The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-12-15
Vogue for
Tribe Rugs
Is GrO7Uing
BY JULIA BLANSHARD,
MIA Srrvire Writer.

NEW YORK, Dec. l5.-There is
growing vogue for the use of all
American. or Indian. tribal art pro-
ducts for interior decorations IN
American homes.
Certainly you can achieve most
picturesque study, play room, living
room, children's den or the coolest
kind of a collegiate bedroom by US
ing Indian rugs, pottery, baskets
and wall hangingS.
Their primitive designs have
much in common with our most
sophisticated modern motifs. More
over. all of the best of these prod
ucts of Indian tribal art were
made primarily for use, and turned
out to be decorative afterwards, just
because the Indians are so artistic
in themselves. This insistence on
ornamental articles being useful,
epitomizes the newest modern theo-
ries about art.
Possibilities Are Many
DISPLAYED in the current exposi-
ton of Indian Tribal Arts, Wnlch
exhibition will be taken on tour
early in the new year and be shown
in many big cities throughout the
country, there are multitudinous
possibilities for striking interior
decorations.
For instance, there are Haida
carvings in black slate, some OF
them in totem pole designs, others
in more realistic figures, which give
a zest to any room and happen 10
20 we'll with delicate Queen Anne
furniture.
There are Hopi woven food
plaques in orange, white and black,
dark blue, yellow, green and white
that can be used for sandwich trays
or a color spot over a bookcase, fire.
place, piano.
A Corked Technique
The Makah baskets, in the most
exclusively fine weaving, lend them
selves to sewing baskets, waste baS-
kets, library table baskets to eaten
letters, papers and so on.
From New Mexico and Arizona
come the Jicarilla Apache baskets
that have a coiled technique in
their weaving that is used nowhere
else in the world except in North
Africa. There are tall, handsome
hampers of these, huge waste bas-
kets that wasteful authors would
like.
Indian rugs are among the most
picturesque and most popular for
wall hangings, carpets, couch covers.
Black San Ildefonso, near Santa Fe,
produces rich, colorful striking rugs.
Reek With Color
And for any one who likes modern
stuff, the Indian paintings, reek-
ing with gaudy color, should be a
great satisfaction. Equally colorful I
and equally pleasing is the gorgeous
Indian pottery.
There are bowls for every use con-
ceivable, and the idea of white llacs
Or white roses in some of the rich
black ones conjures up a picture of
Wondrous beauty.
There are pottery plates for salad
and dessert, salad bowls, pottery
bowls for lamp vases.
Any Spanish home takes natur-
ally to Indian articles for decora-
ton. Any room finished in natural
woods seems to lend itself equally
we'll But almost any room can use
bit of this beautiful stuff and
benefit.
Study Among LOveliest
Particularly lovely is study that
seems built to live in perfect peace
with all kinds of Indian things. 1t
is a Spanish colonial house, with
wood beams, stucco walls and tiled
floor.
All of the rugs, in rich reds, green,
blue and black and white, are Nava-
10 and Hopi. There is an exquiSitely
colorful Hopi bowl on the table, in
soft beige, with rich brown, red and
orange design in it, and it sits atop
a Hopi woman's ceremonial dress
which is used as a table cover.
Navajo rugs are thrown across the
wicker chairs to give them more
comfort and over the back of the
lounge is a gorgeous rug, in many
shades of gray and black and white,
which is a wondrous neutral note
in this colorful room.
An Indian basket makes the waste
basket, and all of the smoking
equipment is fine Indian pottery,
in rich blue or neutral green.
The colors of all of these things
give an enlivening note to the room,
the texture of the products give
richness and warmth and the de-
signs are tremendously satisfying in
the way they are both utterly print