78 ABOVE: Ceremonial hanging, palepai. Kalianda, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia. 19th century. Handspun cotton; plain weave with supplementary-weft patterning. L: 330 cm. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, inv. 2010.18, museum purchase, Textile Arts Council Endowment Fund and the Nasaw Family Foundation Fund. MUSEUM NEWS of by Camille Virot, co-founder of the Association Argile, the show tells the story of the unique experience of eleven French ceramicists, who between 1991 and 1995 went to meet experienced potters with an extensive knowledge of traditions that had been transmitted to them through generations. The group was led by Virot and traveled to Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, and Cameroon, collecting some 100 examples of pottery. They also produced an abundance of notes and sketches, along with more than 1,000 pieces of visual documentation (photos and fi lms). A signifi cant portion of this material was recently given to the Musée des Confl uences and can be seen by the public in the museum’s temporary exhibition galleries, presented in a setting that traces the phases of the pottery process, from the extraction of the earth needed to make it to the sale of the fi nished object at a local market. The show is on view until April 30, 2017. The Sumatran Ship Cloth SAN FRANCISCO—On view at the de Young Museum until February 12, 2017, a small but interesting exhibition titled The Sumatran Ship Cloth presents ceremonial textiles from the Lampung area of south Sumatra, a region of Indonesia where ship imagery is a prominent theme in woven arts. For many Indonesians, the sea represents their lifeblood, and ship imagery refl ects social structures, rituals, and cosmological beliefs. The display features two of the major categories of ship cloths: the palepai and the tampan. The palepai is considered to be a pinnacle of Indonesian weaving, both within Lampung society and by Western collectors. Once owned exclusively by Sumatran aristocrats, these expansive cloths were hung for display at signifi cant occasions such as engagements, marriages, births, and funerals. The more omnipresent tampan cloths were part of all rites of passage in Lampung, when dozens would be exchanged between relatives, often being used to wrap food or other gifts. This exhibition highlights a major acquisition from 2010 of an important two-ship palepai. This work, measuring nearly 11 feet long, was likely used in an aristocratic marriage ceremony, with each of the two red ships representing a clan. Its rich color palette combined with the intricate execution of the fi ne details makes this an exceptional example. The textiles in the exhibition date from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and are drawn from the museum’s permanent collection. They are being shown for the fi rst time. African Potters LYON—Since June 28, The Musée des Confl uences de Lyon has been hosting Potières d’Afrique, an exhibition that honors the hands of the skilled female potters of West Africa, which have been responsible for creating many inventive and sensitive works that have until now gone largely unrecognized by art history. Conceived ABOVE: Vessel for tranporting bangui (palm wine). Burkina Faso. Donated by the Association Argile, Musée des Confluences, Lyon, inv. 2012.3.44. RIGHT: Fashioning pottery. Tchériba village, Burkina Faso. Daphne Corregan and Jean-Nicolas Gérard, Association Argile, 2J276, Musée des Confluences, Lyon.
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