Ewe Strip-Woven Cloth

Someone looked at a checkerboard and decided to argue with it.

From Ghana in West Africa, this strip-woven cloth is Ewe, 20th century, and woven of cotton. Large Ewe cloths were prestige dress, wrapped around the body like a toga for ceremonies and gatherings, and the many colors and inlaid blocks showed off the weaver's skill. Blocks of pink, yellow, sage, gray and blue march across a ground of orange and maroon stripes, with a few of black and red dropped in without warning. A plain maroon border runs along the long sides. One hundred eleven inches by sixty-eight.

It reads like a paint chart with a temper.