe how motifs were reinterpreted through color, form, orientation, and scale. The textile hangings are displayed on walls and some of the robes are displayed on T-stands to better illustrate the ikat patterns. Robes are also shown layered on dress forms to illustrate the purposeful Central Asian aesthetic for contrasting patterns.The pieces come from the collection of David and Elizabeth Reisbord. Who are they?The Reisbords are local collectors who have been thoughtfully gathering Central Asian ikat textiles for the past 30 years. He is a retired neurologist and she is an artist and painting teacher. They have in the past lent some of their extraordinary works to the museum and recently reached out to us to let us know that he was ready to give his collection to LACMA, his “hometown museum,” and this exhibition celebrates this generous gift.How did they acquire them in the first place?They started collecting locally from dealers, then ended up traveling to places like Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Iran, Israel and Turkey, and expanded their collection through dealers in Europe and the United States. The collection includes robes and other textiles like wall hangings, but their first purchases were robes and that was a big focus.What should collectors look for?It’s a personal choice. In terms of highly valued ikats, these would be things that have six or more colors. Each color represents an additional step for dyeing and creating that ikat pattern, reflecting the complexity and skill of the maker. In terms of luxury, a lot of collectors are drawn to the velvets because they have a deeper understanding of the amount of work. The pile requires so much more silk warp to produce. I find that newcomers seem very attracted to the very modern, distilled, larger shapes. Like simple circle patterns.Was ikat production, like kilim weaving, the work of women?Actually, ikat is the work of men, in a system of workshops all together in tight harmony. There were the spinners, then the people stretching the warp, then another workshop where the loom would be set up. A special designer would come in and draw his pattern. The threads would be bound and sent to different workshops for dyeing, then to the weavers, then the finishers. Each workshop was highly specialized.So hardly the costumes of peasants?Ikats were very expensive to create, being timeintensive and requiring a lot of silk. So a person had to have wealth to wear them. They became a way to convey/ display sophistication and wealth. Even more so if they were worn layered one over the other. Yes, they were warm, but it was also a form of conspicuous consumption.Are the robes wearable today?There have been some events with local collectors where Dr. and Mrs. Reisbord wore them. She has actually painted a portrait of him wearing one of his ikat robes. We’ve reproduced the painting for a book accompanying the exhibition.This article appears in the February 2019 edition of BlouinShop magazine. 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