Gail Martin Gallery Moves
The highly regarded New York textile art dealer Gail Martin has moved her business to her spacious apartment, just four blocks away from the Gail Martin Gallery location on Riverside Drive, long a familiar destination for textile art cognoscenti from around the world.
The gallery had been there for 30 years. Gail has been the sole owner since 1994 and has been involved in curating, researching and dealing in textiles for over four decades. She explains the reason for the change: “As I have not been having public exhibitions at the Riverside Drive location for many years, preferring instead to participate in art fairs, it seemed that there was no longer a need for a formal gallery space. Showing the textiles by appointment at my home was the most logical move to make.”
YOUNG WOMANS’ SKIRT, IRAQWA PEOPLE, NORTHERN TANZANIA, early 20th century glass beads on leather; 28” x 60” These types of skirts were made by Iraqwa girls as part of their ‘Marmo’ (seclusion) initiation ritual. This ritual was abolished by the colonial appointed chief in the 1930’s.
The shift takes the respected dealer back to where it all started. The business began in the early 1970s when Martin and her then partner, Vadimir Haustov, began to sell rare 19th century Central Asian textiles, collected during travels in remote areas of Afghanistan, from their home. Since then, she has garnered an excellent reputation for continually educating clients in how to recognise distinguishing qualities within a textile, and also for selecting pieces that deliver on both visual impact and technical virtuosity.
Her characteristic variety of historic and contemporary textiles from the Americas, Africa and Asia, along with conservation, appraisal, digital photography and cataloging services can now be sought by appointment at 825 West End Avenue, New York, NY 10025. Contact details here.
SQUARE WALL DECORATION ( ILGITSH ), KUNGRAT, UZBEKISTAN, c. 1890, Fine silk chain and flat stitch embroidery on black wool with red wool centre; knotted fringe with tassels; 29” X 27” mounted; collected in Afghanistan in 1971
TAPESTRY PANEL, PERU, CHIMU CULTURE (1100 – 1400 AD), camelid wool; tapestry weave; two loom widths sewn together; 57” x 26”, overall diamond pattering having diagonal rows of geometric shapes on white ground diamond forms alternating with diagonal rows of standing human figures on black ground, each uniquly shaped figure is wearing a crescent headdress, ear spools and a necklace or chin strap depicting a double headed snake
Comments [0] Sign in to comment