Turkmen carpets displayed at antique carpet exhibition in India
Carpets from Central Asia and Middle East, dated back to the 19th and 20th centuries, have been exhibited at ancient rug exhibition in Kolkata, reports Press Trust of India.
The 10-day exhibition-fair started on 29 December at the Harrington Art Gallery, at the center of the city. The event features rugs, mats and runners from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Dagestan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and various Kurdish enclaves.
The carpets are a testimony of the fine work and years of labour that went into its making, said Collector Danny Mehra. He represented 91 carpet at the show.
The exhibit present the carpet-making traditions of ethnic groups such as Qashqai, Luri, Bakhtiari, Khamseh, Afshar, Shahsavan, Turkic and Baluch, he said. According to Mehra, most of the valuable rugs were bought through dealers, other collectors or through auctions in Austria, Germany, USA and Great Britain.
In interview to PTI, the collector told about the differences and peculiarities of carpets woven by tribal nomad groups in Central Asia. “The carpet weavers do not follow set patterns. And most importantly, the work reflects the personal expressions of the weavers”, he said.
“The carpets woven by tribals bear certain interesting symbols - like the star which conveys happiness, bird which symbolises faith and tree eternal life”, he added.
The carpet-makers were mostly women. The created the patterns from own imagination with symbols of flowers, plants, birds, animals, human figures, mythical objects.
Danny Mehra has a huge carpet collection, located in Bengaluru studio. All of them were collected all around the globe. His collection stock is enough to cover an entire football ground. The collector plans to set up a small private museum in future.
