Sonia Delaunay, who has my vote for most influential artist of the 20th Century, wrote, "we are only at the beginning of the study of these new colour relationships, still full of mysteries to unravel, which are at the base of a modern vision.....there is no going back".
Her Zen-like "simultaneous contrast" is a good definition of the tribal rugs we all love and, coincidentally, a harmonic of Alois Tiegl's "Law of Infinite Relationships" referring to Islamic Art in general.
I have spent some years collecting and refining a range of modern carpets that reflect my earliest inspirations: Sonia Delaunay: Mark Rothko: Michael Johnson.
For me the wheel has come full circle, a dream come true. The weavers call this "colour pleasure" and it is second nature, as they have been immersed in weaving colour for generations. With a freedom to create as close or distant from the original images as they please wonderful things happen. Design was never an end in itself rather a way to divide and place the colours.
Henri Matisse said, at the end of his life, "Revelation thus came to me from the Orient". Commenting on their knowledge of the new colour theories, Matisse's friend Paul Signac wrote, "The worst oriental weaver knows as much about them".
