Kuba Shoowa Prestige Panel

Black diamonds, gray ghosts and dotted squares, all drifting a bit off the diagonal.

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. Diagonal rows of black filled diamonds and cream outlined diamonds change into dotted squares lower down. Gray and white patches appear in the left centre, and the black looks uneven in places. Edges are hemmed in tan. It is 18.75 inches across and 22.25 long.

The diagonal slips, the dots wander, and the whole thing holds.