"Messages from Minus Time: Revolutionary Textiles of the Chavín Culture of Peru "
2000-09-15 until 2000-12-31
Textile Museum
Washington, DC, USA

Considered to be the most important and influential early culture of ancient South America, the Chavín culture of ancient Peru dates back to 1500BC. Textiles were an important method of spreading information. The cotton textiles preserved on the south coast carry images of the Chavín deities and of their transformations as well as abstract concepts.

In addition to being great artists, the creators of the textiles were incredibly technically inventive and produced the first use of many textile structures and designs in the Americas: tapestry, painting of images, warp wrapping, and weft-loop pile. Drawn from The Textile Museum collection and private collections 17 Andean Chavín textiles are comparable in time and importance to the Dead Sea Scroll fragments of the Mediterranean cultures.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of District of Columbia

Other Important Exhibitions in Washington