Evening star., 1948-10-17
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Near Eastern Rugs
Show at Corcoran
Supplements That
At Textile Museum
By Florence 5. Berrymon
Carpets for the Great shah," the
title of the Corcoran Gallerys re-
Gently opened exhibition Of Near
Eastern rugs from the w. A. Clark
collection, has overtones from the
Arabian Nights. It is impressively
installed in newly decorated gal
leries on the second door, with the
three largest carpets spread out
two (each more than rs feet long)
on the first floor, effectively viewed
from the atrium, and . A4-foot I'M
perial Herat rug in the atrium gal
iery. The last mentioned formerly
was in the collection Of Duke Don
Gaetano de Braganza.
For centuries the people Of Europe
and the Western Hemisphere have
loved Oriental" rugs and have lived
with them in their homes. Yet most
of us who have grown up with such
treasures know little about them.
Westinghouse have an opportunity
for the next month to learn some
thing about selected groups, not snly
from the Corcoran's show, but also
from the special exhibition Of Drag
on rugs which will open tomorrow
at the Textile Museum, to remain
one month. A catalogue Of perma-
nent value to collectors is available
in connection with the Corcoran
Gallery's exhibition. which will ex-
tend through November rs. Incl
dentally, the catalogue lists 40 Per-
sian, Indian and Turkish rugs in
the collection, only rs Of which are
on view.
Long recognized as one Of the
worlds major collections, In the as
senlbling of which Senator Clark Is
reputed to have spent several mil
lion dollars, these Persian rugs have
never been shown before as a unit,
in which may be traced the influ-
entail tradition of Herat weaving
from the early 10th through the 18th
century.
Herat, q city in Eastern Persia,
now part of Afghanistan, was, in the
18th century, the prosperous seat of
the luxurious and splendid courts Of
the Timurids. The decorative for
mula of the carpet created there,
which Influenced Turkish and In
dian designs, is based on floating
flower forms, held together by net
work of curving tendrils. Custom
arily the Herat carpet is rectangu-
lar, a rich red field with q wide blue
border. However, the visitor will
find many subtle variations in the
rugs shown at the Corcoran Gallery.
The finest rug in the north gal
lery Is the early 18th century vase
rug numbered p 81, with large
palmettes and lanceolate leaves, its
colors a dominant soft dark red,
several blues and subordinate cream,
yellow, green, earth red and rose.
On the wall at the other end of the
gallery are three Polish" rugs, pre-
senting a color contrast, as they are
soft greenish gold with jewellike
flashes of brighter colors. The most
important rug in the south gal
lery Is that numbered P Z, late
18th or early 17th century Herat
rug, others in this gallery being
variations of its design.
Supplemepting this superb exhibi-
ton Of Herat rugs is diplay in the
members room of selected modern
carpets, borrowed through the cour-
tesy of the 1ranian government.
They were made by traditional
technical procedures and their rich
textures and glowing colors make
them covetable objects. One of q
rich reddish-gold color, akin to pol
ished copper, and another of q blue
as warm as a tropic sky. impressed
me as being as beautiful as any on
the second floor.
&&
Musical Theme
The Whyte Gallery Is following
up Its successful Artists on Vaca-
ton" of last month, with . new ex-
hibition on THE Musical Theme" to
remain through October 80. Twenty
paintings. mostly oils, by rs many
Washington area artists, were done
especially for this show. Being
strongly addicted to theme shows,
which supply something to get ones
teeth into, making it easier to take
of for widespread variety in mood,
technique, media and size, not to
mention intrinsic merit. found
this exhibition delightful.
| What musicians think Of painters
and sculptors I have no idea. But
there is little doubt that the latter
have thought highly of musicians
from the days Of ancient Egypt, for
one can assemble q detailed history
of musical instruments and players
from works of art of several thou
sand years. Today's artists are
quite as interested in the subject,
although in some cases their inter-
pretations will make 1t difficult for
tomorrow's historian to identify the
instruments.
The Whyte Gallery's show ranges
from the sound conservative paint
ing by Marjorie Phillips, AT the
Piano." to several distractions. The
general character of the show is
experimental.
Stringed instruments have the
most interesting shapes, conse-
quently engage more artists atten-
ton than such rectangular things as
pianos. Kenneth Stubbs' Chamber
Music" is clean-cut, impersonal and
rather like poster. Blaine Carter
and John Malloy have each painted
trio. in a blush tonality, suggest
ing the twilight of the concert
III