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The "Jade Circle" of the San Francisco Asian Art Museum visited our Ubud gallery last week during a cultural tour of Bali. Accompanied by chief curator, Forrest McGill, they arrived dressed in Balinese adat clothing, looking elegant. It wasn't "fancy dress day" for the Jade Circle, they were dressed to attend the royal cremation ceremony taking place in Ubud later that day.
During their morning at Macan Tidur, I delivered a lecture on diversity in Balinese textile traditions, which was followed by a lively discussion and some hands-on study of textiles. I had put up an entire wall of traditional Balinese textiles from my collection, which looked a bit like a souk, but certainly illustrated the tremendous diversity of Balinese textiles. From prada to ider-ider with talismanic drawings, the variety of weavings draped on the gallery hanging bars was dizzying.
I was delighted to see old friends and clients from San Francisco in the group, including Merrill Randol (below left), who is a connoisseur of ethnic textiles, and Diana Kortlyn Chace who livens up any gathering, as she did this one. It just so happened to be her birthday and she chose a Sumatran wedding crown from the gallery as her birthday hat. Diana is known for her sophisticated taste in fashion, and she looks great in everything, even a crown bursting with metal appendages (above).
We were very honoured to also have with us the eminent collector and scholar of ethnic jewellery, Colette Ghysels (above far right). Her collections have filled volumes, and she wrote the definitive book in her field, The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry. Colette just happened to be visiting Bali with her husband, noted artist Jean-Pierre Ghysels. They are old friend of my partner, Bruno Piazza, and he has photographed many pieces from her collections for publication in the "World of . . ."
series on ethnic jewelry published by SKIRA. We invited the Ghysels to attend the lecture, and to have a look at the cremation preparations while in Ubud. Colette selected a few pieces of ethnic jewellery and a textile from the gallery to add to her collection, which for me was quite a thrill. To have such a respected collector, who is known for her acute eye for quality and authenticity choose to acquire some of my "finds" is certainly gratifying!
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