70 is uncertain although the type is known from early field photos. The lack of colored patterning essentially strips away the qualities that the eye usually responds to in this particular type of textile, emphasizing instead the underlying factors of material, structure, and manufacture, all of which are at the highest level. The loom dictates a grid, but the preeminence of the woven structure is sometimes applied when there is no need. Artisans will sometimes try to draw the effects of a completely different form of textile tradition into their work. A batik skirt panel from Java is decorated with a repeated stamped technique (cap batik) that brings to mind a brick pattern (fig. 11a and b). This is a nod to the rigid grid of the loom, though an unnecessary convention in this case since the resist dye batik process allows the artist to produce any pattern desired. As in minimalism, this is a conscious emphasis on structure. Similarly, a man’s headcloth from the Santa Cruz Islands (fig. 1) delves deep into the notion of the grid, though since it is barkcloth, there is no necessity. Its grid pattern repeats in a mathematical sequence of threes, and each grid panel is itself divided into a subgrid that contains the simple geometric forms that combine in mirror fashion to construct a seemingly intricate pattern. The On the Grid installation has been a collaborative effort between myself and FAMSF’s conservators and exhibition designers. New methods of hanging textiles were developed for this project, and the installation itself embodies minimalist concerns of objectness and space. Within this, the plinths on which the textiles are individually displayed provide even margins for the works, and the pieces are arranged not by culture but by color tone, a subtle gesture that many visitors may consciously overlook but that provides a framework for their experience with the show. Taken together, this selection of textiles exemplifies key traits of the minimalist art aesthetic that address abstraction, precision, geometry, materiality, and process. They reflect the movement’s core principle that there is a beauty in simplicity that is both universal and timeless. On the Grid: Textiles and Minimalism Through February 12, 2017 De Young Museum, San Francisco famsf.org
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