On view until March 2009, there will be 48 examples from the Metropolitan Museum’s African textile collection – woven fabrics, ceremonial garments, and photographs have been assembled and displayed here.

The catalog promises that the “myriad distinctive regional traditions represented in this exhibition include the expansive monumental wool and cotton strip-woven architectural elements created in Mali and Niger; a rich range of deep blue indigo, resist-dyed textile genres produced in Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon; textile panels composed and woven by Igbo women and Yoruba men in Nigeria, to be wrapped around the body as apparel; and a series of the impressive voluminous robes and tunics that have been designed from regional fabrics from Algeria to Nigeria.”

“The Essential Art of African Textiles”: Design Without End until March 2009

Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing, 1st floor

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5th Ave and 86 Street, NYC

www.metmuseum.org

(“Prestige Gown” Cameroon, Grassfields region,19th–20th century, Cotton & Wool)