For their nomadic makers, however, the carpets provided physical and metaphysical protection. Carpets served as blankets, shielding Berber families against the elements, while their talismanic designs deflected evil and promoted fertility.
These mystical intentions perhaps explain the surprising asymmetries of Berber designs, as if the lines were themselves nomadic, open to chance meanders and deviations, like the paths and folds of Atlas landscapes.
Monochrome carpets, on the other hand, yield the subtle pleasures of a Mark Rothko painting, also meditative and, for many, transcendental.
Due to a recent revival of interest in Berber carpets, fakes and reproductions now abound. Axis Gallery, in association with Gebhart Blazek of Austria, a leading specialist, will show museum-quality pieces from the Beni Ouarain, Beni Mguild, Rehamna, and others.
In fact, few museums featuring African art include Berber carpets. A progressive exception is the new musée quai Branly in Paris, whose North African display includes Moroccan carpets collected in the early 1900s.
Incidentally, it also exhibits several southern African objects— acquired from Axis Gallery.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
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