The Art of Cloth in Mughal India by Assistant Professor of History of Art Sylvia Houghteling was awarded this year's Charles Rufus Morey Award by the College Art Association (CAA).
Named in honor of one of the founding members of CAA and established in 1953, the Charles Rufus Morey Award honors an especially distinguished book in the history of art published in the English language.
From the award citation:
"The Art of Cloth in Mughal India by Sylvia Houghteling focuses on the production, circulation, and consumption of South Asian textiles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period of both global manufacturing dominance and intense artistic creativity for Indian cloth-makers...Houghteling brilliantly weaves together a capacious range of topics including issues of patronage and labor, iconography and symbolism, technical and ecological considerations, connections with poetry and other fine as well as decorative arts, and the sensory experience of the various textiles, from gauzy muslins to tent panels...The book’s handsome design, color illustrations, and vivid writing make Art of Cloth an engaging read for scholars and general readers alike."
Houghteling teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses that engage with the intercultural connections and conditions of exploitation forged by art objects in the early modern period; theories of ornament; the history of the textile medium; and the visual arts and material culture of South Asia. Her research specializes in early modern visual and material culture with a focus on the history of textiles, South Asian art and architecture, and the material legacies and ruptures of European colonialism.
History of Art
