How to Read African Textiles

Christine Giuntini, Jenny Peruski

$41.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Metropolitan Museum of Art
27 May 2025

History of Art & Design Styles; Textile artworks

Series: The Metropolitan Museum of Art - How to Read

The latest volume in The Met's How to Read series, focusing on the rich and varied textiles of Africa through forty exemplars from the nineteenth century to the present day

Across the African continent, handwoven cloth and clothing have historically been labor-intensive creations deeply embedded in local and regional value systems. These fabrics could be endlessly adapted to communal and individual needs, variously serving to clothe the body, divide architectural space, protect the physical and spiritual wellbeing of the wearer, and convey the wealth and authority of the owner. In this volume of The Met's acclaimed and popular How to Read series, readers are guided through forty masterworks of African fiber arts, from a dynamic nineteenth-century interior hanging from Sierra Leone to a dreamlike textile canvas by contemporary Malagasy artist Joël Andrianomearisoa. Organized geographically, the book explores the complex histories of production, consumption, and exchange attached to these extraordinary works, providing clear explanations of long-standing and newly embraced techniques and materials, as well as offering readers new ways to appreciate Africa's diverse textile traditions.

Published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Distributed by Yale University Press

By: Christine Giuntini, Jenny Peruski
Imprint: Metropolitan Museum of Art
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 267mm, Width: 203mm,
ISBN: 9781588397911
ISBN 10: 1588397912
Series: The Metropolitan Museum of Art - How to Read
Pages: 168
Publication Date: 27 May 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , College/higher education , Undergraduate , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Christine Giuntini is conservator and Jenny Peruski is assistant curator, arts of Africa, both in The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.