Panel #1

CultureKuba peoples, Shoowa subgroup

Datelate 1800s-early 1900s

MediumRaffia fiber and pigment

DimensionsOverall: 22 1/4 × 26 inches (56.52 × 66.04 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: the Shirley and Barnett Helzberg Fund in support of the African Art department

Object number2018.59.3

On View

Not on view

Collections

African Art

Terms

DescriptionThis Shoowa panel is a rectangular, handwoven, raffia cut-pile cloth decorated in a repeating zigzap (chevron) pattern. The main structure of the textile is woven raffia fibers and utilizes the natural tan color of raffia, as well as fibers dyed dark brown. The undyed raffia has a variation in color throughout the textile. The pile-cut raffia in between the rows of parallel zizags gives the textile a velvet surface and some three-dimensionality. Each row of the chevron pattern is woven with dark brown raffia fibers bordering undyed raffia. At one of the shorter edges, the raffia pile alternates between a dark brown and undyed triangle design. These triangles are bordered by the same woven design used for the zigzag pattern.Provenance

Provenance

With Pierre Loos, Brussels, Belgium, by the mid-1980s [1];

Purchased from Loos by the dealer Andres Moraga, Berkeley, CA, mid-1980s;

Purchased from Moraga by Fifi White, Kansas City, MO, ca. 1986-2018 [2];

Purchased from White, through Andres Moraga, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.

NOTES:

[1] According to Andres Moraga, in email correspondence with Rachel Kabukala, Curatorial Assistant, June 28, 2018, NAMA curatorial files, this textile “…came from a well-known Belgian dealer, Mr. Pierre Loos, with whom I worked closely on developing the market for Kuba textiles starting in 1982. The active period was between 1982 and 1990.”

[2] According to Moraga (see note 1), White “recalled that she probably acquired it circa 1986 or 1987.”

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