Stunning collection of ikat textiles donated to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

With its bold design, dazzling colors and intricate workmanship, it must have belonged to someone special. Such an exquisite robe would have taken as long as a year to make.

The garment is a superb example of ikat, a centuries-old tradition that has been virtually abandoned with the advent of machine-made cloths and artificial dyes. The robe is among more than 100 ikat textiles from Central Asia that make up one of the newest acquisitions of the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.

“What’s really important about the collection is its quality,” says Massumeh Farhad, chief curator and curator of Islamic art at the Sackler. “It’s really remarkable. There are no ‘Bs’ in the collection. They are all ‘As.’”

Found around the world, ikat has been compared with tie-dyeing, the method of producing colored patterns in a fabric by tightly tying many small portions of material with string and then immersing the cloth in dye baths. The word itself is of Malaysian origin and means “to tie.” But ikat involves a process far more complicated:  Individual threads are tied together and dipped in dye before being woven into a fabric.

“It is mind-boggling in terms of its complexity,” Farhad says. “These textiles would be worn for special ceremonial occasions, such as weddings, or used as wall-hangings.”

The collection was assembled by Harvard University’s Guido Goldman, whose early interest in modern painting and sculpture led to his appreciation of the much older art of ikat. “I saw them as wonderfully bold, colorful, individual works of art that moved me in the same way as did paintings by Kandinsky, Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler,” Goldman says.

“Dr. Goldman’s generous gift of more than 100 ikat textiles will make us one of the foremost centers for the study of Central Asian ikats in the world,” says Julian Raby, director of the Freer Gallery of Art and the Sackler Gallery.

The Sackler intends to exhibit pieces from the collection on a rotating basis. It also will lend them to U.S. and foreign museums for major exhibitions of ikat textiles.