Gajari Flatweave Rug, Uzbekistan

Red and navy bars, with zigzags running through them like a slow pulse.

A gajari flatweave rug from Uzbekistan, 20th century, woven in wool. Central Asian weavers made strip-woven textiles like this to line and warm their homes and yurts, finishing each narrow band separately and then sewing it to the next. The palette here is brick red, tan and a deep blue-black. Rows of diamonds, stepped zigzags and small hooked figures line up across every band, changing their minds about every foot or so. Thirty-eight inches wide and one hundred forty inches long, or eleven feet eight inches.

Rarely has so much arithmetic looked so relaxed.