African Textiles: The Karun Thakar Collection

Karun Thakar's enormous private textile collection encompasses centuries and continents of beautiful fabrics. Last year, Prestel published Thakar's Indian Textiles, and this catalog of his African textiles is a welcome addition to the literature. After an introduction by Thakar, two experts describe the techniques and cultural significances of the artworks. West African textile specialist Clarke (Art of African Textiles) contributes most of the narrative as the collection is strong in West African fiber, particularly Ghanese Asante and Ewe cloths. A small section on Central Africa includes the ndop cloth of Cameroon and the woven raffia of Congo. The North Africa segment focuses on the brightly colored textiles of Morocco and Tunisia. Throughout, historic photographs show how the material was worn, providing culture and context to the otherwise two-dimensional fabrics. There are occasional small flaws in the color printing, but not enough to distract from the full-page images.