Navajo c.1880 Transitional Textile from Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection [SOLD]

This dynamic red, white, and brown—predominantly red—Navajo textile dates to circa 1880, having been woven by a Diné woman during what has been termed the ‘Transitional Period of Navajo weaving.'  What is the transitional period?  Let’s divert a moment and see how that developed.

The Diné were incarcerated at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on a reservation known as the Bosque Redondo Indian Reservation from 1863 to 1868.  There were thousands of them in crowded, unhealthy, inhospitable, miserable conditions.  Hundreds of them died during the long march to get there and thousands more died during the incarceration.  When released and allowed to return to their homeland on a government reservation, there was a reawakening in their life.  Freedom eventually allowed them to return to a life they previously had.  One of the blessings was they were able to return to weaving the beautiful blankets for which they were famous.

One might think that such a horrible incarceration would destroy their interest in weaving, but the opposite occurred.  They were now free to return to the artistic creations they had learned from their mothers and grandmothers.  Freedom released their pent-up urges to create—and create they did.

It took a couple of decades before the Diné increased their sheep population to the point where they had sufficient wool to be productive, but they did produce some beautiful blankets at that time.  The government had destroyed all their Churro sheep when they were imprisoned.  After returning home, each family was given the less desirable Merino sheep.  

By 1880, the government granted licenses to Indian Traders throughout the Navajo Reservation.  It was the influence of these traders that directed the weavers to transition from weaving the familiar wearing blankets to weaving the unfamiliar floor rugs.  The traders were looking for markets for the weaver’s products, and blankets were not the answer, so hopefully rugs would appeal to potential buyers.

During the period that the weavers were abandoning their familiar weaving traditions and learning how to weave rugs for the market, there was a learning period which, now, is classified as the Transitional Period of Navajo Weaving—changes that were necessary to make blankets useful for the floor.  One of the changes was adding a border to the rug.  Traders thought borders would make the Navajo textiles look more like Persian rugs and therefore make them easier to sell as rugs.  Another change was to take the soft, loose weave of the warm blankets and make them tighter and denser.  A third change would be to make them larger in size.  Some of these changes took time to be implemented.

This textile we are posting today is beautiful, colorful, and, borderless, more like a blanket than a rug, however, it is too large to be worn as a blanket, so it was an early attempt at making one for the floor.  The wool is tightly woven yet is soft to the touch.  The design is bold—squares over crosses in the two end rows, then squares interlocked with crosses in the inner rows.  The squares and crosses alternate in brown and white.  The end designs are brown and white interlocking waves.  Along the sides and throughout the area are stepped elements in red, white, and brown.  The red field illustrates several dye lots made by the weaver, resulting in varying shades of red throughout the textile.  The result is a beautiful resemblance to a sunset.  The rug is a sight to behold and enjoy.

Condition: this Navajo c.1880 Transitional Textile from Mary Hunt Kahlenberg Collection is in very good condition for its age.  There are no discernable significant problems.  The side cords and end cords have been replaced.

Provenance: This textile was in the personal collection of Mary Hunt Kahlenberg (1940-2011), a curator and collector of native textiles whose traveling exhibition on Navajo blankets, organized at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1972, broke with tradition by presenting Navajo weaving as fine art.  While associated with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she organized “The Navajo Blanket” with Anthony Berlant, an artist, collector and dealer. The exhibition, which traveled around the United States and went on to Hamburg, Germany, after opening in Los Angeles, met with a rapturous critical response, largely because the blankets, placed in art-museum settings, seemed to take on new life as woven paintings. [New York Times, Nov 3, 2011]

Recommended Reading: WALK IN BEAUTY The Navajo and Their Blankets by Anthony Berlant & Mary Hunt Kahlenberg

Relative Links: textiles, Navajo Nation