Some updates on our website today

Click pictures for description and larger view.

Rare Asante silk kente

Rare Dioula cloth from Ivory Coast

Baule woman’s cloth from Ivory Coast

Senufo blanket from Ivory Coast

Manjak woman’s cloth, Senegal

Kpalime Ewe cloth, Togo

Long Live the President ! – African printed cloths exhibition in Amsterdam now.

“Long Live the President ! Portrait Cloths from Africa” now at the Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam (2 April – 29 August 2010). The exhibition, curated by Paul Faber, features over 100 African printed fabrics devoted mainly to commemorating African presidents, both the well known such as Mandela and Mobutu and the now perhaps justly obscure. The show includes East African kanga as well as printed pagne from West and Central Africa. It is accompanied by a catalogue in English (details here) that is the first substantive publication devoted to this important aspect of African textile design.

I am pleased to note that a large part of the show is drawn from the French private collection we featured on our website here back in 2005. Follow the link for more images and background information on African commemorative prints. Thanks to Bernard Collet, the collector of these pieces, for the images of the exhibition shown below. Click any photo for a larger view.

Curator Paul Faber discusses the exhibition (in Dutch)