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Asante Textile Arts

• 
  Textile Wrapper, 20th century
  Ghana; Akan
  Rayon, cotton

  L. 56 1/2 in. (143.51 cm)
  Gift of Bill and Gale Simmons, 1993 (1993.384.2)

• 
  Between Earth and Heaven, 2006
  El Anatsui (Ghanaian, b. 1944)
  Aluminum, copper wire

  91 x 126 in. (230 x 320 cm)
  Purchase, Fred M. and Rita Richman, Noah-Sadie K. Wachtel Foundation Inc., David and Holly Ross, Doreen and Gilbert Bassin Family Foundation and William B. Goldstein Gifts, 2007 (2007.96)

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The strips are then sewn together, creating broad panels of striking beauty and compositional complexity.

Related

Timelines (2)

• Guinea Coast, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Guinea Coast, 1900 A.D.–present

Primary Thematic Essays (2)

• Art of the Asante Kingdom
• Trade Relations Among European and African Nations

Other Thematic Essays (6)

• The Arts and Crafts Movement in America
• Asante Royal Funerary Art
• Gold in the Asante Courtly Arts
• Indian Textiles: Trade and Production
• Kingdoms of Madagascar: Malagasy Textile Arts
• Nineteenth–Century European Textile Production

Maps (2)

• Africa, 1600–1800 a.d.
• World, 1600–1800 a.d.

Index Terms (12)

Art Movement/Style

• Akan Peoples of Western Africa
• Ghanaian Art of Western Africa

Artist

• Anatsui, El (Ghanaian, b. 1944)

Geography/Place

• Guinea Coast

Material and Technique

• Cotton Textile
• Silk Textile
• Textile in Cotton from Africa and Egypt

Object

• Men's Clothing
• Women's Clothing from Africa and Egypt

Subject Matter/Theme

• Mythological Figure
• Mythological Figure from Africa and Egypt
• Trade (1600–1800 A.D.)

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Akan textile arts were key markers of status and dominion, while the act of weaving itself had mythological and ceremonial resonance. This was especially true of a type of cloth called kente (1993.384.2), which was linked in Akan mythology to the spider Ananse, the first weaver. Its production was subject to certain behavioral sanctions and weavers made offerings to their looms when these prohibitions were broken. Kente is woven in narrow strips by master weavers who use a complex technique called "floating weave" to achieve the intricate designs associated with this cloth. The strips are then sewn together, creating broad panels of striking beauty and compositional complexity. Because of its expense and symbolic associations, only persons of high rank wore kente, and certain patterns were reserved solely for the king's use. Originally, these cloths were made of white cotton with woven designs of indigo-dyed thread. By the seventeenth century, however, luxurious silks imported by European traders were incorporated, resulting in the vibrant and richly hued textiles that are so admired today.

Alexander Ives Bortolot Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

Citation

Bortolot, Alexander Ives. "Asante Textile Arts". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/asan_3/hd_asan_3.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Blier, Suzanne Preston. The Royal Arts of Africa: The Majesty of Form. New York: Abrams, 1998.

Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California, 1977.