Bark Cloth Painting (Venezuelan)
Maker Once Known, Venezuelan People (Venezuela)
Bark Cloth Painting (n.d.)
bark cloth, pigment
124.0 x 60.0 cm
Gift of Professor Emeritus Jose Amor y Vázquez
2003-2-1
This is a bark cloth painting, collected by then Professor Jose Amor y Vázquez in the 1940s from the Amazon region of Venezuela. Like many other bark cloth traditions from around the world (e.g. tapa traditions from the Pacific, which appear elsewhere in this exhibition), bark cloth in Venezuela is made from thin sheets of inner tree bark. The Textile Museum of Canada has a similar piece and describes the process in their catalogue, recounting how sheets of this inner bark are soaked to soften and "pounded on wooden anvils to soften and expand them." The softened fibers of the bark form an overlapping structure, which when overlapped with other sections, pounded, and dried, forms a thin matted cloth.
This thin, rectangular piece of bark cloth depicts a freehand painted scene including a flower, two birds, and a boat. According to notes from Professor Emeritus Vázquez, this scene is said to "depict a hunting scene of river fowl." It is likely that this piece, given its size and decorative content, was intended for use as a decorative element in the home, either locally or abroad.
This page has paths:
- Creatures - Real and Imagined Jennie Smithken-Lindsay
- The Things that Make a Home Jessica Nelson
- Decorative Techniques from Around the World Jessica Nelson