Minneapolis Institute of Art

Germantown Eyedazzler blanket

Diné (Navajo) artist

Date

c. 1880

Medium

Wool, dye

Culture

Navajo

Department

Arts of the Americas

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

By the mid-19th century, yarns from Germantown, Pennsylvania began pouring into the Southwest, offering an array of dazzling colors for Navajo weavers to incorporate into their finely woven textiles. With these yarns in the hands of Navajo weavers, a new genre of textiles emerged-- Germantown Eyedazzlers—tapestries filled with mesmerizing designs and bursts of color to dazzle the eye. The artist employs a zig-zag weaving technique to create a sense of radiating energy in the repetitive and colorful diamond shapes that appear across the textile. Two diamonds of contrasting color in the center of the weaving create an illusion of three dimensionality. A simple border calmly anchors the work and further animates the energetic patterns within the main design field. United States, Americas

The authoritative record is held by Minneapolis Institute of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.