Kazak

This eccentric and dynamic Kazak rug plays with geometry and color in the unique spirit of these Caucasian weavings. A column of alternating blue and red elements, more typically seen as a part of a larger medallion configuration, are drawn against a golden yellow ground. This borrowing and singling out of a smaller element to compose a repeat design is a common feature of traditional Near Eastern weaving from Anatolia to Central Asia. Here the device, probably a highly abstracted vegetal motif, has been rendered and stripped to pure geometry and paired with flanking narrow rectangles drawn with rams’ horn ornament. The resulting pattern plays with spacial relationships and concepts of positive and negative space in a dynamic new way. This concept is reinforced by a series of diagonally oriented borders, borrowed from examples from the east Caucasus and Northwest Persia, that maximize the repeat verticality of the field.