Kuba Textiles and Design is an engaging introduction to one of the most unusual and fascinating of all African art forms. The textiles of the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of Congo are decorated not with human figures or animals but with astonishing abstract designs: chevrons, squares, lozenges, crosses, and spirals in repeating patterns that shift and interlace.
Although the Kuba people have produced textiles for 400 years, their traditional designs are strikingly modern. The Kuba textile aesthetic has inspired 19th—and 20th-century European masters like Matisse and Picasso and continues to be influenced by contemporary artists.
In Kuba Textiles and Design, authors Elizabeth Bennett and Niangi Batulukisi use gorgeous color photographs and accessible text to explain the history of Kuba textiles, the laborious process required to create them, and the complex symbolism of their designs.
