A Navajo weaving is a structure before it is a picture. The tension of the warp decides everything that follows, and a weaver working an upright loom is committing to a plan she will hold in her head for months without a sketch in front of her.
Biography
Navajo weaving has a rich and storied history dating back centuries. The Navajo people, also known as the Diné, are Indigenous to the southwestern United States, primarily Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Traditionally, Navajo rugs and blankets were woven on upright looms using wool yarn spun from the Churro sheep the weavers raised, dyed with natural materials including indigo and cochineal. Aniline dyes were introduced later and brought a wider range of vibrant colour. The weavings are known for their distinctive patterns, including geometric shapes, stylised animals, and symbolic motifs that hold deep cultural significance. Before the late 1800s most Navajo blankets were made to be worn and to be used. Demand for floor rugs rose in the early twentieth century, and the regional styles that collectors know today took shape around that shift.
In the collection’s words
The Two Grey Hills weavings, from Toadlena in northwestern New Mexico, are the ones we return to. They are worked in the natural colour of the wool, black, grey, brown, and white, with no dye at all, and the discipline that requires is the discipline the whole tradition is built on. Handling one is the fastest way to understand why this house began, in 1972, with the antique and ethnographic material rather than with anything else.
Continue exploring
- Antiquities and ethnographic art in the collection
- Cloudface and Randy L. Barton, and their exhibition Carrier Wave
- Charles Loloma of Hotevilla, Hopi Pueblo
- Santa Fe Indian Market and the Whitehawk show
- The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
