See more objects with the tag pattern, brightly colored, intricate, batik, geometrical, textiles.

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2015

  • Work on this object began.

2016

2017

2025

  • You found it!

Java Textile, from the Tell collection

This is a Java textile. It was designed by Michiel Schuurman. It is dated 2015 and we acquired it in 2017. Its medium is cotton and its technique is direct rotation print on plain weave.

For Vlisco’s 2015 Pop-Art themed Tell collection, graphic designer Michiele Shuurman spent over a year working with the company’s technicians to develop a pattern inspired by light-emitting neon tubes. The luminous glow of acid color surrounding each tube is created with hundreds of tiny dots known as a halftone raster, another nod to Pop-Art and to Roy Lichtenstein, who made the dot patterns famous.
The pattern itself is based on interlocking Arabic ornaments. “I’m not afraid to use ornamentation in my work,” Schuurman explains. “…The concept is always visual. I’m interested in maximizing.”

This object was donated by Vlisco. It is credited Gift of Vlisco Netherlands B.V..

  • Band (Peru)
  • cotton and wool warp, wool weft.
  • Museum purchase through gift of Mrs. John Innes Kane.
  • 1948-122-2

Our curators have highlighted 16 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

  • Sample, Beaded Alphabet, A
  • acrylic beads, steel wire.
  • Courtesy of R & Company, New York and The Haas Brothers, Los Angeles.
  • 76.2015.15
  •

Its dimensions are

H x W: 548 × 120 cm (17 ft. 11 3/4 in. × 47 1/4 in.)

Cite this object as

Java Textile, from the Tell collection; Designed by Michiel Schuurman ((Dutch, b. 1974)); cotton; H x W: 548 × 120 cm (17 ft. 11 3/4 in. × 47 1/4 in.); Gift of Vlisco Netherlands B.V.; 2017-57-10

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-4.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/69155059/ |title=Java Textile, from the Tell collection |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=5 February 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>