Textiles from the Indus Valley at The David Collection

July 23, 2014

Block Prints from the Indus Valley – Textiles collected by Lisette Kampmann, until 31 August 2014.

A group of block-printed textiles have been acquired by the David Collection from the Danish painter and textile artist Lisette Kampmann, who collected them during her travels in Pakistan in the 1980s. A selection of these block prints is presented in a special display that lets the viewer experience the colorful, warm character of the textiles at close range.

Photos taken by Lisette Kampmann are also to be shown in the lecture hall next to the special display, which were taken during the time she spent among block printers in the Thar Desert. The hand-carved woodblocks used to make these textiles are also on display, their engraved decorations make them works of art in their own right.

Block printing is an ancient technique on the Indian Subcontinent, used for thousands of years along the Indus River and its many tributaries in present-day Pakistan and India. Colourful textiles in a wealth of patterns have been bought and sold on local markets throughout the ages. For centuries, textiles were exported from the Subcontinent to the Far and Middle East, Africa, and Europe.