Did Moroccan Rugs Inspire Jackson Pollock?

Over the years there have been many artists that changed the way we look at the world and art. The same can be said about antique and vintage rugs with one significant difference…

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Jackson Pollock Painting

Moroccan Rug Or Jackson Pollock Painting

This past weekend the Art and Antiques Dealers League of America held their Spring show at the Park Avenue Armory. Partnered with 1stdibs.com and the ASPCA, the best of the best of decorative and fine art (that can’t yet be found in museums or aren’t already in a private collection) were on display for both viewing and buying pleasure. Portions of the proceeds made at the show went to the ASPCA.

The show was vetted, which means each and every item on display  (from nearly 60 dealers and galleries) were closely examined by a panel of experts for authenticity and accuracy in labeling. Dealers from across the United States and Europe came together to display some of their most prized pieces from their collections.

The most notable piece of the show was the sleigh  that stood front and center in the Dalva Brother’s booth. The Dalva brothers, a third generation family business, known for their collection of 18th century decorative art, had on display a sleigh that was said to have been made for the Dauphin by Jean Berain.  Can you imagine having this decorative trinket in your front hall?

Sleigh, Jean Bertain

Craig Van Den Brulle, who has a showroom in Nolita, carries a variety of both vintage and contemporary furnishing and this sculptural Riemann chair, which he displayed in a highly polished  stainless steel is available in a variety of colors. A gold one perhaps to go with this vibrant and warm Scandinavian Rya rug?

Vintage Rya Rug

Riemann Stainless Chair

Hyde Park known for their fine collection of English Georgian and Regency pieces,  presented this delicate Regency Rosewood and Brass Inlaid Center Table with Vibrant Satinwood Banding and it would look spectacular when paired with this rug:

Regency Rosewood Center Table

Emile Jacques Ruhlmann Art Deco Rug

The delicate floral design and cools colors of the rug would compliment the straight lines and dark color of the table. This charming antique French Art Deco rug   reinterprets the naturalistic floral repertoire of nineteenth century Savonnerie rugs and would make for a great accent to the table .

Harry Bertoia Gold Sculpture

This Harry Bertoria piece, Sculpture Screen Maquette, 1953, from Lost City Arts,  provided the mid-century modern fan some nice eye candy.  This sculpture would be perfect in a room with this rug: A chic vintage rug from Morocco with a gradient allover pattern incorporating warm earthy colors with soft golden-yellow undertone would match the rich gold of the brass in the sculpture.

Gustav Klimt The Sunflower (Das Werk)

Jason Jacques, who specializes in Art Nouveau and Japonist ceramic pieces, had both decorative and fine art on display. A signature edition collotype , The Sunflower (Das Werk), 1914  by Gustav Klimt caught my eye. There are remnants of impressionism in this work that is combined with an emerging style–a new and simpler early modern aesthetic- an aesthetic that matches the Klimt picture above. **all photos courtesy of The Art and Antiques Dealers League of America

Reopens the Islamic Art Arab Lands Wing

Last November the Metropolitan Museum of Art unveiled its newly renovated and renamed Galleries for the Art of Arab Lands: Turkey, Iran, Central Asia and Later South Asia. $40 million dollars worth of work went into making the 19,000 square foot space. The word Islam is purposely missing in their title and Islamic art is presented from seventh century Damascus and Baghdad to Moorish Spain, the Ottoman Empire and 16th century South Asia in thematic flows that allow visitors to walk to and from various periods “out of order.” They also incorporate influences of other religions and artistic periods on Islamic arts.

There are 15 galleries and the range of art on display is massive. Out of the Met’s nearly 12,000 items in its’ permanent collection, nearly 1,200 items are on display. Quranic calligraphy, an Iranian prayer niche, and even a fully in tact reception room named “The Damascus Room” which was taken from an upper-class merchant’s home, from Damascus, Syria, are all featured works of art in the galleries. I was lucky enough to take a tour with a docent at the Museum who was full of information on the galleries and the pieces on display.

A hallmark of Islamic Art is the idea of taking something ordinary and making it extra-ordinary. This was accomplished by incorporating intricate patterns in the body of the pieces such as a continual floral design of vine to leaf and so on. This is known as Arabesque, or in the style of Arab and is seen on carpets, mosaics, and pages of the Quran.

The brazier pictured below is a functional object that was used everyday, but with the artistic embellishments, it goes from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary.  A brazier was used as a portable grill or heater.

Image of the Brazier of Sultan al-Malik al Muzaffar Shams courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art

( Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art )

This piece is known as the Brazier of Sultan al-Malik al Muzaffar Shams al-Din Yusuf ibn ‘Umar from the second half of the 13^th century. It’s made out of brass and inlaid with silver and black compound.  It is decorated with Arabic script and symbols around the body and lion-headed knobs on the sides, which provided a place for handles in order to transport the piece.  In each corner of the brazier is a five-petal led rosette upon a circular shield, which was an emblem for the second ruler of the Rasulid Dynasty (1290-95) (Mamluk).

“Blu Qu’ran”, Gold and Silver on indigo-dyed parchment, Tunisia, second half of 9th-mid 10th century, courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art

( Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art )

I found this page from an early Quran most remarkable. It pays homage to the neighboring Byzantine Empire gilded manuscripts, where the parchment was dyed purple and the script would be in gold.

Of course, I can’t talk about an exhibit that features art from the Arab lands and not mention antique carpets. The museum houses close to 500 rugs in its permanent collection. On our tour we looked at two remarkable ones. The one I want to share with you is The Emperors Carpet. This is probably the finest rug produced from the royal rug weavers from the Safavid court. The Safavids were the most significant ruling dynasty in Iran from 1501-1722.

The Emperor’s Carpet, silk, wool pile, Iran, second half of 16th century, second image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art

( Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art )

This rug lived in Vienna at one of the Hapsburg Palaces. The colors of this rug are rich and luxurious as are the intricate designs and the attention to detail is superb. There are floral scrolls, large palmettes, and Chinese mythological creatures. Lions and Buffalos are featured in the center. A verse in the inner guard band compares a garden in Persia during springtime to the Garden of Paradise.

The final piece de reistance in the galleries is a courtyard the was made specifically for the Met by a family from Fez, Morocco. The courtyard looks out and faces the galleries of the preceding empires that heavily influenced the art of Islam. This courtyard shows that Islamic art is living and breathing. All the plaster work and the fountain were made by hand.

What I was struck with when I walked away from visiting the galleries was the sheer vastness, intricate detail, and influence of other cultures which all play a part in the Art of the Arab Lands.

San Francisco Exhibition

Asian Art Museum San FranciscoWhile we deal with antique oriental rugs- we though you will like to learn about interesting exhibits and shows. So every now and again we will share some of the exhibitions and shows we feel should not be missed (if possible).

San Francisco Bay Asian Art Show

The San Francisco Bay has been a natural hub for trade and exploration since the Gold Rush of 1849, especially drawing on the rich heritage of the Asian countries of the Pacific Rim. Experience the beauty of Korean ceramics at a special exhibit at the Asian Art Museum of San Franciscothrough January 2012, and be sure to take in the permanent collection as well. With over 2500 pieces including monumental South Asian stone sculptures, Chinese jades, and Japanese ceramics, it’s a Pacific Rim art tour in one building.

Also on special exhibit, Maharaja: the Splendor of India’s Royal Courts through April 2012.

New York Rug Dealer

Oriental Rugs and carpets have always appeared as just that – a cultural product of the East with all the exotic associations that this conjures up. Initially one thinks of the weavers themselves working over their looms in the cities and towns of Persia or Turkey, and then the journ ey of the carpets into the commercial emporia or bazaars of such countries. The wonderful late nineteenth-century painting by Jean-Leon Gerome, “The Rug Merchant,” captures this exotic bygone age rather effecti vely. Even today travelers to Persia and Turkey can still attest to the vitality of the rug markets in places like Tabriz, Konya, Izmir, and, of course, Istanbul. But truth be told, no place in the Middle East can claim to be the center or capital of the international rug market nowadays, at least not in the realm of antique pieces. This title must go to London and even more to New York. The immediate reason for this is the presence there of major International auction houses with highly developed rug departments.Houses of this kind exist in Europe as well, but even they would yield pride of place New York and London if pressed.

Antique Rug Dealer New York

What makes New York stand out especially is the existence of a very well and long established rug district in addition to the auction houses. The Oriental rug district in Manhattan is a world unto itself. Located primarily in the low 30′s between Park and Seventh Avenues, this area comprises a range of establishments. There are full-fledged ground-level stores as well as second-floor galleries that offer a more formal, secluded escape from the bustle of the street. But many other dealers numbering in the hundreds fill floor after floor in various office buildings throughout this district. Dealers of this latter type cater mostly to the trade and to one another. They do engage in retail sales, but one has to knowantique Oriental rugs and their value rather well to buy from the office-building dealers, whose retail clients are mostly collectors. In any case, inManhattan alone we are talking about inventories that collectively amount to many thousands of old and antique rugs. Add to this the various uptown dealers or galleries in the decorator district of the East Side in the 50′s, and it becomes clear that New York can offer access to an incredibly varied and extensive supply of antique Oriental carpets that is unparalleled anywhere else on the planet.

Rug Dealer NY

Within the rug world, this is certainly no secret. Dealers from allover constantly come to New to have access to its supply of rugs. Such visits tend to swell enormously when there are major auctions or special exhibitions of rugs. And New York is not only attractive to European dealers and collectors, but even to those from the Orient. It is well know that dealers from Central Asia, Iran, and Turkey flock to New York to acquire antique pieces from their home regions. The reason for this is that the supply of antique pieces in these areas has long since dried up owing to an endless, century-old demand in the West for Oriental rugs. So when you buy an antique carpet in Istanbul or anywhere else in Turkey or the Middle East, it may well be a piece that had spent much of its life in Europe or the United States!

There is certainly a lesson in this. The idea of acquiring a rug on a trip to the Middle East is a romantic holdover from European and American tourist practices going back to the nineteenth century or earlier. On a certain level we all want to experience something like Gerome’s painting when we buy a fine Oriental rug. It is certainly wonderful to travel to these places, but if your goal is to acquire an antique carpet for the best price, you might as invest in a less expensive trip to New York. If you live in or Near New York, you might as well stay at home and concentrate your resources entirely on the rug itself. And in truth you do not even have to travel at all.

Among the various New York rug dealers, Nazmiyal has a highly specialized and user-friendly website with an extensive inventory of antique pieces of every type, size, and style. An inventory of this range and quality is based on years of experience and effort in searching out the best pieces from sources all over the world.Nazmiyal is also a natural magnet that constantly attracts those interested in selling rugs. Even within the bustling New York rug market with its international contacts, Nazmiyal provides a major focal point or nexus, all of which is at the disposal of Nazmiyal’s clients, whether they are dealers, interior designers, or private retail customers. If you want an Oriental carpet, New York is the place to be, and within New York itself, the place to be is Nazmiyal. Visit us online or experience our collection firsthand in the spacious and relaxed setting of our Manhattan rug gallery.

Middle Eastern literature is replete with stories of magic carpets that fly into fantasy and take their passengers to exotic worlds. In truth, that is exactly what an original Persian carpet does, for although you may not think that it flies, the beauty of these rugs is that they were made to be a floor tapestry woven to transport the owner into a world of gardens, flowers, cedars and flowing paradise waters. An escape from a barren world of hot sun and sand was and is created in a thicket of woven wool, cotton, silk and sometimes gold and silver thread. There is not much difference between the concrete jungle of our cities and the antiquity of Tach Jam Sheet (Persepolis). The carpet can make everyone a Shah, an Emir, a Pasha or a King, and regardless of room size, it can make every space a miniature exotic palace.

I’ve been a designer and collector of carpets for 35 years. In the decades of turning pages, visiting exotic lands and surfing the Internet, the task has been to find the dealer with the best eye. Few of us can trundle to auctions, bargain in Farsi and Turkish, jet set our way into strange and difficult climes, and pay obeisance to governments that especially today do not find Americans as lovable as we might hope. The result is our need to find an agent, an ambassador, a consultant, and a friend that can and will act as an emissary to cut the Gordian Knot. Such an agent may find a selection of artworks that in a modern world can fly us to places we fear to visit, or take us to streets and bazaars too difficult to navigate, which are delineated with alphabets as strange as hieroglyphics.

In that the world has unraveled itself into a pre-Columbus map drawn by our modern-day Amerigo Vespucci – Tom Freedman – carpet prices are as consistent whether one withdraws a ruble, dollar, franc or drachma from one’s wallet. Prices in the Central Bazaar in Istanbul, the Island of Kish, Iran or at the Textile Expo in Germany have all become “Ebayed”.

I have lifted many a carpet over with my toe to see a weave, pondered many a volume of curious lore about Middle Eastern floor and wall art, negotiated with at least 100 dealers, sorted by “highest price” on Internet search engines, and googled my way to 300 web sites with keywords like “Antique Rugs, Persian Rugs, Oriental Rugs, Serapi, Heriz, Agra, Sultanabad” etc., until I found the land beyond the Sambatyan  the land of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Mother load of classy, rich, well-designed, antique, genteel and attractive carpets. But, it was not in Tehran, nor by the Bospherous, nor in the mountains of the Caucasus, but with Nazmiyal in New York and New Jersey. It’s co-owner, Jason responded to my fractured Farsi Chey Chabar with Salam a Tee, and we were soon putting in search fields and closing deals from my office and his showroom.

Jason did not request that I take time and write a letter of recommendation. He did not guide my computer keys in which I have waxed prolific in compliments it came as a result of my appreciation for his having saved me the air fare, hours and days of flipping heavy carpets taxing the men who with full brows of perspiration make me feel guilty regardless of venue. I write this out of sincere admiration for Jason’s ability to assemble a collection of the finest designs, whose prices reflect their value. Jason is a testament to that for which I have searched for 40 years, a person who shares my eye chart in the quality of woven art for which I have taken these many years of pleasure.

by Wilbur Pierce

This 1876 antique centennial quilt was included in the auction as part of the Americana and folk artcollection. The quilt was made to commemorate the one hundred-year anniversary of the United States, just more than a decade after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Thus it represents not only traditional American textile art, but attests to the endurance of a nation after a bloody and divisive civil war. This hand-sewn quilt is made of 42 squares of nine pieces each, with the exception of one square that contains 12 pieces. This seeming aberration of pattern is actually a tradition followed by quilters to make one block slightly different from the others. Some quilters use this convention as a signature, whether the effort is by an individual or a group.The deceptively simple pattern interplays light and dark, juxtaposing boldly-colored shades of dark
brown with lighter tones of taupe, ivory, white and pale blue. The rectangular lines of the pattern are accentuated by the predominance of linear designs in the fabrics, including stripes andchecks.

The use of subtly-patterned small prints and polka dots offsets the linearity for a pleasant, balanced effect. The occasional use of light blue in the rectangular cross pieces and the triangular insets enlivens the color palette. The border between the squares features small red and blue stars on a white background. The numbers 1776 and 1876 occur at regular intervals, continuing the red, white and blue color scheme.

Warhol himself experimented with patchwork textile art. In his early years, he made patchwork collages by taking cuttings fromclothing by couture designers including Oscar de la Renta , Diane von Furstenberg and Valentino. He then used this exotic fabric to create new garments. This simple exercise exemplifies his genius: highlighting the familiar, bringing it to the attention of the viewer, and transforming the traditional into a contemporary statement.

To schedule a viewing or if you have any questions, please contact the Nazmiyal Antique Rug Gallery Directly:

31 East
32nd Street Floor # 2

New York, NY
10016

T: 212-545-8029

F: 212-213-5995

Antique Persian Carpets

Vintage Rugs

Nazmiyal is pleased to announce their brand new online exhibition that features rugs and textiles from master weavers and renowned artists. These incredible pieces of art were made over the past 200 years and feature rugs from ustadans such as Aboul Ghasem Kermani and Haji Jalili as well as modernist pieces by Hildo Krop and Pierre Cardin to intriguing woven renditions of Kandinsky, Picasso, and Salvador Dali to name a few. Be sure to check out the new online exhibition and visit frequently to see what new works have been added.

Antique Carpet DNA

The unshaven man stood on a boulder looking up at the cave ceiling. The women’s name was Gryt and his name Grunt. He listened to her instructions, for they were husband and wife. As he was married, he did nothing right. He kept dropping his bearskin loincloth to his knees as he lifted his arms to draw and pulling them up; she scolded him for not wearing his belt. She saw the full moon. In the distance, wolves wailed and she laughed. He kept reaching toward the top the cave and making pictures. Together, they decorated the vault and marked the rock face with charcoal that she had just pulled out of the fire. Adding some color from a red rock that man later learned was iron, he scraped a blue rock that had copper in it and made a third color. He stepped back pleased as deer appeared on the walls of his home. Gryt smiled and Grunt went to bed.

Grunt’s and Grynt’s DNA traveled along strands of X and Y chromosomes linking them to a woman from Central Asia who twisted fibers making a carpet known as Pazyryk, the most ancient known - two thousand three hundred years old.. Grunt and Grynt pounded minerals into power and dyed the fleece of their sheep and from it spun wool with which they learned to weave in Penelope’s frames and Homer’s pentameters.

They were cousins, grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts to the women of Persia, Turkey and the Caucasus, who made blankets to protect themselves from the frigidity of the steppes and the desert’s nighttime chill. Grynt wove saddlebags for camels and blankets for the caravanserai – the Holiday Inns of the Middle Eastern Silk Route.

In Cathay, while Peking was ducking the Mongol Hordes, Grynt coddled worms and cocoons and pulled a fine fiber that was treasured more than gold, spun into fabrics and woven into rugs for the Imperial Palace and traded along the Interstates of Asia Minor.

When in 711, the Moorish commander Tarik crossed the Pillars of Hercules into Spain, he carried with him a vast selection of carpets. History named the big rock of the Mediterranean Jebel al Tarik “ Gibraltar “ or Tarik’s Tower and, he by this invasion opened the Iberian carpet industry which eventually migrated into France. Caliphs, Pashas, Emirs and the Sublime Porte’s of the Levant from Phoenicia to Samarkand would for centuries weave their gardens, prayers, mosque’s, Kufic script, flowers, cedar trees, and serif’s into the rugs that made the desert bloom.

The weaver’s craft became the weaver’s art and the woolen designs decorated the floors of tents and the halls of palaces. The cave design eventually became a hunting carpet as rugs expressed daily life, hopes and aspirations. Designs became associated with tribes and the cities, towns of villages took on their own style so today, we can buy a Khotan, Kerman, Baktiari, Aubusson, Agra or Peking, each inducted into the carpet Hall of Fame.

By Europe’s medieval period, drafty caves and castles with their stone battlements needed hangings to insulate the royal derrieres from cold winds. Damp and dank stone offered protection against slings and arrows, but sent chills down the spines of its denizens, so the tapestry was created. When Grunt and Grynt became nobles, they showed how rich they were by weaving gold thread into these wall hangings and when they ran out of money, they drizzled the tapestries by pulling the gold out of them to pay debts or hire armies. The Grunts and Grynts at Gobelin were not only artists; their product was employed as HVAC – heating, ventilation and air-conditioning in a very non-polluting solution that was as beautiful as it was effective. But the floors were cold too and carpets gave warmth.

Grunt’s DNA is directly linked to a child in France who wove French Aubusson carpets below ground by the river Creuse where it was damp and where the wool was pliable, but the conditions so unhealthy that tuberculosis was heard in every cough. He was also the ancestor of a weaver at the Soap Factory or Savonnerie who executed designs for the Le Roi Soleil to decorate the palace at Versailles. While the King had Savonnerie, the bourgeois needed its own rugs at Aubusson. But while only the King could have plush rugs, the merchant class and nobles lived with a flat weaves.

Eventually, European carpet entrepreneurs like Ziegler sent designs to the weaving tribes of the Middle East to satisfy European tastes. Just as Soap Factory Carpets were made only for the king, Aubusson was founded to provide carpets for the bourgeoisie. Ziegler now made it possible so that speaking French was not necessary to decorate your home with a rug of sophisticated design. Now the king had his carpets, the nobles had theirs and the bourgeois enjoyed an artful floor.

But, until the Industrial Revolution, the weaver’s art was in the nimble and graceful fingers of women for the most part and a few men who rose to prominence in signing their carpets, much like Manet, Monet, DaVinci, Utrello, Titian or Kermani. Designs trumped quality and machine made replaced handmade while the love of the quality handmade originals remained the province of people with refined taste. Grynt and Grunt laid Oriental carpets in their manor house.

Although it appeared that automated weaving machines of Axminister would give the ax to the hand woven industry, instead it made rugs and carpets available to all people, rich and poor alike, potentates and plebeians. Like a newspaper, it spread the carpets to living room floors as much as it did over a sand dune. Instead of killing the market for rugs, the race for money through industrialization created a universal awareness. Grunt’s designs were known in Buenas Aires as much as they were in Paris, London, Dubai, Tehran or the Oval Office at the White House. If walls could have art, why not floors!

After food and shelter, mankind has throughout history sought to both design and decorate whether it was a wall, a quilt or a floor. The process of creating designs in their various forms were at first known as craft, but as it became more sophisticated, it was morphed into art where the skill of those who created them were prized and rewarded.

But a dichotomy developed, and new words entered the market. With each new invention to make weaving faster, there was the entrepreneurial ability to create at first decorator carpets and then mass market carpets. But, for the kings, princes whether of people or business, the Holy Grail of rug weaving remains in the hand-woven designs and production that spanned a few centuries and now wear the title of antique.

Now rare, these carpets have a pedigree and a patina, an almost unquantifiable aura about them that exudes quality, history and art in each knot. Even to the unschooled eye, words like good reproduction still evoke the message of “reproduction” and a carpet of lesser quality. Who would hang a reproduction Manet or a Botticelli in his living room and call it a decorator painting? Would Grunt or his wife buy a copy of the deer that graces the walls of his Neanderthalian cave? If Grunt can tell the difference, don’t you think you can?

The clean shaven man stood on the street looking into Jason Nazmiyal’s showroom. The woman’s name was Gryt and his name Grunt. He listened to her instructions, for they were husband and wife. As he was married, he did nothing right. They stood outside of the rug gallery.

Our place looks like a cave, she said.

Ten thousand years hasn’t made a difference my love.

I still do the design, and you lift and arrange the paintings and the rugs. We already did the ceiling; we need to put something spectacular on the floor, maybe a hunting carpet.

I can guarantee one thing, if you buy an antique rug, you will not lose your pants.

No wolves wailed. Grunt smiled. Grynt pointed where to place the rug. The cave was complete and they passed their DNA and the carpet onto the children. The woven strands of the carpet came through history like the woven strands of DNA.