STRAPS & BANDS
Textiles from the Foitl Collection
November 19, 2008 - March 2, 2009
Museum of Ethnology
Enthralled by the optical and tactile qualities of textiles, the Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist, Dr. Gerhard Foitl, began to collect elaborately woven bands in the late 1970’s. His extensive collection includes bands to decorate animals and straps for bearing loads from Central Asia that feature depictions of humans and animals, yurt-straps from Turkmenistan, a magnificent silk belt from Safavid Persia, a woven pilgrim’s souvenir from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, raffia textiles from the Bakuba in Zaire, pre- Columbian bands from the Andes, decorative bands from South-East Asia, pearl embroideries from Gujarat (India), and women’s belts from southern Morocco. Today the Gerhard Foitl Collection comprises 737 objects whose materials, dyes and techniques have been comprehensively analyzed, researched and documented. This exceptional private collection will be presented to the Ethnological Museum after the end of the exhibition.
The exhibition offers a bullet-point survey of the collection’s rich and varied holdings, as well as a portrait of three decades dedicated to collecting textiles. In addition to the bands and straps the show will also feature the collector’s original index-cards recording each object and the various aids employed by Gerhard Foitl to analyze the structure of flat-woven fabrics, or materials and colours.
A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.
Curator: Dr. Axel Steinmann
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Selection of Exhibits