Livre - One hundred kilims

Once considered the poor man's carpet, the kilim is now seen by scholars and art lovers alike as an art form in its own right, whose origins are independent from and indeed much more ancient than those of the carpet. At the simplest of levels kilims confront modern man with arresting similarities and comparisons to twentieth centtury art. Yet, at its best dans purest, the kilim is the vehicle for a fully structured symbolic language of colour and design of a timeless nature through the textile medium. Over the last twenty-five years, the kilim has gradually attracted a strong following which now encompasses enthusiastic amateurs, interior decorators and private collector, as well as museum curators. The vast majority of the kilims surviving today were made over the last hundred years, a period of accelerating decline for traditional arts in general and kilims in particular. This book focuses on 100 selected masterpieces of an ancient colours and striking designs, redolent of ancient fertility symbols. They all come from Anatolia, the Asiastic part of Turkey, where the most visually stuinning kilims were created in the most visually stunning kilims were created in villages and tents by anony mous weavers whose craft attained the status of art. All undred kilims are illustrated in colour, and some have details reproduced almost life-size.