Cornucopia Magazine Arts Diary

After a pandemic-induced three-year hiatus, Cornucopia Magazine is back at the London Art and Textile Fair (LARTA), one of the highlights of the winter edition of the London Decorative Fair at Battersea Park. From Tuesday to Sunday this week, LARTA offers an exquisite selection of textiles and antique rugs from...

Posted in Islamic Art, Textiles

A profusion of colour: rich pickings from London’s Spring Islamic Sales

By Cornucopia Connoisseur | March 26, 2022

Spring has arrived early in London this year, and with it Pietro Longhi’s sumptuous Procession of the Venetian Bailo Francesco Gritti in Constantinople, painted in Venice in 1731. It is one of the highlights of this week’s Islamic Sales, Lot 76, in Sotheby’s Art of the Islamic World & India including...

Posted in Fine Art, Islamic Art, Textiles

Battersea bliss

Find us this week at LARTA, the fabulous antique rug and textile art fair in Battersea Park

By Cornucopia | January 23, 2019

You can find Cornucopia at LARTA, the London Antique Rugs and Textile Arts Fair, this week, marooned in a lagoon of glorious textiles in Battersea. LARTA shares the Battersea Park venue with the Decorative Antiques and Textiles Fair. The two fairs continue until Sunday. E-tickets are available to subscribers (write...

Posted in Textiles

Chelsea’s Central Asian flower show

Gardens of Delight: enchanting suzanis at the Afridi Gallery

By Roger Williams | June 26, 2018

Shabaz Afridi hadn’t quite realised the significance of opening his new gallery on the day of the Brexit referendum. The small advertisement he had placed in the Financial Times appeared following the vote — and as newspapers were being picked over on news broadcasts, the name of the Afridi gallery...

Posted in Islamic Art, Textiles

Back to the wall: Belkıs Balpınar and the evolution of the modern kilim

By Monica Fritz | May 6, 2018

Are kilims artisan throw rugs or woven art? No one is better placed to answer this than Belkis Balpınar. Former director of the Vakiflar Carpet and Kilim Museum in Istanbul, she has continued for decades to champion the Turkish flatweave and to raise it, literally, to another dimension. Belkıs Balpınar's...

Posted in Contemporary Art, Textiles