Display Cloth (Ndop)

The precise, tightly grouped patterns on this textile were created by binding narrow pleats of fabric and then immersing the entire cloth in indigo. The binding process for a work of this size and complexity would take months to complete. This textile was purchased in Foumban, Cameroon, by Clara Gebauer, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, who lived in Cameroon as part of the German Baptist Mission. In the 1930s, the royal capital of Foumban was the center of an evolving art market directed at expatriates. The signature in one corner of this textile suggests that a skilled craftsperson made it within that context.