Colors of Oasis will feature a selection from the 185 high caliber Central Asian ikats given to The Textile Museum by collector Murad Megalli in 2005. The stunning textiles in the catalog will include coats for men and women, women's dresses and pants, as well as cradle covers, hangings and fragments.

304pp.; 108 full pages of double page spread plates; 185 individual catalogue images; 90+ historic photographs, details of ikats, comparative material, and diagrams; Softcover

The following is the list of the contributing authors and chapter titles:

• Abr Fabrics of Uzbekistan - Sayera Makhkamova
• The Many Lives of Ikat - Kate Fitz Gibbon
• Central Asian Ikats: Origins and Sources of Design - Andrew Hale
• Oasis Style - Sumru Belger Krody
• The Russian Connection: Printed-cotton Export Cloth - Susan Meller
• Binding Clouds in the Twenty-First Century: Central Asian Ikat Today - Mary M. Dusenbury
• Appendix
• Central Asian Ikats in the Silahtar Treasury at the Topkapi Palace Museum - Feza Çakmut

Summary of the Catalogue:

Nineteenth-century Central Asian ikats are distinguished by bold, original designs using vibrant colors and are prized for their great beauty. Today the influence of ikat textiles can be seen in contemporary fashion and home decor.

Colors of the Oasis explores the artistic, social, and economic aspects of Central Asian ikat production and the role these textiles played in the nineteenth-century role and upper-middle-class urban society living in oasis towns of what is now Uzbekistan, while bringing attention to the contemporary revival of ikat production in Uzbekistan and its historic influences.

Ikats derive their name from the techanique used to create them, wherein parts of the warp or weft are protected in order to resist dye. The process is complex, requiring highly skilled and specialized craftsmen and careful planning before weaving starts. The resulting textiles are recognized for their daring, often large designs, clever color combinations and dazzling palettes. Colors of the Oasis presents 185 never-before-senn ikat textiles from the outstanding collection donated to The Textile Museum since 2005 by Murad Megalli of Istanbul.

About the Authors:

This book will draw on the noted expertise of its authors. The authors represent a handful of scholars who have an extensive knowledge of the many branches of Central Asian art history. Their qualifications enable them to discuss Central Asian art, and especially the textile arts, from the pre-Islamic period to the post-Khanate period with great insight.

Feza Çakmut is Curator of Silahtar Treasury collection at the Topkapi Palace Museum, where diverse group of art objects were kept. She was a fellow at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian and has keen interest in Central ASian ikat textiles. She lives in Istanbul.

Mary M. Dusenbury is a leading authority on Japanese textiles. Her recent research focuses on Central Asian ikat production and its contemporary revival. She is currently the Research Curator at the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. She has lectured and written exclusively about Japanese and Sillk Road textiles with contributions to The Textile Museum Journal and Bulletin du CIETA (Centre International D'Etude des Textiles Anciens), William Jay Rathbun, ed., Beyond the Tanabata Bridge: Traditional Japanese Textiles and Kodansha's Encyclopedia of Japan and An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan. She is the author of the widely acclaimed Flowers, Dragons, & Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art. She lives in Attica, Kansas.

Kate Fitz Gibbon and Andrew Hale are leading authorities on nomadic textiles and the silk-weaving traditions of Central Asia. The husband and wife team are authors of Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia (1997) and Uzbek Embroidery in the Nomadic Tradition (2007). Kate Fitz Gibbon is also a specialist in world-heritage issues and served on the Cultural Property Advisory Committee to the President from 2000 to 2003. They live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sumru Belger Krody is a leading authority on Ottoman Turkish and Greek embroidery. She is Curator of Eastern Hemisphere Collections and Head of the Curatorial Department at The Textile Museum. She is also the managinge editor of The Textile Museum Journal. She has curated numerous exhibitions at The Textile Museum and is the author of two exhibition catalogues, Harpies, Mermaids, and Tulips: Embroidery of the Greek Islands and Epirus Region (2006) and Flowers of Silk and Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery (2000) and contributing author to the Classical Tradition in Anatolian Carpets (2003) by Walter Denny. She lives in Arlington, Virginia.

Sayera Makhkamova is a distinguished Uzbek scholar of Central Asian ikat textiles. Her work includes field research on ikat weaving in Central Asia and numerous articles and books on Central Asian ikat textiles, such as Uzbek Ikat Textiles (1963) and contributions to Ikat: Splendid Silks of Central Asia (1997). She lives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

Susan Meller is the author of a recently published book entitled Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the Bazaars of Central Asia (2007). She is also the co-author of Abram's widely acclaimed Textile Designs: Two Hundred Years of European and American Patterns for Printed Fabrics Organized by Motif, Style, Color, Layout, and Period (1991), which won the 1992 New York Book Show's First Place Award for special trade artbooks and remains in print today. A noted textile expert who has worked in the industry for many years, she is also an avid collector of textiles. She organized her collection into a commercial archive called The Design Library, one of the largest documentary textile design collections in the world, which has provided design inspiration to a wide variety of markets for more than thirty years. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Please note the soft cover is sold out