Colors of the Oasis July 21, 2012

This exhibition will recreate a sense of walking into a crowd of cosmopolitan clients who wear robes of distinctive boldness. As an English visitor (William Eleroy Curtis) wrote in 1911: "Everybody wears a coat like a rainbow... No matter how humble or hungry a man may be, and even if he has but a single garment, it is made of the most brilliantly colored material he can find." Over 40 robes will provide a vision of the oasis crowd. Some feature sharp graphic designs of rigorous abstraction, but others favor delicate harmonies with flowing floral motifs. Scorpions and Arabic script, paisleys and European florals, jeweled tassels and cypress trees swirl together in a design pool that reflects oasis life.