Event – November 11 | Royal Ontario Museum: Power Textiles from Islamic Lands

Luxury textiles were indispensable symbols of status, wealth and power at imperial courts across the vast Islamic lands from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

Presented in Partnership by the Royal Ontario Museum and His Highness Prince Aga Khan Shia Imami Ismaili Council for Canada.

Qasab fragment with ducks and parrots Gauzy linen tabby with silk and gold tapestry Egypt Mid-11th century 980.78.111.A Wilkinson Collection, Gift of Albert and Federico Friedberg (ROM)
Qasab fragment with ducks and parrots Gauzy linen tabby with silk and gold tapestry Egypt Mid-11th century 980.78.111.A Wilkinson Collection, Gift of Albert and Federico Friedberg (ROM)

EVENT: Power Textiles from Islamic Lands
SPEAKER: Louise Mackie of Cleveland Museum of Art
DATE: Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
TIME: 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. EST
VENUE: Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) – Signy and Cléophée Eaton Theatre, 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6 Canada

Fragment of fine linen tabby with silk and gold tapestry decoration, perhaps the end of a turban cloth. Made in Egypt in the Fatimid period, 12th century (ROM)
Fragment of fine linen tabby with silk and gold tapestry decoration, perhaps the end of a turban cloth. Made in Egypt in the Fatimid period, 12th century (ROM)

Luxury textiles were indispensable symbols of status, wealth and power at imperial courts across the vast Islamic lands from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. The industry flourished under the auspices of sultans, the foremost consumers, and textile designers and weavers excelled at creating vibrant yet harmonious patterns that corresponded with the fashions of ruling dynasties, cultures and periods. Textile‐literate consumers demanded unadulterated quality with lustrous silk thread, rich colors, and well‐made durable fabrics, which will be illustrated with spectacular examples.

Via

About Louise Mackie

Louise W. Mackie, Curator of Textiles and Islamic Art, Cleveland Museum of Art

Louise Mackie is responsible for the internationally renowned textile collection representing 62 countries as well as the museum’s collection of art from Islamic lands. She is presently completing a book on Islamic textiles based on Cleveland’s exemplary collection, one of the foremost in the world. Mackie has been Curator of Textiles and Islamic Art, Cleveland Museum of Art since 1998.

Before coming to Cleveland in 1998, Mackie served as the department head and curator of the textile and costume department at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada (1981–98). She trained in textiles and carpets under Irene Emery and Charles Grant Ellis at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., where she was curator of the Eastern Hemisphere Collections (1971–80). Previously, she was secretary in the Islamic department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1964–67). She also served as host curator for The Quilts of Gee’s Bend; Treasury of the World; Jeweled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals; and Fabric of Enchantment: Indonesian Batik from the North Coast of Java from the Inger McCabe Elliott Collection.

In addition to giving numerous scholarly and public lectures on Islamic textiles and carpets, she taught in the Fine Arts department at the University of Toronto. She has consulted on Islamic textiles, including medieval textiles excavated at Fustat (Old Cairo) by Prof. George Scanlon in 1980.

She has also written catalogues, chapters, and articles and contributed to large research projects. Mackie was the video producer and project director of interdisciplinary fieldwork for Threads of Time: Handmade Textiles for Weddings in Fez, Morocco, a video documentary (1996) partially funded by the Barakat Foundation, which also led to conference papers and published articles. She also contributed to extensive collaborative international research on Ottoman Turkish silks of the 15th to 17th centuries as the textile scholar, spearheaded by Prof. Dr. Nurhan Atasoy along with Dr. Hulya Tezcan and Prof. Walter B. Denny in IPEK Imperial Ottoman Silks and Velvets (2001), generously funded by the Turk Ekonomi Bankasi, Istanbul, Turkey.

Mackie was a founding director and past president of the Textile Society of America. She continues to serve on the Conseil de Direction of the Centre International d’Etude des Textiles Anciens (CIETA), based in Lyon, France (1985–87, 1991–2010) and previously sat on the Advisory Committee of the Textile Museum, Washington, D.C. (1982–89).

She holds a BA in art history from Wells College and an MA in Islamic art from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Additional studies include coursework for a PhD at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and coursework in Islamic art at the American University in Cairo

More at Louise Mackie, Curator of Textiles and Islamic Art, Cleveland Museum of Art

About ROM World Art & Culture

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is home to one of the world’s most extensive and eclectic collections of art and other cultural and historical objects. The scale of our collection is enormous, with tens of thousands of artifacts representing the entire sweep of human history. As the product of human invention, the fine arts and design in various media, popular arts, functional objects and the built environment are a direct extension of human thought and experience, shaping and reflecting historical and cultural identities. ROM research examines the complex and fascinating histories of different times and places, and to relate these explorations to our contemporary experience.

ROM World Art & Culture explores millennia of visual arts and material culture.

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