 And welcome to your daily Barnes takeout. I'm Karl Walsh. I'm a post-doctoral fellow here at the Department of Research, Interpretation, Education at the Barnes. And today I wanted to take you back to the American Southwest. And if you remember from my last takeout, which looked at a Zuni Pueblo water jar, Barnes was really interested in Southwestern art through his experiences and visits to this area in the early 1930s. And the primary reason that he was doing these visits were to help his wife Laura Barnes recover from a sinus condition that she was suffering from. And they wanted to go somewhere that was, you know, warm and arid that would help her recover from this. And so they chose the Southwest because they had some recommendations from friends and also because they were interested in general in the art of this area. And I think they really enjoyed this trip. And this is really evident from the amount of material that they brought back with them, including textiles and ceramics and jewelry. And the object that we're looking at today is one of these objects, things that they brought back from Southwest. And it's this really nice Navajo blanket, which is part of the east wall ensemble of the mezzanine, which is now located midway on the stairs up to the second floor at the Barnes. And I really like this ensemble because there's some really interesting kind of communications and engagements between the pieces that both kind of complement and contrast each other in interesting ways. And I'd really like to talk about this ensemble in a little bit more detail. But what we'll do is that we'll have a look at the blanket first, and then we'll come back to this ensemble and think about how it works in this overall assemblage of pieces. Looking at this blanket, you can see that it's a wonderful piece of textile. And this is a really good example of the type of textiles the Navajo were producing in the late 1880s. And this type of textile is very much a Navajo production, but a lot of the Navajo textile weaving traditions and technologies were probably influenced by Pueblo weaving technologies as well. And the Navajo were neighbors to the Pueblo peoples. So kind of linking back to that Pueblo water jar I was looking at in the last takeout. And these are really multi-adaptive types of textiles. And to the Navajo, they could be many things. They could be clothing, so particularly things that were worn on the shoulders. They could be door coverings. They could be wall decorations. They could be rugs. They could be blankets. So they had a lot of different things that they could be and be worked into. And these textiles were largely produced by women, by Navajo women. And they were made on vertical looms, which allowed them to be really large and to make really large textiles. But it also meant that they often took a lot of time to make as well. And this could range from a couple of months to even years as well. So they're very time-consuming objects to make. And this, of course, means that they were really valuable as well, with so much effort put into them, into their production. And this made them valuable both to Navajo as a way of clothing Navajo peoples and families and communities, but it also made it really good object to export as well. And was very popular both in indigenous markets and later in American and European markets as well. And looking at this market, I think you can really see why it's so valuable. It has these really entrancing patterns and really engaging colors to it. And the patterns that you're seeing in this textile are the result of distinctive regional traditions of Navajo communities who developed their own colors and designs that were passed down through generations. And because it's a regional product that's very kind of distinctive local communities, it's often possible to identify these types of textiles that are in museum collections based on the designs and the colors and to be able to kind of locate different Navajo communities that were responsible for their production. And looking at this market, it seems to be influenced by the Ganado style, which comes from the Navajo evers and trading depots in the area around Ganado, Arizona. And this style features this really vibrant colors, particularly with red and yellow and white and black that you can see in this example. And they have these really intricate designs to them as well. So you can have these kind of checkered diamond and X patterns. We have serrated diamonds here and some star patterns. And these all interlock with each other to create this really intricate geometric pattern. And these patterns are also really interesting, not just because they're visually appealing, but also because they create these kind of optical illusions as well. And so I'd like you just to have a look at the entirety of this textile, take some time to just really look at it. Don't focus on one area in particular. And what I think you'll find is that as you're looking at it, that checkerboard white and black design really starts to kind of hover above the red field that's behind it. And this kind of creates this illusion of depths and layers as well and also kind of an illusion of movement kind of as well. And this really gives these designs a sense of energy and movement to them. That is really interesting. And a lot of Navajo textiles have these types of illusions in them. And you can see them in the other examples in the ensemble this blanket is part of, and in other Navajo textiles that are in the collection as well. And so with that, I'd like to kind of just return back to the ensemble and think about how the colors and these optical illusions kind of interplay with the other pieces that are in the ensemble as well. And for me, one of the key observations that I kind of have is that I really enjoy the way that the textiles interact with the sculptures. And I think it just bears repeating here that, you know, Barnes really intended everything in this ensemble to be its own kind of actor and to bring something unique as well. So these aren't just kind of framing devices behind the sculpture. There are active actors in the entire ensemble that are working together to communicate different kinds of messages and ways of interpretation and connections between everything. And for me, what I find kind of interesting is that we have both kind of complimentary and contrasting and disruptive connections between the ensemble pieces here. And these two are Navajo blanket and this example here are really good are particularly interesting because they have sculptures that are in front of them. And by placing the sculpture in front of the textile, you're actually kind of disrupting and interrupting the optical illusion of the textile behind it through the silhouette and breakage of the the statuary that's in front of it, which is interesting in the way that this kind of Barnes obviously intended some kind of like disruptive and contrasting effect to work between the statue and textile. And what's also interesting is that while there are these disruptive elements, there's also really nice complimenting elements as well, particularly in the types of colors being used in the color palette and vocabulary of the entire ensemble. And if you have a look at the at the statues, you can actually see that a lot of them share the same colors as the tapestries, they're just more muted, they're, they're more subtle. So we have these remains of things like red and kind of yellows and blacks in the sculpture that are really mirroring what's happening in these tapestries. And the natural color of the stone is also contributing to this as well. So we have, you know, whites and grays and dark kind of blacks and grays as well. So the textiles in the sculptures are really kind of communicating to each other through color. And it's really working as well to help heighten the hue and kind of saturation of the color in the tapestries as well and the textiles behind them. So it's really interesting to see how we have this both disruptive and contrasting effect and also complimenting effects as well, that really bring this energy and I think interest to this ensemble as well. So next time that you're in the barns, please do stop and have a look at individually all the Navajo tapestries and textiles that you find and try to look for these kind of optical illusions that you can find in them. So think about how they work with the ensemble as well and what your kind of own personal interpretations of what how things are working in there. And what you see as well, which is, you know, equally valid and that's what Barnes intended for the ensembles was to see connection and new interpretation and things as well. If you're interested in the Southwestern art, please do look out from the future. Dr Lucy Fowler Williams at Penn Museum is making a catalog of this material. So have a look out for that in the future as well. I hope you've enjoyed this takeout. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to the channel to get your daily serving of art. And please leave a comment below as well. We really enjoy reading these and responding to them as well. Please take care, stay safe and enjoy this beautiful day. I'm Tom Collins, Newbauer Family Executive Director of the Barnes Foundation. I hope you enjoyed Barnes takeout. 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