KUBA Fabric of an Empire

ART on view KUBA Fabric of an Empire By Kevin Tervala, Matthew S. Polk Jr., and Amy L. Gould FIG. 1 (left): Detail of On the southern edge of the overskirt shown in fi g. 12. Congolese River Basin, nestled between the Kasai and Sankuru Rivers, a remarkable kingdom fl ourished in the latter half of the second millennium CE. Known to their neighbors as “Kuba,” these “people of the king” developed one of the greatest civilizations in the history of central Africa. At the apex of its power in the mid to late nineteenth century, the Kuba kingdom contained all the features of a modern-day nation-state: a professional bureaucracy, a system of taxation, extensive provision of public goods, a constitution (albeit unwritten), and a sophisticated legal system featuring trial by jury and courts of appeal.1 Art and design were central to life in this kingdom. In addition to developing an elaborate and varied masquerade tradition, Kuba men and women were prolifi c textile artists. Hous- es were woven, currency was embroidered, and an individual’s wealth and power were refl ected in the intricacy of the patterns sewn, dyed, and embroidered onto their clothing. Like words on a page, these dazzling designs tell the history of the polity as clearly as any written account or oral history. Scholars have long recognized the potential of Kuba art to shed a brighter light on the kingdom’s past. Yet, as the eminent Belgian 74 XXIII-1 AOV Kuba E+F.indd 74 08/11/18 16:56 historian Jan Vansina fi rst noted in 1978, “any FIG. 2 (left): “Bakuba.” teenth and early to mid nineteenth centuries are working hypothesis must remain vague until the Une brodeuse (“Bakuba.” defi ned by repeating patterns and subtle details necessary task of cataloging and dating the ex- An embroideress). rendered in monochromatic colors that obscure Photograph by Casimir tant corpus of art objects is undertaken. This is Zagourski (1880–1941). fi gure-ground relationships. By contrast, works the task of a museum. The study of Kuba art Pierre Loos Collection. Courtesy of produced in the late nineteenth and early to mid Andres Moraga Textile Art. has, in fact, barely begun.”2 twentieth centuries are defi ned by large designs Enter the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Kuba: FIG. 3 (above): Skirt. embroidered or appliquéd in contrasting colors. Kuba, Kasai Province, DR Fabric of an Empire (August 19, 2018–February Congo. 1804–1894 (date At the heart of these shifts in design are issues 24, 2019).3 This exhibition uses carbon-dating range determined by of visibility and spectatorship. Who is the in- analysis to establish a defi nitive timeline of Kuba carbon-14 testing). tended audience for these textiles? And what is Raffi a palm fi ber. 569 x 66 cm. artistic innovation. At the beginning of the proj- Private collection. R.18060.3. that audience’s intended reaction? Although all ect, samples from forty-two Kuba textiles were of the artworks included in the exhibition were FIG. 4 (below): Overskirt sent to the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, a created to signify wealth and power—as scholars (detail). Kuba, Kasai carbon-14 dating department within New Zea- Province, DR Congo. from Emil Torday to Patricia Darish have docu- land’s National Isotope Centre. Using the latest 1912–1942 (date range mented—the ways in which each pattern is exe- accelerator mass spectrometry technology, this determined by carbon-14 cuted determines the individuals to whom that testing). laboratory provided the authors with a series Raffi a palm fi ber. 132.1 x 58.4 cm. status is broadcast. Take, for instance, the oldest of possible date ranges for each textile, along Private collection. R.18060.15. with corresponding confi dence intervals for each potential range.4 Using this data, we then determined the most likely date range for each sampled work. This was done using the prov- enance of each object, as well as information gleaned from Vansina’s archival documents, the published histories of the Kuba kingdom, and an examination of textiles cared for by museums in Belgium, Canada, and the United States. What emerges from this interdisciplinary in- vestigation is a history of Kuba two-dimensional design that begins in the eighteenth century and ends in the early 1970s. Our research indicates that two dramatic formal transformations oc- curred over the course of this two-hundred-year history. First, as the Kuba state grew and expand- ed, the designs found on textiles created for the kingdom’s ruling class became increasingly bold and dynamic. Second, the growing complexity and inventiveness of design was accompanied by increasing color differentiation within the patterns themselves. Textiles produced in the eigh- 75 XXIII-1 AOV Kuba E+F.indd 75 08/11/18 16:56 ART ON VIEW textile in the BMA’s exhibition: a breathtaking- ly intricate overskirt that dates from between 1736 and 1799 (fi g. 16).5 The defi ning design of this piece is a meticulously executed misheke FIG. 5 (right): bodi (ox horn) pattern that stretches across the Prestige cloth. two central panels of composition. Yet, because Kuba, Kasai Province, DR Congo. both fi gure and ground are dyed the same deep 1958–1959 (date red, the pattern is nearly imperceptible to any- range determined by one but the person wearing it. Indeed, one must carbon-14 testing). Raffi a palm fi ber. be within inches of the piece—and blessed with 59.7 x 63.5 cm. good lighting—to even be aware of this stem- Private collection. R.18060.4. stitched design. We must, thus, understand the garment to be a work of art created for an audience of one. Although quite popular in the eighteenth century, our research shows that intimately scaled design began to fall out of favor with Kuba elites in the early 1800s. Indeed, in the early nineteenth century, the fi rst major shift occurs in the FIG. 6 (left): kingdom’s textile design: Weavers and embroi- Prestige cloth. derers begin to create works that address and Kuba, Kasai Province, speak to members of a viewing public. Design, DR Congo. 1961–1962 in short, shifts to the level of the perceptible. (date range determined by carbon-14 testing). Once again, overskirts—the top layer of an elite Raffi a palm fi ber. 48.3 x 55.9 cm. man’s or woman’s ceremonial ensemble—pro- Private collection. R.18060.6. vide the clearest evidence of this transformation. The central panels of one skirt created between 1807 and 1896, highlight both clear similarities and demonstrable differences with the older em- broidery traditions (fi g. 18). Like its previously discussed predecessor, the central panels of this work showcase a relatively simple design that FIG. 7 (right): Bakuba. Fabrication de rafi a (Bakuba. Weaving raffi a). Photograph by Casimir Zagourski (1880–1941). Pierre Loos Collection. Courtesy of Andres Moraga Textile Art. 76 XXIII-1 AOV Kuba E+F.indd 76 08/11/18 16:56 KUBA and power and practically assault the viewer with their visual intensity. Note, for instance, the contrasts between the previously discussed overskirts with one manufactured between 1890 and 1910 (figs. 1 and 12). Like those produced before it, the central panels are defined by a single geometric unit—a triangle in this case—that repeats across the length of the woven composition. Yet there are critical breaks with the past. For one, the standard design unit is larger. Moreover, the dark colors chosen for the pattern make the design much more visible against the light base panels. Most importantly, however, is the inclusion of secondary design units. Whereas earlier textiles allowed for emp- ty space between the basic geometric units of design, the artist(s) who created this piece chose to fill those voids with additional subsidiary patterns stitched in green and dark brown. repeats across the surface of the garment. Yet, FIG. 8 (above): in the thickness of the embroidered lines and the Prestige cloth. Kuba, Kasai Province, contrast between the blacks and tans of the tri- DR Congo. 1812–1920 angular lines, one sees a notable shift from the (date range determined work’s eighteenth-century cousin. And though by carbon-14 testing). Raffia palm fiber. 40.6 x 59.7 cm. the dark brown of the skirt’s base panels de- Private collection. R.18060.20. tracts from this contrast, there is no mistaking FIG. 9 (right): the design. This is a work that calls attention Overskirt. both to itself and to individual wearing it. Kuba, Kasai Province, Each of these works appears staid in contrast DR Congo. 1962–1963 (date range determined to the textiles produced by Kuba artists in the by carbon-14 testing). late nineteenth and early to middle twentieth Raffia palm fiber. 147.3 x 61 cm. Private collection. R.18060.14. centuries. In these later works, an allegiance to repeating pattern gives way to a visual cacoph- ony of large-scale designs rendered in starkly contrasting color. These are works that loud- ly proclaim their status as symbols of wealth 77 XXIII-1 AOV Kuba E+F.indd 77 08/11/18 16:56 ART ON VIEW What results from this is a garment designed not only to attract a viewer’s attention but to hold it. Unlike a repeating pattern, which allows a viewer’s eyes to settle because of its standardization and regularity, the heteroge- FIG. 10 (left): neity of this overskirt’s design refuses to yield Overskirt. to a viewer’s gaze.

Load more