Andean Four-Cornered Hats

Cloth was the primary medium in ancient Andean art. It required immense labor and bestowed great prestige on its owners. Woven, looped, twined, linked, and knotted fabrics were variously layered, shaped, and otherwise sewn into items for both daily use and ceremonial occasions. Basic to the production and decoration of Andean textiles, and to architectural constructions as well, are number, geometry, and symmetrical repetition. The human-scale art of fabric-making, practiced by virtually everyone in ancient times, may have been used to codify mathematical concepts such as space and number, concepts that had applications in diverse realms of life.



This publication accompanies an exhibition of the same name of the Precolumbian holidings of the New York collector Arthur M. Bullowa. The Andean hats included are fabric caps with square tops that are punctuated with a peak at each corner. These ancient works of art, many of which remain intact, attracted Arthur Bullowa's attention many years ago. Their remarkably well-preserved condition offers Mary Frame, a specialist in ancient Peruvian textiles and the author of this catalogue, the opportunity to discuss the complexity of Andean thought as it is demonstrated by the textile medium, a medium of consummate importance to the ancient peoples of the Andes. The three-dimensionality of these hats distinguishes them from other Andean fabrics and invites the insight into the Andean spatial concepts that Ms. Frame details here. The brightly colored patterns worked with such care can in fact be read both linearly and volumetrically, an accomplishment that demands attention and respect. The publication includes a detailed examination of these hats, many color illustrations, and an exhibition checklist with commentary. [This book was originally published in 1990 and has gone out of print. This edition is a print-on-demand version of the original book.]