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Unknown Maker, Bengali

Kantha Quilt

Maker

Unknown Maker, Bengali

Culture

Bengali

Title

Kantha Quilt

Year

1800s

Medium

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

Geography

Geographic Reference: India

Dimensions

198.1 x 143.5 cm (78 x 56 1/2 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Mary B. Jackson Fund

Object Number

2016.57.4

Type

Exhibition History

Repair and Design Futures
Oct 05, 2018 – Jun 30, 2019

Label copy

Derived from the Sanskrit word for rags, kantha embroidered quilts traditionally are made from worn-out cotton saris and dhotis to celebrate a wedding or birth or simply to express love for a child. Look carefully here to find many areas of heavy mending and darning.

In the history of its making more subtle narratives of repair also emerge. The region was traumatized in 1905 when the British separated it into East and West Bengal, and again decades later when it was redrawn into the Indian state of Bengal and sovereign country of Bangladesh. Depicting city and country, Indian and European influences, armed soldiers, dancing women, acrobats, and strong men, this piece expresses cultural synthesis and symbolically repairs a politically and religiously divided place.

Image use

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Bengali
Kantha Quilt, 1800s
Cotton plain weave, quilted and with cotton and silk embroidery; darned and mended
198.1 x 143.5 cm (78 x 56 1/2 inches)
Mary B. Jackson Fund 2016.57.4

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