The Essential Art of African Textiles: Design Without End

This compact publication produced in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, captures the rich variety and quality of traditional and contemporary African textiles. This distilled account in many ways possesses more potency as a publication than a protracted study because the creativity within the textiles, photographs and textile-inspired artworks is of a consistently high standard. The idea that textiles play a secondary role to sculpture in the African arts canon is again brought into question when considering the textile diversity and innovation in this publication. At the very least, textiles are a salient partner to sculpture, on the evidence here. The influences that have instigated aesthetic and technical achievements in African textiles—ranging from those of Islamic and Western cultures as well as from within Africa—are identified and explained. They have informed motifs, patterns and colours in design and have been influential in pioneering new techniques and refining existing techniques in the areas of woven, printed and mixed media textiles.