MOROCCAN CARPETS AND MODERN ART
PUBLICATION OUT OF PRINT
Tribal carpets from Morocco and Western avant-garde art of the twentieth century. This is more than just the search for the exotic oriental: it is a survey of the roots of modern art and their commonalities with textiles from the Maghreb. Due to popular demand, this out-of-print publication is now available as a new edition.
Unique examples from one of the most significant private collections of Moroccan nomad carpets in the world illustrate how the eschewal of figurative representation led to radical abstraction and a completely free and modern use of colour and form. Their abstract compositions fascinated artists of all disciplines and find correlations not only in the vibrant colours of Mark Rothko but also in the tender brushstrokes of Ellsworth Kelly.
This striking affinity is at the core of this publication, which concisely contrasts Moroccan woven and knotted carpets with European as well as American twentieth-century painting. The ‘return to the origins of art’ – the abstract debate with graphic fundamental elements, such as point, line and surface – is the unifying element with early so-called primitive cultures of Africa, Asia and the Americas and of Western avant-garde artists.
With a clear and enriching glimpse into the spiritual connections and the cultural exchanges between East and West, the publication illustrates how the ban on images from the Islamic world led to reactions and outcomes very similar to the abstract art of the occident.
