AZERBAIJANI SCHOOL of CARPET DESIGNBack to Main

Karabakh Rug, Karabakh

Karabakh carpets’ brilliant color palette recalls the striking natural colors of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, which has been under outside occupation since the early 1990s. Many of the motifs reflect designs from decorated trays, soaps, and other everyday objects from Russia and Europe. Karabakh carpets are usually three times as long as they are wide.

Karabakh

Karabakh Rug, Karabakh

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AZERBAIJANI CARPETS AND MORE

A local Baku merchant advertises magical flying carpets, as well as the more mundane variety.Textiles, in particular the complex pile carpets known to collectors, play a critical role in Azerbaijani culture as sources of pride, income, and style. Textile scholars must grapple with several complex issues. Challenges include finding materials in remote or war-torn areas, attributing them despite shifting nomenclature and boundaries, and classifying a native art form in lands occupied by others over history.

Carpet weaving remains among Azerbaijanis’ most cherished cultural traditions, kept alive despite centuries of foreign invasions and upheavals. Azerbaijani carpet designers and weavers for centuries have produced many of the world’s “Oriental carpets.”

Employing a vast portfolio of mostly geometric designs, weavers created some of the masterpieces of tapestry that today adorn the collections in the leading museums around the world. Today Azerbaijani carpets are honored on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Stay tuned to this exhibition for updates based on the latest scholarly findings . . .