Adire Eleko Ahun Yoruba people (with artist and workshop’s marks) Nigeria Circa1960s-1970s Cotton (2 panels), starch-resist and stencil dyed with indigo 78 x 63 ½ ins (195 x158.75 cm) An Adire eleko women’s wrapper from a recently acquired, exceptionally fine collection of 1960-1970s-era adire cloths sourced in the early 1990s. The cassava starch-resist and dyed design epitomizes the Yoruba textile artists’ mastery of the ancient regional tradition of indigo dyeing, while the stencil that was drawn and cut to provide a template for a single repeated motif, reveals a beautiful fluidity and precision of hand and line. Executed with keen precision, this variant of the well-known tortoise motif ahun or ijaba, alluding to a trickster character from Yoruba folklore, evokes turtles swimming in a swirling, watery dimension. SOLD
