Ikat Tunic or Robe, Uzbekistan

Blocks of pink, purple, yellow and pale blue, scattered like a paint chart that got loose.

This ikat tunic or robe comes from Uzbekistan and dates to ca. 1920. It is silk and cotton. Ikat weavers in Central Asia dyed their warp threads in stages, color by color, which explains the slight blur at every edge and the way each block seems to vibrate. Here a cream ground is laid out with rows of upright rectangles in magenta, rose, violet, mustard and powder blue. The colors bleed softly at their tops and bottoms, and the cloth shows the faint creases and spotting of age. It is 77 inches wide and 51 long.

Something like an early abstract painting, only wearable.