art exhibition: Asian Textiles ...in the Victorian Age

ASIAN TEXTILES AND THE GRAMMAR OF ORNAMENT
Design in the Victorian Age

WHAT:
ART EXHIBITION on view through March 23, 2008

AT:
Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design
224 Benefit St.
Providence, RI 02903

INFO:
risd.edu/museum_exhibitions.cfm
401-454-6500

DESCRIPTION of EXHIBITION, from RISD Museum Web site, risd.edu/museum_exhibitions.cfm :

Eastern design traditions have influenced textile design for hundreds of years. One influential sourcebook for pattern in the 19th century was Owen Jones' The Grammar of Ornament (London; 1856), in which Persian, Turkish, Egyptian, Indian patterns, and more, have been systematically organized.
The museum has created an exhibition with textiles from the permanent collection illustrating Jones' lexicon of pattern.
The centerpiece of the installation is a kashmir shawl featuring an assortment of Eastern and Egyptian motifs. This large and beautiful textile made for export dates from the 1840s and points to the popularity of these motifs during Britain's Victorian Age.

IMAGE BELOW from RISD Museum Web site:
Chinese, ca. 1873
Ch'i Fu
silk, metallic yarn
Gift of Miss Lucy Truman Aldrich 35.391
Photography by Erik Gould