wall hanging

wall hanging , late 1800s–1929

Where object was made: Egypt

Material/technique: appliqué; embroidering; cotton; cloth

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 185.5 x 97 cm
Object Height/Width (Height x Width): 73 1/16 x 38 3/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Barbara Waggoner

Accession number: 2007.6570

Not on display

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This wall hanging is an example of an Egyptian khiyamiya appliqué. Its design challenges art historical narratives that attribute movements such as Egyptian Revival, Arts and Crafts, or Art Nouveau solely to Euro-American artists and theorists. Rather, African artists also shaped global decorative arts movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, which were inseparable from colonial and imperial contexts. Its Pharoanic theme reveals how Egyptian artists such as khiyamiya-makers and the sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar adopted ancient motifs and symbols during a period characterized as the Egyptian Awakening. Such Neo-Pharoanic imagery was not the exclusive domain of Europeans who were inspired by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. At the time this piece was collected, Egypt was experiencing a wave of nationalism that reclaimed and celebrated Egyptian art and culture from European authority.