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Important Sriwijayan Artefact Found in a Pile of Dirt

A man in the Musirawas area of Palembang district, Sumatra bought a truckload of fill dirt last Monday and was surprised to find a Sriwijayan stone artefact in the dirt pile. The artefact, a beautifully carved door cornice ornament in the form of a lion mask, is thought to date … Continue reading

Filled under : Ancient Asia , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
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Interwoven Globe: Psychedelic Textiles Exhibition at the Met

A dazzling textiles show opened last week at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, titled “Interwoven Globe: The Worldwide Textile Trade 1500 – 1800“. It’s a topic that touches on interesting aspects of Indonesian history and material culture. Unusual textiles from faraway places were hot commodities in Indonesia’s ports and … Continue reading

Filled under : Ancient Asia , Textiles
Author : Susi
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Susi’s Synaptic Straps™: Classic Motorbikes

  Exhibition on now at SFO of fine old Italian rides, called Moto Bellissima: Italian Motorcycles from the 1950s and 1960s. If you’re changing planes in San Fran, skip Starbuck’s and feast your eyes on these bikes instead. That’s a ’55 Moto Rumi “Raid” above, and a ’52 Motor Devil … Continue reading

Filled under : Bali , Design , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
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Susi’s Synaptic Straps™: Ancient Indian Textiles (Ex-Indonesia) Show in Singapore

The Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) just acquired the greatest single collection of Indian trade textiles in the world: The Roger Hollander Collection. The museum has 70 important pieces from the collection on show now until 3 June, in a blockbuster exhibition entitled “Patterns of Trade: Indian Textiles for Export 1400 … Continue reading

Filled under : Ancient Asia , Design , Textiles
Author : Susi
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What’s Donovan got to do with Bali? He’s a Hindu Buddhist Ubudist!

Big news. Donovan is being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and (Marketing) Museum on April 14th. This pixie troubador out of deepest Glasgow enchanted the world in the sixties with his psychedelic naif persona and almost childlike sing-along songs. He was seminal (if I dare use … Continue reading

Filled under : Bali , Uncategorized
Author : Susi
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San Francisco Asian to Hold Major Exhibition About Bali in 2011

A large-scale exhibition entitled Bali: Art, Ritual, Performance will open in February 2011 at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, one of the world’s most respected institutions for Asian art. This is big news. Exciting news. The show includes works on loan from numerous international collections, many which have never … Continue reading

Filled under : Ethnographica , Textiles , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Well Hung: Javanese Batik Comes Alive at the Fowler Museum

We’ve been applauding the Fowler Museum at UCLA for years. They’ve shown a keen understanding of Indonesian culture, and nobody beats the Fowler at curating and hanging a great show. Their shows always balance the aesthetic and the didactic in the best possible way. Now they’ve done it again, with … Continue reading

Filled under : Design , Interiors , Textiles
Author : Susi
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To Dye For: Textile Exhibition at the De Young Museum

San Francisco’s De Young Museum has just opened a splendid little exhibition of selections from their tremendous collection of world textiles, entitled To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color. It focuses on various techniques used around the world to imbue plain thread with pure colour, including tie-dye, ikat, and … Continue reading

Filled under : Textiles
Author : Susi
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“Sumatra: Isle of Gold” at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore

It’s too splendid to miss. An exhibition of  300 artefacts from Sumatra opened last night at the Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore. “Sumatra: Isle of Gold” runs from today through 7 November 2010, giving us all plenty of time to plan a Singapore stopover to see the show, which is … Continue reading

Author : Susi
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Islamic and Asian Textiles at the Ashmolean’s Jameel Centre

The Ashmolean’s Jousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art has a splendid online database of textiles. One of the collection’s superstars is this radiant sun, blazing at the centre of a 19th century Rajput royal flag. The colour is so full of muscle, it knocks you off your chair, … Continue reading

Filled under : Ancient Asia , Textiles
Author : Susi
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Rijksmuseum Seeks Textile Curator: Perfect Job for a Dyed-in-the-wool Textilian

Good news for textile scholars. The Rijksmuseum has an extraordinary vacancy. They are looking for a textile curator. Full information on the vacancy, in English, here. Application period closes 1 September 2010. Just think off all the beautiful, ancient and important textiles you will have the opportunity to work with. … Continue reading

Filled under : Textiles
Author : Susi
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Tagged on : museums

The Splendour of Sumatran Textiles on Show in Phoenix

The Phoenix Art Museum presents an exhibition of Sumatran textiles from the collection of Dr. Thomas J. Hudak, through 4 July 2010. The island of Sumatra is far larger and more diverse than most people might think. It’s five times the size of Great Britain and Ireland combined, and is … Continue reading

Filled under : Textiles
Author : Susi
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Tribal Art Special Issue on Beyeler Foundation Tribal+Painting Show

Previously, I posted a piece about the “Visual Encounters” exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, juxtaposing masterpieces of modern painting with masterpieces of tribal art. It’s worth mentioning again, because Tribal Art magazine has just published their first special issue, a volume devoted to the exhibition. It’s 52 pages, full colour, … Continue reading

Filled under : Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Textile Gallery Coming Soon to the Ashmolean

The Ashmolean is rebooting. Big plans and improvements are underway, with 39 new galleries happening, to the tune of £61 million. Among them is a major new space for textiles. Textilism is officially a trend. In recent years numerous upper-echelon museums have created spaces devoted to textiles as art, notably … Continue reading

Filled under : Ethnographica , Textiles , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Indonesian Textiles as Art: The Eyes Have It

An exhibition “Indonesian Textiles as Art” opened on 19 July at the Museum Pasifika in Nusa Dua, Bali. We were there. We saw. And we agreed wholeheartedly with the stance of Georges Breguet who mounted the exhibition, that the best textile arts of the archipelago are indeed art, and should … Continue reading

Filled under : Bali , Fine Art , Textiles
Author : Susi
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SACM Show Exposes Origins of Museum Booty

It’s a fun theme for an exhibition, “Hunters & Collectors.” And an interesting opportunity to consider the history of collecting itself as an anthropological phenomenon. The age of plundering in the jungles is over, and attitudes toward cultural property and buccaneerism have shifted 180 degrees. Still, you can relive the … Continue reading

Filled under : Ethnographica , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Barbier-Mueller Brings Oceanic and African Masterpieces to the Met

Some three dozen masterpieces of Oceanic and African sculpture from the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Geneva) will be shown at the Met in New York, from 2 June to 27 September. The exhibition, sponsored by Vacheron Constantin, reflects the extraordinary taste and astute judgement of the two individuals who amassed the entire … Continue reading

Filled under : Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Tagged on : art exhibitions , museums

Arts of Ancient Viet Nam Coming to Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and Asia Society, New York, offer an unprecedented exhibition of art from ancient Viet Nam—the first U.S. exhibition to address in depth the historical, geographic and cultural contexts of precolonial Vietnamese art. Arts of Ancient Viet Nam: From River Plain to Open Sea will expose … Continue reading

Filled under : Ethnographica , Ornament , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Fine Friends: Tribal Art Meets Modern at the Beyeler

A truly outstanding exhibition at a truly outstanding institution. The Beyeler Foundation in Basel offers “Visual Encounters — Africa, Oceania and Modern Art,” through 24 May 2009. The show juxtaposes masterpieces of tribal sculpture with important canvasses of modern masters; van Gogh, Cézanne, Braque, Matisse, Léger, Picasso, Rothko. The result … Continue reading

Filled under : Fine Art , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Island Magic at Minasian Chicago

Has Chicago’s Minasian Oriental Rug Gallery gone flat? In a certain sense, yes – – they’ve hung a fabulous show of Indonesian flatweave textiles rather than their usual rugs. The exhibition, entitled “Island Magic: Court and Tribal Textiles from Indonesia” runs through the 10th of January, and was reviewed in HALI this … Continue reading

Filled under : Textiles
Author : Susi
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Be Bedazzled: Ancient & Antique Jewelry at the Walters Museum

The jewelry collection of the Walters Museum in Baltimore is vast and diverse, spanning five millennia and a broad spectrum of world cultures, yet most of it is rarely seen. Here’s your big opportunity to ogle over 200 pieces from the collection, many never before shown publicly. Bedazzled: 5,000 Years … Continue reading

Filled under : Ornament
Author : Susi
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Tagged on : buried treasure , gold , museums

Get Met Mania This Summer : Radiance from the Rain Forest

Here is another special summer exhibition on at the Met that’s a crowd-pleaser, a kid-pleaser, and also pleasing to serious connoisseurs. Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru, which stays up until 1 September. Many of these seventy-or-so masterpieces of featherwork are a millenium and a half old. … Continue reading

Filled under : Ethnographica , Textiles , Tribal Art
Author : Susi
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Tagged on : art exhibitions , colour , museums

Get Met Mania This Summer : Special Exhibitions Galore

The Metropolitan Museum of Art has outdone itself this year with a schedule of summer exhibitions to amaze its seasonal sea of visitors and keep the revolving doors turning at 78rpm until “back to school” time comes around. We don’t usually go Baroque here, but must make note of Art … Continue reading

Filled under : Design , Furniture Design
Author : Susi
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Textile Designers Take Note: Big Batik Exhibition in Hawaii

Lush, crisp, sophisticated, graphic, earthy, arresting. Antique batik at its highest levels has much to offer contemporary textile designers. Far more than one would think based on the banal repertoire of tourist batiks which are the most frequently seen examples outside of Indonesia. Visit the Honolulu Academy of Art between … Continue reading

Filled under : Textiles
Author : Susi
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MOMA vs TOMA: Comparing Prefab Tropical House Concepts

There is buzz aplenty about the prefab housing show at MOMA (Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling, 20 July to 20 October). So much buzz that there’s no point in buzzing more here, except where there are elements that touch on tropical design and living. And there are. Among them, the reappearance … Continue reading

Filled under : Architecture
Author : Susi
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Ogle Great Gold Online

The Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore has an impressive collection of ancient ornament from South and Southeast Asia. Early Javanese pieces like this large Sri ring (7th-9th century), are one of the collection’s strengths. Many of the most beautiful gold ornaments exhibited, including this ring, were part of a substantial … Continue reading

Filled under : Ornament
Author : Susi
Comment Number : 1 Comment
Tagged on : gold , museums
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