NEW YORK–The New York Historical Society is currently hosting an exhibition that explores New Yorkers’ longtime fascination with Oriental rugs.
Woven Splendor From Timbuktu to Tibet: Exotic Rugs and Textiles from New York Collectors examines the history of the Oriental rug in New York. It also looks at the story of the Hajji Baba Club—a rug-collecting club, currently celebrating its 75th anniversary, whose founding members included film executives, engineers and a curator from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, each with a passion for collecting Oriental rugs. The exhibit features some 75 objects belonging to current Hajji Baba Club members, including world-renowned rugs, costumes and other Near Eastern/Central Asian textiles.
The Woven Splendor exhibition focuses on how rugs were produced and used in their countries of origin, as well as how Americans initially understood the objects. In addition to the actual rugs, the exhibit will feature photographs depicting Oriental rugs in the homes of club founders in the early 20th century and also those showing the rugs being sold through galleries and World’s Fairs, some of the earliest methods for acquiring them here in the United States.
Woven Splendor is scheduled to run through Aug. 17 at the New York Historical Society on Central Park West. The rugs shown here are part of the exhibit. For more information, visit nyhistory.org. — Jennifer Quail