Celebrating Asian Art

HALI Virtual Fair

May 20-30, 2022
Thomas Murray is participating in this year's virtual fair organized by HALI, the world’s leading magazine on antique rugs and textiles, with an exceptional and varied array of textiles from Asia and one from South America. As an expert on tribal sculpture and textiles, Murray has been a Contributing Editor at HALI magazine for 30 years. In addition to multiple photos, identification, and elucidating commentary on each of the 22 textiles in Murray's online exhibition is an informative Introductory Video.

Tapa Cloth, Siapo Tasina, Samoa, Polynesia, circa 1900, paper mulberry bark, natural dyes, 175 x 196 cm (5'9" x 6'5")

To view Thomas Murray's display in the HALI fair, click here

Important Indian, Indonesian and Other Textiles

At first view, there does not seem to be an organizing theme that brings this special exhibition of textiles from India, Borneo, Sumba, Sumatra, Taiwan and Hokkaido together. The unifying principles are: classism of type; spiritual potency; a strong aesthetic, be it figural, geometric abstraction or minimalism; and superb weaving and dyeing. Featured are important works of visual art, independent of culture, time or place. They are, in a word, "enchanting."

View the exhibition, click here

Masks: Inspiration and Interpretation

Thomas Murray is currently offering an exceptional exhibition of masks from numerous tribal groups, ranging from the Himalayas to Indonesia, even a Swiss mask from a remote Alpen valley. These striking images are crafted of a variety of materials, including wood, metal, and papier mache. The exhibition may be viewed on the gallery website, please click here.

L-R: 1. Nuo Mask, Minority Areas, Southwest China, 19th/ early 20th century, wood, pigment, fiber;
2. Court Mask of a Hero, with Old Label, Cirebon, West Java, 19th/early 20th century, wood, pigment,
leather; 3. Apa Mask "The Father" Character, Monpa or Sherdukpen People, Arunachal Pradesh
or Bhutan, 19th century or earlier, wood, pigment

Textiles of Indonesia: The Thomas Murray Collection

Drawn from one of the world's leading textile collections, this magnificently presented array of traditional weavings from the Indonesian archipelago provides a unique window into the region's cultures, rites, and history.

Gathered over the course of four decades, the Thomas Murray collection of Indonesian textiles is one of the most important privately owned collections of its type in the world. The objects comprise ritual clothing and ceremonial cloths that tell us much about the traditions of pre-Islamic Indonesian cultures, as well as about the influences of regional trade with China, India, the Arab world, and Europe. As with the earlier volume, Textiles of Japan (Prestel, 2018), the book focuses on some of the finest cloths to come out of the archipelago, presenting each object with impeccable photographs, colors, patterns, and intricate details. Geographically arranged, this volume pays particular attention to textiles from the Batak and the Lampung region of Sumatra, the Dayak of Borneo, and the Toraja of Sulawesi, as well as rare textiles from Sumba, Timor and other islands. Readers will learn about the intricate and highly developed traditions of dyeing, weaving, and beading techniques that have been practiced for centuries, resulting in a breathtaking collection of motifs, patterns, dyes, and adornments. Original texts by leading international experts draw on the latest research to offer historical context, unspool the mysteries behind ancient iconography, and provide new insights into dating and provenance.

Full List of Contributors: Lorraine Aragon, Joanna Barrkman, Chris Buckley, Kristal Hale, Valerie Hector, Janet Alison Hoskins, Itie van Hout, Eric Kjellgren, Fiona Kerlogue, Brigitte Khan Majlis, Robyn Maxwell, Thomas Murray, and Sandra Sardjono.

For more information, click here

Thomas Murray is a California-based independent researcher, collector, lecturer, author and private dealer of Asian, tribal and textile art with an emphasis on antique Indonesian sculpture and textiles and Indian printed trade cloths from the 13th to 18th centuries, as well as animistic art from other varied cultures. A contributing editor to HALI Magazine for more than thirty years, he serves as its in-house consultant on ethnographic textiles and has more than fifty publications to his name, including numerous articles on tribal art and textiles, as well as eight books and catalogues: Indonesian Tribal Art (2001), Animistic Art of Island Asia (2008), Masks of Fabled Lands (2009), Pairs, Couples and Maternity: The Art of Two (2014), C-14 Dating of Dayak Art (2015), Textiles of Japan (2018), and Rarities–From the Himalayas to Hawaii (2019), as well as the new Textiles of Indonesia (2021). He is past president of the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association and served a three year term as a member of US President Barack Obama’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee at the Department of State in Washington, DC. Thomas Murray serves currently as the president of SF Tribal, an organization of San Francisco Bay Area art dealers.

Dressed by Nature: Textiles of Japan

Minneapolis Institute of Art, June 25-September 11, 2022
In 2019, MIA acquired Thomas Murray's collection of Japanese textiles and will display them this summer. This exhibition will focus on the resourcefulness of humans to create textiles from local materials like fish skin, paper, elm bark, nettle, banana leaf fiber, hemp, wisteria, deerskin, cotton, silk, and wool. It will showcase rare and exceptional examples of robes, coats, jackets, vests, banners, rugs, and mats, made between around 1750 and 1930, including the royal dress of subtropical Okinawa, ceremonial robes of the Ainu from northern Japan and the Russian Far East, and folk traditions from throughout Japan.

Festival kimono decorated with carp ascending a waterfall made in Akita Prefecture (detail), late 19th-early 20th century, cloth: cotton; shibori (shape resist)

This collection was published by Thomas Murray in Textiles of Japan. Murray will speak about his experiences as a collector as part of the opening events that will accompany the exhibition.

For a special Member Monday feature about Thomas Murray's Japanese textiles collection, click here