Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

A black and tan maze with no exit and a golden frame.

This Shoowa prestige panel is Kuba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is piled raffia. Kuba textiles were woven and embroidered to be worn, gifted and buried with the dead, long before collectors hung them on walls. Fine all-over meanders of angular hooks and L shapes in dark brown and tan fill the field with no obvious center. A narrow golden-tan border frames it and the edges are neatly hemmed. It measures 19 inches wide and 20 long.

Whoever drew this enjoyed getting the viewer lost.