lavajo Blankets

i INTRODUCTION

The rich and varied geometric abstractions of Navajo blankets are striking precursors of
contemporary art, but the art of the Navajo is less self-conscious than much of today’s
abstract art and often evokes a more intense emotional response. The blankets, created
, with the highly developed techniques and refined weaving skills of the Navajo women,
were used for clothing and domestic purposes but beyond these practical requirements
they were highly-valued for their beauty by the Navajo as well as by other Indian tribes
and by Spanish contemporaries. Until the present almost all non-Indian interest in Nava-
jo blankets has been anthropological. Now the impact of the blankets is an aesthetic one.
An understanding of the high esteem in which they were held by the Indian culture
which produced the blankets makes possible a more profound and rewarding apprecia-
tion of them today.
This exhibition of thirty-two outstanding blankets has been selected from the collection
of Anthony Berlant. Examples from the middle until the end of the nineteenth century
show all phases of development of the Navajo blanket. Included are Chief Pattern
Blankets, Classic “Serapes,” Striped and Banded Blankets, Wedgeweaves, Eye Dazzlers
and others.
Woven by Navajo women, the blankets were originally used as articles of clothing, as
floor covering, as shields against the weather and as a bed to sleep upon. But they were
also used as “pictures,” as beautiful objects to admire and take pleasure in. They acquired
a certain status in tribal life, and eventually became — through the white man’s economic
intercession — a profitable tribal business.
Weaving was partly a religious ritual, accompanied by solemn chants. “Spider Woman in-
structed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom that Spider Man told them how to
make,” according to a Navajo legend. “The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords,
the warp sticks of sun rays, the heralds of crystal and lightning...”
To the Navajo, a blanket was a second skin. Ile wore it, slept under it and hung it across
the door of his hogan, both as a defense against wind and rain and as an object of delight.
Its geometric patterns, rarely repeated, expressed the individuality of the creator and also
according to how it was draped, that of the wearer.
With the coming of the railroad in 1880, trading posts sprang up throughout the Navajo
territory. Traders supplied German-made Saxony yarns and synthetic dyes, and the In-
dians developed a serics of new designs in which intense colours were juxtaposed against
one another. The primary motif became a radiating diamond pattern of such bright col-
ours that the blankets were called “eye-dazlers.” Pictorial representations — figures of
horses and cows, bows and arrows, houses and trains — also came into fairly general use,
thus breaking the long tradition of pure abstraction.
Toward the end of the century, as the Navajo’s culture became increasingly dominated by
that of the white man, the quality and originality of their blankets inexorably declined.
The weaving became looser, the patterns standardized. More and more, blankets were
produced solely for sale — often woven to order for merchants who specified the designs
that were most in demand among their Eastern customers. Since whites had little interest
in wearing blankets, the Navajos began to turn out living-room carpets and even pillow
cases. Eventually the trade in what had once been works of art became so commercialized
that many Indians themselves wore blankets mass-produced by the white man. The
message of Spider Man and Spider Woman had been largely forgotten.

 

Hours: Mondays 1:30 - 4:00 pm, 5-8 pm
Tucsdays-Fridays 10am -1 pm, 2-4 pm

Saturdays/Sundays closed
b the oad fraser aller AQ 3004, Simon Fraser University Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 186
E | J

PLEASE NOT

ee

 

 

 

RAXERUNINERSETY TEE 28) 4200

 

Due to the si.-e of these magnificent blankets we onl
y have room to properl
display 20 at one time. On June 7th we will rotate twelve blankets. peek °
We invite you to view the exhibition before June 7th and return anytime
between June 8th and June 25th so that you may view the entire collection.

3.