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Pattern and Textiles Reading List
In the November/December 2005 issue of Fiberarts, Deborah Valoma writes about how the structural patterns of textiles have influenced aesthetics throughout history. Her article, “The Impermanent Made Permanent: Textiles, Pattern, and the Migration of a Medium” describes how the perishable nature of ancient textiles has resulted in archaeologists often overlooking their importance. She demonstrates that the “geometric aesthetic” innate to textiles has migrated to other media: for example, architecture, ceramics, and tile work. In this fascinating article, Valoma, who is currently chair of the textile department at the California College of the Arts (CCA), draws on her background in textiles and anthropology. She received her BA in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MFA from CCA. She is a professor, writer, lecturer, curator, and nationally exhibited artist.
Following are Valoma’s suggestions for further reading related to pattern and/or textiles in history:
- Engendering Archaeology: Women and Prehistory, edited by Joan M. Gero and Margaret W. Conkley. Cambridge: Basis Blackwell, 1991.
- Greek Geometric Art by Bernhard Schweitzer. New York: Phaidon Press, 1971.
- “New Women of the Ice Age” by Heather Pringle. Discover. Volume 19, Number 4, April 1998, pages 62–69.
- The Origins of Art by Gene Weltfish. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1953.
- Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages by Elizabeth Weyland Barber. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.
- Splendors of Islam: Architecture, Decoration and Design by Dominique Clévenot. Photographs by Gérard Degeorge.. New York: The Vendome Press, 2000.
- To Weave for the Sun: Ancient Andean Textiles in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by Rebecca Stone-Miller. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1994.
- Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times by Elizabeth Barber. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.
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