Indonesia. Five centuries of Indonesian textiles: The Mary Hunt Kahlenberg collection. Edited by Ruth Barnes and Mary Hunt Kahlenberg. Prestel: DelMonico Books, 2010. Pp. 408. 300 Colour Plates, Maps, Bibliography, Index.

Abstract

Five centuries of Indonesian textiles: The Mary Hunt Kahlenberg collection Edited by RUTH BARNES and MARY HUNT KAHLENBERG Prestel: DelMonico Books, 2010. Pp. 408. 300 Colour Plates, Maps, Bibliography, Index. With its ambitious title, Five centuries of Indonesian textiles, a heavy volume (3.7 kilogrammes), edited by Mary Hunt Kahlenberg and Ruth Barnes, portrays some exquisite textiles of the Kahlenberg collection. Complete with a glossary and an index (which is not necessarily the case in textile books) and richly decorated, the volume is divided into seven geographical areas, some of which earned an essay: Java (Rens Heringa), Bali (Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff), Borneo (Traude Gavin), Nusa Tenggara (Roy Hamilton) and the Moluccas (Toos van Dijk). In a long opening note Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, a former museum curator (Textile Museum in Washington, DC, Los Angeles County Museum of Arts) and later owner of a fine gallery in Santa Fe, reflects on her passionate endeavour in collecting hundreds of pieces over three decades directly in the field or through intermediaries. The last 10 years were more specifically dedicated to the search for 'old' and 'rare textiles' (p. 12), some having since been dated as far back as the fifteenth century. Discussing the position of the collector in the field, weighing emotional, aesthetic and economic considerations, she touches upon the problem of the compensatory and 'reasonable offer' (p. 13) for the 'Other'. Not only are the physical characteristics of a cloth, like techniques, colours and patterns analysed, but also their intangible aspects: first the power contained in handwoven cloths, which an outsider does not feel, and, second, the anonymity of a textile. While old textiles 'belong to the ancestors', more recent production stayed anonymous only because collectors and dealers did not inquire about the allegedly 'anonymous Other(s)' who created or designed meaningful patterns, or dyed and wove the cloths. Fortunately, this trend is being reversed. In her introduction to the volume Ruth Barnes (Senior Curator, Yale University Art Gallery) outlines the history of the weaving traditions in Indonesia through the migration routes of Austronesians who brought their weaving techniques to the archipelago, a view backed through linguistic evidence (p. 28). She traces the main lines of the history and development of textile research in Indonesia throughout the twentieth century. Her significant essay on 'Early Indonesian textiles' reveals how scientific dating has revolutionised textile research, which until recently had to rely on epigraphic evidence or stylistic comparison so that dates advanced for a piece often had to stay speculative. The carbon-14 method brought stunning results for some cloths in the Kahlenberg collection, dating them to the fifteenth to sixteenth centuries. Surprisingly enough, most of these are of exquisite quality with elaborate designs and in superb condition. Barnes remembers that until then one 'was thought foolish to entertain dates earlier than the nineteenth century' (p. 35) for a piece kept in a tropical climate. Yet she warns that radiocarbon dating can only give approximate dates covering decades and cannot be the sole criterion in analysing and tracing back a woven cloth; therefore historical, technological and anthropological data are still highly relevant (p. 44). The reader should not feel compelled to read the core of the book in a chronological order. It consists of some 100 large plates with blown up details, corresponding to seven geographical areas. …